My interest in this topic started with a middling Indian buffet that sometimes treads into stratospheric tastiness for the low price of $5.99 (or $4.99 on Wednesdays).  I tried to hype up this awesomeness to all of Richmond via twitter and met resistance from another social media butterfly (who shall remain nameless).  Not only had I incorrectly paired the words “chai” and “tea” (apparently they’re redundant, like “mole sauce”), but I also sang the praises of an eatery with a health inspection violation in its history.  WAIT!!! STOP THE PRESSES!!! Readers, please take a moment to suppress your nausea (health inspection violation – gasp!).

ironic pic lifted from the funny TARichmond.com

I’m sorry that I’ve traumatized you so.  Apparently, one of my favorite Indian restaurants, Royal India, was once featured on NBC 12’s Restaurant Report where they highlight the outcomes of restaurant inspections in the Greater Richmond region.  Are you okay, now? Take a few more deep breaths and let’s proceed.  Everybody’s favorite news show in Richmond uses the… oh, maybe slightly sensationalistic Restaurant Report to add (cue alarming sound effect) extra pizazz to their popular combo of Gene and Sabrina.  Periodically, they record “investigative journalism” footage with surprise visits to commercial kitchens in the hopes of catching a proprietor in a surly mood (what are the odds of that?), making viewers crinkle their noses, recoil in horror, and maybe throw-up in their mouths a little.  They know we love to feel smug and disgusted.  Those fear tactic cheap-shots sell like hot cakes from a cross-contaminated griddle (seriously, those are the best hot cakes).

Non-Critical Naan

In the case of Royal India, the staff was brought to justice by public humiliation for a particularly egregious infraction.  One of the cooks… (gulp)… handled the naan bread without gloves! Oh, I’m sorry. Another redundant term (naan is bread).  But can you believe it?  We can’t have that  behavior in Western Henrico.  Thankfully, 12 is on “our” side on Thursday nights to prevent these kinds of terrorist threats against our sanitized suburbs.

(snapping out of super-sarcastic mode)

People. EVERY restaurant has health inspection violations.  Think of them like performance evaluations at work.  It’s a feedback process, not a list of food felonies.  There are two levels of violations: critical and non-critical.  The naan handling was non-critical.  Royal India has not had any other violations, and the one they had was listed as “corrected during inspection.”  But who cares if they did have two or three or more violations at each inspection?  It takes a lot for a restaurant to have every duck in a row during  a surprise visit while serving customers amidst the hustle and bustle.  The inspection is meant to help the restaurant stay on track to keep their food safe to eat.  Nothing to see here, folks.

Here’s an example: The Horror!

These are the findings from ONE visit to ONE restaurant in December 2008.  Notice the repeats and the suggested fixes.

Violations:
A summary of the violations found during the inspection are listed below.

Code	Observation / Corrective Action
0440	Critical Inadequate record keeping system of shellfish tags. Use an approved record keeping system that keeps the tags or labels in chronological order correlated to the date when, or dates during which the shellstock are sold or served.
0450	Critical Employees observed handling ready-to-eat (RTE) food with their bare hands. Provide suitable utensils such as deli tissue, spatulas, tongs, single-use gloves, or dispensing equipment to handle RTE food to prevent contamination from hands.
0470	Corrected During Inspection Critical Raw food of animal origin holding in a manner that may cause cross contamination of to ready-to-eat food (RTE) – raw meat stored over individual “au gratin” dishes. Several RTE foods stored uncovered in walk-in. Separate raw foods during storage, preparation, holding, and display from raw RTE food including other raw food such as fish for sushi or molluscan shellfish, or other raw RTE food such as vegetables, and cooked RTE food. Cover food during storage.
0570	Repeat Wiping cloths improperly stored between use. Dirty rags in corner of tea prep area Ensure wet wiping cloths are stored in a chemical sanitizer at the proper concentration between use.
0610	Food stored in a location where it is subject to splash, dust or other contamination – dessert cart with RTE desserts parked immediately adjacent to handsink. Store food where it is not exposed to splash or install an approved durable, and cleanable barrier between the splash source and the food to prevent contamination.
1780	Critical Repeat Upper interior surface of the ice maker is developing mold. Create and maintain a regular cleaning schedule for this equipment to prevent the development of mold.

So, what restaurant is making these kinds of egregious errors?  Surely, a boycott is in order. Maybe even an angry lynch mob. It’s none other than  The Inn at Little Washington, one of the best restaurants in the world and they happen to be here in our state (Rappahannock County to be exact) running afoul of the law on a regular basis.  This visit was their worst report in years, but not by much. Their award winning kitchen (a beautiful site that I’ve actually seen) has NEVER had a clean bill of health from the inspector in the seven years on record at the Health Dept. website.  And yet, it’s just under $200 for dinner, per person, with reservations booked months out year round.  Why didn’t I use your favorite Richmond restaurant as an example? Cuz you don’t wanna know.  Everybody is dirty.  The hand you shook of that person you met earlier today?  Do you know what they did with that hand last night?  Get over it. Your body was made to fight these battles and set your mind at ease.  And maybe you actually need the respite of 15 minutes on the toilet once in a while.

Buying prepared food implies trust.  Washington DC columnist, Coleman McCarthy says, “All laws represent an absence of love.” We have health codes to protect people from each other.  The people who make your food, in large part, are not trying to poison you.  They willingly serve you products they believe are safe to eat, not because the law mandates sanitary food prep conditions, but because they’re trying to make money by earning your repeat business.  If the health codes weren’t in place, they’d probably conform to a good deal of those best sanitary practices simply because they’re good for business.  Now, if the tray of raw chicken breasts is dripping its juices onto the fresh baby spinach for salads, yeah.  Somebody in the back should get a wake up call.  But, most of the infractions that are chronicled in the Health Department’s online database of inspections are pretty minor and corrected during the inspection.

Critical! Points of Flair

Now, while some people turn their nose up at a restaurant that isn’t squeaky clean, others, like me, really enjoy a greasy spoon style meal.  If the staff is putting most of their attention into making good food, I don’t care if the place is filthy.  Heck, this is usually true of my kitchen at home. And if a restaurant gets exposed as having a couple violations, maybe it means they’ve got their priorities straight.  I think a restaurant perp walk on NBC12 is precisely the time to beat a path to an eatery’s door. They’ll be taking corrective action, and they’ll be more eager to please and make up for the lost business of lemmings who follow the lead of sensationalist media.  At the very least, you know there won’t be a line or a wait for a table (unless it’s the Inn at Little Washington we’re talking about).

The other day, I had a little extra time in the morning and ventured into Louisiana Flair for the first time.  Their early AM tweet said something about a popular breakfast item: catfish, eggs, home fries, and toast.  The allure of that combination, with chicory coffee, totally drew me in.  The place was pretty modest, aside from the mardi gras colors everywhere. The vibe was distinctly diner-esque, with an open kitchen in the middle of the space.  However, Sam Cooke songs played on the speakers the whole time I was there, basically making me swoon like a teenager in puppy love during my whole time at Louisiana Flair. So, please pardon the rose colored glasses through which I saw the next 30 minutes.

My food came and it looked pretty plain. A couple fried fish fillets, eggs over easy, and potatoes mingling with sauteed onions. Toast on the side.  The potatoes were kinda dry and lacking flavor. Not the cajun/creole accents I anticipated, although the onions were deliciously caramelized.  Eggs, whatever. They were intact. But the catfish.  It wasn’t normal. Catifsh usually doesn’t taste good to me. Or at least, it needs a lot of help, because I’m thinking of their bottom-feeding diet.*  Well, LF know’s how to flavor catfish right. They marinate it overnight. Every bite sings with seasoning.  It’s light and flakey and the breading isn’t too think or too thin.  I could have eaten five or six orders of this stuff (hold the potatoes).  There was homemade hot sauce that was REALLY SERIOUS. A drop every other bite, or every other other.  That stuff stays with you (and probably sanitizes ;0).

Back to the catfish… Just as I as savoring every bite, a big guy came in and walked up to the counter immediately asking for the owner.  The cashier went and got the owner, Nate, who was wearing a chef’s coat and a ball cap.  They exchanged words and then the man pulled a white coat from his bag, put it on, and started walking all around the premises. Whenever he walked behind the counter, Nate was there to open cupboard doors and answer his questions.  This is when my thick skull awoke to the fact that I was witnessing a health inspection.  The muttering of the inspector and the facial expression of the owner told the story. It was demeaning. It was bullying.  Invasive. Disruptive. Bureaucracy in action. Nate complied like a pro and rolled with the punches.

Actually, I couldn’t tell if there were any infractions.** The situation just looked like such a contrast to the delicious food that I was eating.  This inspector just needed to taste the catfish and get off his high horse.  I almost went over there and said, “Hey. Taste this deliciousness and stop humiliating these folks.”  That’s pretty much the end of that story.   One outcome of that inspection was my sympathy and loyalty.  You can bet I’ll be back at Louisiana Flair.

Okay, readers.  Thanks for coming along with me on this one. Let’s leave it at that. YES. Dine out. Choose your own adventure.  Disregard sensationalist media scare tactics.  Read up on a local restaurant’s compliance or lack thereof, if you’re really so inclined.

*bottom-feeding diet: that could be said of my eating habits as well. I hope I don’t taste good.
** Louisiana Flair had only one critical violation at their January 2010 inspection: A cook had their own beverage in the cooking area (and basically nothing else since they opened).