A reader wrote in saying she is planning a trip to Beijing, and she adds, “I understand you can go into any restaurant there and be confident of high standards of cleanliness and quality.”
No ma’am, I believe you’re thinking of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. Beijing had 68 cases of food poisoning involving 753 people last year, and how many restaurants do you think were shut down?
If you guessed none, you’re very cynical - and you’re right. But now, the city has announced it will close restaurants that fail to meet basic sanitary standards, as part of a drive to ensure food safety during the 2008 Olympic Games. So, you may want to wait until they close at least one, before you head over there. Here’s the story:
A chef chops cooked field rats at a wild game restaurant in Guangzhou, the capital city of China’s southern province of Guangdong, Janaury 5, 2004. REUTERS/China Photo
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9 comments so far
STILL less shocking than the menu at Wok Yor Kat.
- Posted by Shawn HendricksAvoid the desert raisin cookies.
- Posted by Shawn HendricksI’m stuffed. Can I get a kitty bag?
- Posted by Shawn HendricksJerry is survived by Tom, the co-star of their long-running children’s cartoon.
- Posted by Shawn HendricksPssst! The fried rat costumes may chafe, but you have to admit, they got us inside.
- Posted by Shawn HendricksI can’t decide whether to put the week-old honey mustard or the three-day-old tartar sauce on my rat.
- Posted by Shawn HendricksAh yes - in Beijing we call them field rats…but in America, we learn to call them General Tso’s Chicken.
- Posted by Gary RobertsHoney, have you chaecked the rat traps lately?? I am starved!!
- Posted by CathyRemind me to never visit China. Yuk!
- Posted by anonymous