A private university in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, is making an effort to cater for the needs of an increasing number of Indonesian international students on campus by setting up a new kitchen exclusively practicing Muslim halal dietary standards.
Shu-Te University, a private institution of 12,000 students, has received a total of 34 international students from Indonesia, the United Daily News reported.
Understanding that these students practiced strict halal dietary standards and might face psychological stress from time to time as a lot of local Taiwanese dishes contain pork, the university decided to set up a separate kitchen specifically for the cooking of halal dishes. The kitchen opened on Thursday.
The halal kitchen is nearly 26,000 square meters in size and is fully equipped with all kinds of cooking equipment. All live-in students are allowed to access and use the kitchen after registration, but if they fail to keep it clean after use, they will be blacklisted for three days.
For the grand opening on Thursday, students used the new kitchen to prepare traditional Indonesian dishes, including bakmi goreng (Indonesian stir-fried noodles), telur balado (eggs with chili sauce) and turmeric rice.
One of the Indonesian students said she and her compatriots were often worried about having taken pork by mistake while eating out. She expects the new kitchen to bring back good memories for her while she pursues her studies in Taiwan.