A YouTube video has gone viral that shows what is reported to be a cook at the Lucky River, a Chinese restaurant in San Franscisco’s Sunnyside neighborhood, slamming slabs of frozen meat on the sidewalk before cooking it. Media later inspected the area of the sidewalk and reported that it was covered with blackened gum, cigarette butts, and foot-tracked bacteria of all gut-twisting varieties.
The video led an inspector from the San Francisco Health Department to visit Lucky River and was told that the worker was trying to defrost the meat.
The restaurant’s last inspection resulted in a score of 88, or adequate. However, it did find violations ranging from poor ventilation to improper food storage. It would be useful for customers to know that the restaurant that is serving them food has been able to only secure an “adequate” rating on cleanliness, though customers appear to have made such concerns known on Internet sites in the past.
Here is the most surprising aspect after the “visit” is that the restaurant was allowed to remain open by the San Francisco Health Department and serve customers despite admitting to its sidewalk meat preparation technique. It is hard to believe that the owners would run such a disgusting restaurant and yet be completely reformed due to this one citation. Nevertheless, the Department gave the owners one month to enroll in an eight-hour Food Manager Class, earn and print food handlers cards and go on remedial food safety courses. Not particularly arduous. In the meantime, the Lucky River is serving. It is reminiscent of another story we discussed involving a Chinese restaurant that was found to be serving road kill in its meat dishes.
I would stick with the steamed vegetable dishes.
Source: CBS
Anybody eating in a restaurant (that term is used very loosely) in Chinatown in any city should be aware of the risks. These people have survived thousands of years!
i’ve eaten in restaurants that you look into (fun for cooks). However, they often have their backs toward you.
Just an example of some meat tenderizing, sidewalk style!
It’s a Chinese restaurant. What do you expect from a culture that esteems eggs boiled in the urine of young boys??
And how about cleaning up the sidewalk??? Could they use this product? (a result of the evil Chinese translator)
http://www.funnytypos.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/stupid-child-mop.jpg
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Does the “5 second rule” apply to this incident? 🙂
What would be the reaction if he had put down on the ground a sheet (plastic, paper, nylon, whatever) or even box cardboard and then tried to break up the frozen meat clump on the ostensibly clean layer?
On another note, just got a visit from our neighboring coyote. Surprisingly, crows HATE coyotes even when they’re not nesting. The minute they see one they start harassing and dive bombing it, regardless of whether it has any prey they’re hoping to steal.
Eric – and that big slab wouldn’t fit in a microwave.
I wonder how often this happens??
Karen – this happens more often then you really would like to know. However, it is usually the first shift, with the clean floors who get to do it. 🙂
So, That’s what happened to my cat????
Karen S: “I don’t think he was trying to defrost the meat, but separate the pieces. It looks like bulk poultry. I have not heard of smashing on a dirty floor increasing temperature.”
That makes more sense. I was wondering how slamming the meat helped it defrost.
From experience, I know frozen chicken is very difficult to separate.
I can guess it was an issue of poor preparation leading to a situation where the kitchen needed more chicken ready to cook ASAP but all they had was the frozen bulk clump. What to do?
He should have said it was just performance art.
He could’ve gotten a grant out of it.
Pogo – in SF he would have gotten space at the SFMOMA as well. 😉