‘It may well be true ... that fewer people get sick in restaurants than eating improperly cared-for food at home.’
Janice Okun: Restaurant dining seems to be a pretty safe bet
How much does cleanliness matter to your choice of restaurant? The reason I’m asking is probably obvious, since all that hullabaloo last week about the closing of the China King restaurant in Hamburg. (Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that the place was shut down because the Health Department discovered they were butchering a deer in the kitchen. Mandated sanitation measures were taken and it is now open again.)
The report sent shock waves. Jay Leno joked about it on his monologue last week: “If you live in the Buffalo area, you might want to avoid the new Bambi hot wings,” he said.
And the proprietors of the Chen King Buffet, across the street from China King, wanted everyone to know that there was no connection with China King. They were afraid potential customers would get confused.
Some people, I’m told — nobody I know, thank goodness — are even saying that they are never going to eat in a restaurant again. How silly can you get?
Now here’s the thing about restaurant sanitation. Every diner sets his own standards, and for some people that bar is set impossibly high.
I was so curious that I went on an inspection tour with a county investigator earlier this week and its thoroughness was reassuring. Even allowing for the facts that the manager knew the photographer and I were coming and that the county picked the restaurant as well as the inspector, I was impressed.
Exactly how much you worry about the risks of eating out, however, is highly personal. It may well be true, as is often claimed, that fewer people get sick in restaurants than eating improperly cared-for food at home, who knows? Outside from the dramatic food-borne outbreaks that garner national headlines, records are hard to come by. Most people recover quickly; there are many unreported cases.
I eat out for a living and I’m pretty relaxed about the matter, although I’ve been with people who actually wipe their silver on a napkin before they use it even though it looks perfectly OK. That action doesn’t do anything for my appetite.
Are these the kind of people who not only wear a belt — they wear suspenders, too?
Some things, however, are a turnoff even to this happy warrior, although they may not be very significant from a bacteriological standpoint.
Those of you who read my columns know that I think dirty menus are really grubby; I don’t like seeing finger marks all over the mirrors, windows or the front door.
Probably like everyone else, I’ve had my share of food-borne illnesses, mostly out of the country. (I was warned to avoid the shellfish at a Spanish resort once and ignored the advice because it was so tempting. I discovered that the naysayers were absolutely right!)
On the ever-present other hand, the first time I went to China in August 1979 I brought along my own disposable chop sticks. But that may have been extreme. I visited the kitchen of a tiny place and found that — apart from the large pig in the sink awaiting dispatch — everything was pretty normal.
In fact, the restaurant’s own chop sticks were boiling merrily in a wok full of water on the stove.
