Jackson Heights Life

Hi Todd,

I totally agree that there's no way these places could make their dishes to order, and in pretty much any restaurant as much food as possible is prepared way ahead of time and either stored (refrigerated), or held hot either using ban marie's, steam tables, or being kept in a low temp oven.  There just isn't the time to make *everything* from scratch to order.

Here's the NYC guide for food handling - http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/inspect/iguide.shtml, and if food is placed in a steam table it's got to be held at 140 or above (sorry, 145 is pasteurization - got my temps mixed up).  It's equivalent to putting something in a 200 degree oven just to keep it warm until you serve it.  You're not still cooking the food at 145, just keeping it warm so any airborne bacteria can't grow in it.

I'm glad you haven't gotten sick from any of the food - and I certainly wouldn't wish it on anyone. I also wasn't looking to tarnish anyone's favorite restaurants reputation.  So I guess my question was more curiousity in how are these places passing inspection when the food in their steam tables are cold?  Is it just turnover that keeps the food fresh?  Do you have the chowhound thread - I'd like to check out what others are saying.

Thanks.

Should we split the food handling discussion into a separate topic?

Sure.

It's a slippery slope looking at the violation reports on your favorite restaurants... very few restaurants out there have no violations and I am scared I would never eat out again if I looked at the site too much  :buck2:

NYCMacUser - thank you for your enlightening posts.  where can we go to get this information about other restaurants we frequent?  links?  thanks, again!

They are readily available from the DHMH website,

If a restaurant is open, I'd rather not know the details of whatever minor issues arise during an inspection.

Ordinarily I'd agree with you. But I have a neighbor who recently had an experience that has made me rethink my posture on the subject. She went out to dinner with a friend, and brought home the leftovers in a doggy bag. At 11:00 PM she and her 4 year old daughter and their 2 year old Yorkie had a picnic of leftover food from the restaurant earlier that evening. The dog was the first to show the symptoms, her daughter's symptoms started a few hours later. As adults, most bad food will never affect us. But this little girl who only weighs 34 pounds and this poor little dog who only weighs 6 pounds became deathly ill from the food. Thank G-d she had health insurance and she rushed her daughter to the ER. It cost her over $1,000 to get the dog back to good health from the food poisoning. I don't worry about the small stuff that the DOH gives out violations points for—I couldn't care less if they have proper lighting or even vermin—I do, however very much care if their food isn't being handled properly or prepared properly. Now I look online before I go to a restaurant to see if they have ever received a violation for food handling. The young, the immunocompromised and the elderly are at risk. I am not young or immunocompromised!

I'm kinda sad to find out the department of health shutdown Taqueria Coatzingo on 2/18/09. Anyone have any recommendations where the next best taco place is?

Which Taqueria Coatzingo?  There are two of them.

The Taqueria Coatzingo near 76th and Roosevelt...I saw the shutters with the "Closed for Renovations" sign, and knew it must be health code violations.  I'm still going to eat there.  Every restaurant has its issues, and I have a strong stomach (and upon further review, those violations aren' t much of anything).

Here is a list of the Restaurant inspection findings and violations



http://www.city-data.com/ny-restaurants/index1.html


[Moderator Note:  Similar topics merged.]