And Now a Reminder for Restaurant Sanitation

So, have you seen the recent CNN video in which a Texas woman complains to the reporter that a dead mouse was included in her dinner order? (And at no extra charge!)

Pretty gross, huh?

I don't know about you, but if I found a small, dead mouse glistening in the sauce of my entree, I'd be screaming too. Especially if the restaurant manager then accused me of planting said mouse! 

Of course, the woman in the video could have done so...but it seems far-fetched given that the reporter then shared that the restaurant in question routinely fails its health inspections. 

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my.

But I can top that. Here in Buffalo, one of our local Chinese restaurants was recently nabbed for skinning a deer in its kitchen!! 

An alert person, cell phone camera in hand, captured the carcass being dragged in the back door, then wasted no time in alerting the city health inspector. Ironically, this restaurant also repeatedly fails its health inspections. And it's still open, if you can believe that people still frequent it.

Just gag me already. But not with mice, lice, and deer ticks!

This kind of contamination leaves me queasy. But the bigger threat to public health (YOURS and MINE) walks into restaurants every single day: in the form of germ-toting waiters, dishwashers, and cooks. (And managers!)

Seriously, if these peeps aren't coughing on our burgers, carting our water glasses around by the lip, or using the same knife to cut up both the lettuce and (raw) chicken that's in our order of chicken salad, then they're simply not bothering to wash their hands.

I have witnessed waitresses exit the ladies room without turning on the tap, cooks who reuse aprons they've tossed carelessly on the ground, and kitchen staff who don't sanitize after taking that last drag on their beloved cigarette.

Sigh. It's enough to make you not eat out.

But no one wants the restaurant industry to tank, including me. There are plenty of ship-tight restaurants out there with nary a sanitation issue. So let's reward them by keeping them in business. And may the Sanitation Gods watch over you! 

Sanitation Is An Eye-Opener

So, along with my kitchen hours, I'm taking a class titled "Sanitation." As you might expect, the goal of the course is to get readers to set high food safety standards, whether they're employees in a fast-food chain, future bakers like myself, or managers of five-star restaurants.

We're only a week into the course, but already I'm disgusted. Yes, by those pesky microorganisms that cause food borne illnesses. But mostly by the examples of personal hygiene no-nos that lead to cross-contamination.

Can you say "Keep Your Feces to Yourself!"?

Just one example: in a video snippet, we watched a waiter slip his hand inside his pants to scratch himself. He then resumed filling glasses with ice at the soda machine. Ewwwww!  

But there are also the people who pick/blow their nose, scratch their zits, or run their fingers through their hair.

I didn't realize just how much the info is seeping into my personal kitchen practices -- until tonight, when I licked my finger after cutting fresh peaches. Instinctively I froze, my finger still in my mouth. At my expression, my husband bust out laughing. 

"Don't worry," he said, wickedly. "I won't tell anyone!" 

Yeah, right. 

I bet he's installed a hidden camera in our kitchen, so he can upload "SHERI'S SANITATION NO-NOS!!" on YouTube.