If you find obviously unsanitary conditions in a local restaurant, you can call the city hotline at 1999 to complain, and they will file it with the Taibei City Dept. of Health. I was pretty PO’d at a local joint when my wife found a cockroach in her biandang, so I tried complaining this way but was skeptical that anything would come of it. About a week later I got a call from Health saying that they did a surprise inspection of the place, found multiple code violations, and ordered them to rectify these within a few days. Health said that they would conduct a followup inspection too. :bravo:
So to all those who are skeptical that the police, health dept., EPA and so on will actually do anything to solve problems, try submitting a formal complaint instead of just grumbling. I’ve found that they will often take fairly prompt action to resolve obvious problems. You don’t have to dig up all kinds of numbers; you can just call 1999 (at least on your cell phone) and they will forward your complaint to the right department.
There is also the way certain restaurants wash their dishes. I went to a teppanyaki shop and they kept all the dirty dishes soaking in a bucket of soapy water and another bucket of clean water. Then the guy went there, took each plate and just immersed for a second in the clean water and stacked there to be reused by new customers. He rinsed all the plates in less than 5 minutes. So I try to use only paper cups, foam plates or carton boxes whenever I can in the restaurants. Other thing that makes me angry is the shortage of napkins. Certain restaurants provide only one sheet or nothing. I need to bring my own tissues, napkins to the restaurants.
It makes me or others sound anti-Chinese and anti-Chinese food, but if some restaurants were observed for just ten minutes to look for disgusting practices, people would never eat there again. As tempting as the food looks and smells or is inexpensive in many buffet-style places, I’ve lost count of the number where the staff:
picked up food or utensils from the floor and continued to cook/serve it
smoked as they cooked, not just outside
didn’t wash their hands after handling garbage or things from the floor, etc.
The only restaurants where I feel comfortable about the hygiene are the more expensive or chain restaurants. I end up eating at home most of the time - not to be frugal, but to be safe. And I definitely don’t eat at any of the roadside vendors…then again, I wouldn’t do that in Canada, either.
I guess to him, when the PR China company sold melamine-tainted milk and the Peanut Corp. of America repackaged peanut butter already known to be tainted with salmonella, that was just free market capitalism and shouldn’t be punished if anyone got sick or died.
[quote=“Belgian Pie”]
Sure, and allow others to take the risk of eating filth… :lick: :ohreally:[/quote]
Blah. They are as free as you are to make their own decisions Mr IndieCop restauranteur.
I guess to him, when the PR China company sold melamine-tainted milk and the Peanut Corp. of America repackaged peanut butter already known to be tainted with salmonella, that was just free market capitalism and shouldn’t be punished if anyone got sick or died.[/quote]
An absurd analogy.
If you think they are unsanitory, don’t eat there. Simple. Take it upon yourself to be the Hygiene Police? Go clean your own kitchen.
[quote=“Deadbolt”]By ratting someone out, you are depriving them of a livelihood. Imo, they are well within their moral rights to hunt you down and kill you for doing such a thing.[/quote]How lovely.
I guess to him, when the PR China company sold melamine-tainted milk and the Peanut Corp. of America repackaged peanut butter already known to be tainted with salmonella, that was just free market capitalism and shouldn’t be punished if anyone got sick or died.[/quote]
An absurd analogy.
If you think they are unsanitory, don’t eat there. Simple. Take it upon yourself to be the Hygiene Police? Go clean your own kitchen.[/quote]
So in your mind, when a business lies about being clean and gets a clean bill of health, and the customer gets sick or dies, that’s the customer’s problem.
Okay then, in light of your unenlightened comment on the motorbike helmet thread: if a company sells you bad brakes for your motorcycle or installs them improperly, then you crash and get seriously hurt, that’s your problem, not the mechanic’s, the seller’s or manufacturer’s. You shouldn’t complain because you shouldn’t have bought them or bought brakes somewhere else. Or maybe you should build and install the brakes yourself.
I guess to him, when the PR China company sold melamine-tainted milk and the Peanut Corp. of America repackaged peanut butter already known to be tainted with salmonella, that was just free market capitalism and shouldn’t be punished if anyone got sick or died.[/quote]
An absurd analogy.
If you think they are unsanitory, don’t eat there. Simple.[/quote]Why is it absurd analogy? Both put profits before customers’ lives. You think it’s safe to eat there, but it’s not. Why would you eat somewhere knowing it’s going to harm you?
Two times now, at least, you’ve put your political ideas before people’s lives? Would you care if I lived or died?
Take a deep breath here, kids. The tiny food outlets don’t have a “clean bill of health”, because most are operating illegally. You pays for what you gets. You think it’s risky? Don’t go there. Drive your girlie bike up a scenic mountain and eat at a kosher hippie teahouse.
What horse shit. Do you have any idea about the Hepatitus scourge on this island?
Do you know that 10,000+ children on this island die every year due to
hepatitis and liver dis-function diseases?
This whole thread is retarded, Taiwan is one generation removed from the days when everyone lived in filth and the cities were giant toilets.
It will take at least another generation clean up every little restaurant, we certainly don’t need a bunch of uppity whities doing their ‘civic duty’ and putting small business owners out of business.
Like Elvis Hendrix alluded to, do the eye ball test, if it looks nasty, move on.
