I Prefer To Eat At Home Because….

I prepare my own food.

Maybe the food was contaminated before it came to me. But I have no vermin or roaches in my house. I keep my home clean. And I prepare food safely.

Unfortunately that is not the case for many eateries. And I don’t know the true cleanliness of most establishments, regardless of the letter rating restaurants are given to display in their windows.

This observation about health code violations should not be confined to fast food restaurants. I was eating at a fine steak restaurant in lower Manhattan when a mouse ran across my foot. So the notion that vermin only stake out fast food restaurants is not true.

But how does something like this occur? This tidbit is  from the West Side Rag –

Subway, the fast food sandwich chain’s location at 2508 Broadway (between West 93rd and West 94th streets), was shut down by the health department on August 13th after 63 violations were found upon inspection. Violations include: live roaches, filth, flies and pests in food and non-food areas, and failure to follow temperature control regulations for food. The full report can be found here. This is the second time this summer the Subway location was ordered to close after inspection; the first was on July 2nd, with 60 violations.

Continue reading →