Restaurant Raid in Chicago

We all know that fresh is best when shopping at Asian markets and patronizing Asian delis and restaurants. We poke, paw and sniff the wares to ensure that they've been recently made. If they're warm and soft, we know they're good. But health departments suspect that such practices aren't hygienic.

Last year, in California, the health and safety of leaving banh chung sticky rice cakes and banh trung thu moon cakes and banh tet (special sweets for the Mid-Autumn festival) out at room temp because the focal point of a legislative debate. The governor passed a law allowing such heritage foods to slide by.

RST, an avid Chowhounder, just alerted me to the fact that one of his favorite Vietnamese restaurants in Chicago was just  raided by the health department. Here's RST's blow-by-blow account:

I saw the most upsetting thing today!  Went to Dong Ky for a late lunch-this is the restaurant closest to my house and my go-to for a quick meal.  Food usually comes out freakily fast; today, I was engrossed in a book and didn't realize that almost 20 min had passed since I gave my order.  Looking up, I saw that several tables were also patiently waiting.  Waiters and the owners were calm but obviously stressed out over something.  Soon a lady in hairnet and a white lab coat and a ream of papers walked out and I realized that the place was being inspected.  The inspector was upset about something and was scolding one of the ladies who own the place.  Shortly afterwards, the inspector's supervisor (or that's what I assume he is) walked in to mediate the problem.  Apparently the inspector had confiscated all the rice cakes, all the buns, sweets etc sitting on the counter on account of their being sitting at room temp (!!!) and while she was inside inspecting the kitchen, the staff had quietly packed them off in plastic bags to be hidden in a neighboring store and this infuriated the inspector.  Those bags were promptly brought back as both sides quietly tried to resolve the problem.  Still, all those rice cakes, sweetmeats etc had to be destroyed, thrown into garbage bags right there and then to the horror of all the Vietnamese in the house.  These are cakes and buns that have millennially been served at room temp and sold just like this in markets all over Vietnam.  They are also displayed the same way in virtually all of the other shops all throughout Argyle Street!!!!  I don't know what perverted strain of zealousness (or cluelessness) made this inspector insist on poking her thermometer into every bun and insisting that they should either be refrigerated or kept in a warmer!!!  Among the goodies thrown out (before my eyes) were banana cakes, leavened rice cakes, stuff that could have sat out for days without harm.  Meatball stuffed buns were also all thrown out-if they do this here-they would also have to throw out all of Chiu Quon's buns for staying out (granted, inside bakery cases) at room temp.  Also thrown out were com ruou, fermented rice balls sitting in a pool of the sweet wine exuded in its making-how could the woman have known that the thing is fermented already and have no chance of going bad under normal circumstances. 

Curiously for all the chowhounding I do (i.e. the time I spend in restaurants), this is actually the first time I have actually seen an inspector in action.  If such a thing could happen here, I wonder how many times over this misdirected zealousness has been applied throughout the city at eateries of widely diff ethnicities!!!  It is this kind of blindered over-regulation (that we hear about, anecdotally, here and there, now and again, from small restaurateurs) that leads to the impoverishing of our food horizon!

In California, a Vietnamese-American state legislator took the opportunity to spearhead the public/legal debate.  Here are links to pertinent info on AB 2214:

• Asemblyman Van Tran: Press release on AB 2214
• Official info from the governor's office: AB 2214 Fact Sheet

Hope this information helps those of you in the Chicago/Illinois area. Good luck!

Comments

[RST]

It is not entirely clear from those links just exactly what the compromises/agreements are; the law certainly wasn't worded to give Vietnamese food purveyors carte blanche to display and sell this food as it been sold and displayed traditionally for hundreds and hundreds of years, i.e. at room temperature. It seems as if the Health Department still has to come up with solutions that would meet their
"scientific" standards. What these will eventually turn out to be (use of chemical additives? prescribing expensive storage or display facilities that small business owners cannot afford? etc) is still to be seen.

Richard

[Andrea Nguyen]

For sure, RST. The legislation in CA is vague. It's been a year and I've not heard any commotion from either side.

[Simon Bao]

I remember reading lots about this controversy when it erupted in California last year. To be completely honest, it really isn't satisfactory or adequate for anyone to assert that this is simply the traditional way Viet foods have always been sold and displayed, and therefore it *must* be safe, right? And *must* be permitted. Well, no it isn't necessarily safe, and no old country customs should get any automatic waivers.

And while I got nothing but love and kisses for the motherland, Vietnamese are no experts when it comes to food safety. And not terribly scientific. Check Google news and combine "Vietnam" and "food safety" if in doubt. And then don't eat the basa.

My impression of the California compromise was that it included a recognition that there's no threat to health or food safety when specific items are stored and offered at room temperature - for no longer than very specific amounts of time. Very much like the loaves of bread left out all day on the counters at Sam's Deli, which the health department doesn't require to be refrigerated or kept at some high temperature.

Thankfully, the waiver didn't apply to any and all items that vendors want to leave out, nor to items that are days old and way past the point of being bad to eat. One cannot safely leave a Banh Bao sitting out in a shop at room temperature for days on end till the thing finally sells. And we really do need regulations and a health department to ensure that kind of practice stops.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Well, this is a problem when you're trying to sell old-school food in a new-school situation. In Vietnam, most people buy snacks like banh bao steamed buns from a vendor who specializes in it. Even at a deli-style operation like Nhu Lan in Saigon, they're piled high and very fresh and hot, right atop the steamer. There's no sitting around under plastic wrap waiting for bacteria to form.

The problem is that people now want convenience and a full array of goodies when they go to these American shops. Shop owners want to provide as much as possible so as to sell, sell, sell and not lose customers. But how can you do that and not compromise freshness and verge on creating unhygienic conditions?

And yes, let's not forget how we all used to and still do worry about hygiene whenever we're visiting Vietnam. It's a perennial issue and consumers have to learn to make good choices. A restaurant or food business will go out of business if its consumers consistently get sick. On the other hand, we live in a culture of extreme food fears and allergies.

The Los Angeles County Health Department is working with Asian restaurants and chefs to educate about food safety concerns and to bridge traditional cooking practices with modern hygiene issues. That seems to be a more balanced approach that will work well in the long run.