The owner has only been identified as “Chun” but the Department of Agriculture described a horror scene uncovered by the state Game Commission:
“PA Game Commission confiscated the following from facility walk-in cooler and freezer after operator was unable to provide documentation that game animal meats being used in the facility were from an approved source: deer brains, deer heads, skinned and whole tails, legs, muscle meat, spines, necks and other unidentifiable parts both raw and cooked. Amount of parts removed included: 4 trash bags, 2 boxes, 3 plastic tubs, one 5 gallon bucket and 9 trash bags of prepared foods. In addition, sampling of prepared food found in walk-ins were taken to be tested for species identification.”
The next day the restaurant was found to still be out of compliance with 14 violations, including “An uncovered, metal bowl containing an unidentifiable, internal organ of a pig, according to operator’s wife, was observed stored on shelf of walk-in cooler. Wife states that it is for her lunch however, documentation of source could not be provided. Discarded.”
Chun insisted that they do not actually sell the meat and bones and only eat them personally. We are supposed to trust them on that.
Despite this record, the restaurant continued to serve customers. The restaurant has been the subject of six investigations since 2013 and four in 2015 alone.
Again, I am not sure that I know what it takes to shutdown a restaurant, but it seems to me that such outliers harm the overall market for restaurants (since this really makes me want to eat at home tonight). Yet, restaurants tend to oppose more stringent measures even though few establishments would ever come close to the conditions at the New China House.
Source: NY Daily News