A Chinese restaurant has reportedly closed after customers saw staff wheeling in road kill to be used in the kitchen of Red Flower Chinese Restaurant in Williamsburg, Kentucky. The truly unnerving part of this story is the police report that the owner did not know that it was a problem to use road kill as a meat source.
The customer saw staff wheeling in a dead deer in a garbage can. The customer says that staff was trying to be quick in bringing the kill into the kitchen but he could clearly see the deer’s tail as well as a foot and leg.
Paul Lawson, Whitley County’s environmental health inspector, said the son of the owner admitted that they found the dead deer on the side of the Interstate highway and decided to serve it up at the restaurant. He said that he was “concerned” by the fact that “[t]hey said they didn’t know that they weren’t allowed to.”
Now here’s the kicker. They can reopen as soon as the restaurant passes a secondary health inspection proving that they have properly sanitized the kitchen. I would have thought that serving up roadkill would have resulted in something a bit more stiff as a penalty like the denial of your food service permit in Kentucky. It may be possible that the health department is treating this as a matter of contamination since the deer was not served to customers. However, there remains the intent to serve the deer and the assumption that it would not have been identified as venison, let alone road kill, on the menu.
There is also the question of whether this is the first meat produced a al car. If not, it would seem to establish the basis for negligence per se in an action by former customers. There is also the possible claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Source: CBS
lotta katz:
apparently you didnt read roman barry’s expose of his life as a prisoner in a Chinese restaurant. Seems to me the health department was absent or only requiring a minimum standard. Bare minimum, I might add.
ralph adamo:
the North Koreans eat sparrows if they can find them.
Another 4 years of Obama and we all be eating squirrels, possum, raccoon, deer, cats, dogs, moose, beaver, birds of various sorts, fish and maybe even rats. Although with this administrations contempt for the second amendment it may be near impossible.
In just 4 short years we have gone from eating beef at least 3-5 nights per week to eating chicken and rice and beans, lentils, chickpeas and vegetables. Can braised squirrel be far behind?
admittedly it is healthier, however I would like to make the change voluntarily and not out of budgetary necessity.
David,
I’m with you! A little salmonella or E. coli never hurt anyone…right?
😉
David Blauw 1, October 2, 2012 at 7:14 am
These darn regulations from the USDA, another example of burdensome overreaching government.
The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. ..Is nothing sacred ?
Free markets for everyone,….let disease, illness, and epidemic get rid of all these “Nanny state” ninnys. 🙂
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Good point David.
The Earth is road kill to current civilization.
These darn regulations from the USDA, another example of burdensome overreaching government.
The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. ..Is nothing sacred ?
Free markets for everyone,….let disease, illness, and epidemic get rid of all these “Nanny state” ninnys. 🙂
Frankly: “the meat industry and its wholly owned Congressthings”
Loved that. I’ll use it with attribution.
I have eaten road kill deer, saw it hit so I stopped & picked it up. There is nothing wrong with that but I’d just as soon not have it used in a commercial setting. OTOH given the conditions of many slaughter houses in this brave new, highly deregulated, world it probably isn’t any less safe than that pig or cow on the next plate. But thats not an endorsement of road kill as much as a condemnation of the meat industry and its wholly owned Congressthings.
Alaska has a sign-up list whereby those who are having financial problems, those who run social programs, and the like, can be notified of moose road-kill near them.
If they can arrive within a short span of time, say an hour, they could have the moose.
If they did not show up in time the moose was disposed of.
This year it was busier than usual:
(Alaska Road Kill Program)
I think the severest penalty for the restaurant will be that now the only customers they can get will be the ones who are just passing through. For their sake I hope they’re near an Interstate. Perhaps that is already part of their business model.
I suppose this would be a good jingle for the restaurant’s next commercial.
Ralph Adamo,
Did he tell you how to remove the parasites. You know, most squirrels have them. Or does cooking solve that problem. Let us know how it went.
Why not try armadillo as they are doing with the ones invading Luouisiana and Mississippi. Just avoid the Leprosy they bear.
Eating wild animals is always a good idea. Tell that to those who eat apes in Africa. The human version of Mad cow disease is cool. To watch.
When did you last eat roadkill? Or wild meat?
I had deer stew a couple of weeks ago. Not at a chinese restaurant, as it jus so happens.
I don’t see why people should object to road killed deer.
Double tenedrized, for by impact and then by aging 12 hours in the sun, with eventually more impact tenderizing. Fully drained of blood. Hand-butchered selection, Just don’t take the dumplings. Too much hair and hide for my taste.
A little Sichuan pepper and you’ll love it. Better than the dirt stew and bark bread I ate last starvation.
You never lose your restaurant permit in Kentucky unless one of two things happen.
One. You fail to bribe the restaurant inspector.
Two. You serve home distilled without offering a quart to the restaurandt inspector.
Although the idea of eating roadkill sounds nauseating, as the USA prepares to reelect Obama, and the sales of Spam are reaching record levels, the USA will soon have to prepare for a much lower standard of living. Let’s face it, you Leftists have the rest of us outnumbered, and your policy of killing the goose that lays the golden egg has been adopted by a shocking large number of Americans. And so we all might as well learn how to make the best of a bad situation, as a matter of survival.
Our featured selection today, is “Braised Wild Squirrel”
Ingredients: (serves four)
4 skinned and gutted squirrels — feet also removed
8 milliliters olive oil
300 grams dandelion leaves
300 grams young sow thistles
100 grams young dock leaves
150 grams hairy bittercress
150g nettle tops
3 medium sized onions
100g wild chervil or parsley
80g dill
A few lemon balm leaves
Juice of one large orange
Pine nuts
Toasted sesame seeds
A few dried apricots or raisons
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Half a teaspoon curry powder
Quarter teaspoon of turmeric
Eighth teaspoon cinnamon
1 small chilli
Water
Salt and pepper
Directions:
Sweat the onions in the olive oil. Meanwhile, boil a pan of water and add the dock leaves sow thistle and dandelion leaves. Boil for about a 30 seconds to a minute. Strain off and discard the water (to remove excess bitterness from leaves). Add this as well as the chopped dill, parsley, nettles, hairy bittercress and all other ingredients to the meat pan. Also add about 3 cups of water. Simmer for about one hour with a lid on the pan, stirring occasionally to ensure no sticking and add a little more water if necessary. Serve with good rustic bread to soak up the juices.
Recipe courtesy of Fergus Drennan.
One more thing. When I was in the Navy, I asked a Kentucky Marine where he was from. He said I’m from Kentucky. I said what state is that in.
A Chinese restaurant has reportedly closed after customers saw staff wheeling in road kill to be used in the kitchen of Red Flower Chinese Restaurant in Williamsburg, Kentucky.
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I was at a Kentucky restaurant when I worked for Dean Foods. Was doing an internal audit assignment. Most pleasant lunch. No road kill.
https://www.google.com/search?q=gumbo&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=gwH&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=np&prmd=imvnse&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=C4pqUP_7HKje0gGS8oGADA&ved=0CD8QsAQ&biw=1024&bih=665
The gumbo was good too.
This is gonna maybe not sit well with some commenters but here I go anyway…
I married into a native Chinese family years ago. (My wife was born in Hong Kong. Her parents were born in the mainland during Mao’s cultural revolution and fled.) The family business? Yup, a restaurant. As “number 1 son-in-law”, I was “privileged” to work not only my own full time job but also to spend another 30-60 hours a week helping out in the restaurant in all areas including the kitchen. So here’s the deal…
These folks waste nothing. And a great many things that the average American may look at askance are just not outside the norm in that “waste not” culture. Want an example? OK. City pigeons. As in “We’re out of dark meat chicken. Go catch some pigeons.”
Road kill is not unhealthy per se. Certainly it shouldn’t be on a restaurant menu, but here in Alabama road kill deer is “harvested” and used by everyone from poor people to (gulp!) city and county jails and state prisons.
I have no issue with the restaurant in this case re-opening after they sanitize and pass a health inspection. At that point they may be the cleanest Chinese restaurant in their state. (Believe me when I tell you that you really don’t want to see what goes on in the kitchen of the average Chinese restaurant. Just enjoy your food and don’t think about it.) Basically it boils down to cultural differences and a Chinese disdain for waste. Fresh road kill? Yeah…eat it. 🙂
Has no one heard of the Roadkill Cafe?:
http://www.route66seligmanarizona.com/The_Roadkill_Cafe.php
Their (tongue in cheek) menu:
http://www.road-kill-cafe.com/roadkill.html
The difference between fresh roadkill and actually hunting deer or raccoon or possum is that roadkill is easier. Not that I ever knew anybody that ate (fresh) roadkill. 😉
Serving it as a quarter pounder or in some other dish undisclosed is way out of bounds though IMO. I wonder if our Libertarian posters feel that such government involvement as encountered above is inappropriate? I too am surprised they didn’t lose their permit.
gag
This is Kentucky after all. Remind me to avoid Chinese food in Kentucky!