Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Kentucky Restaurant Shut Down For Roadkill in Kitchen

Growing up in Texas, I am very familiar with roadkill. Every time I go back to see my family, I am astonished at the number of dead animals I see on the sides of roads. Armadillos, opossums, raccoons and the saddest of all, family pets, often say their fond farewells underneath the tires of a 4-wheel drive pick-up with a shotgun hanging in the rear window. I'll never forget the drive home I had one night after a high school dance when I almost ran right into a dead cow that had already met its fate via some other car. I swerved my '72 orange Chevy Nova and just missed it but I wondered about the person who had hit it first. Where were they, were they alright and why the fuck did they leave a cow in the middle of a dark country road and not call the sheriff for assistance? Anyway, I came across a story that takes roadkill to a whole new level.

Red Flower Chinese Restaurant in Williamsburg, Kentucky has been forced to close down after a customer saw them bring a dead deer into the kitchen. "Two of the workers came in wheeling a garbage can and they had a box sitting on top of it. And hanging out of the garbage can, they were trying to be real quick with it. So that nobody could see it. But there was like a tail, and a foot and leg. Sticking out of the garbage can and they wheeled it straight back into the kitchen," said the customer, using some rather poor grammar. She immediately called the health department and the owner's son admitted to picking up the dead deer on the side of I-75.

All together now: what the fuck?

Now I have never been a fan of venison. Whenever anyone ever tried to serve me a sampling of their latest hunting trip, all I could picture was Bambi frolicking around with Thumper. I don't want deer meat even under the best of circumstances, but deer meat that came from the freeway that is served in a Chinese restaurant in Kentucky just has way too many red flags going on, the first one being Chinese food in Kentucky.

The health inspector said, also in some weird Kentucky kind of grammar, "They didn't know that they weren't allowed to. So that makes me concerned. But maybe they could have before. They didn't admit to doing it before." The owner said that the deer meat was for his family and not for restaurant customers. Uh huh, sure it is. That's why you took it to the restaurant and not your home, is that it?

Let us have a moment for the deer who was simply trying to cross I-75 to get to the other side of the road so he could meet his bunny friend for a play date before going out for dinner with their mutual friend, a skunk named Flower. The deer made a bad decision and paid for it with his life and then to make matters worse he got put in a damn trash can and rolled into the kitchen to be served next to a fucking fortune cookie. I'm sorry, deer. You deserved better.

And now let us have a moment for the waiter who was going to have serve that as the special of the day and try to make it sound appealing;
Ah, good evening. We have several specials tonight that I would like to share with you. For an appetizer, we have Very Oh So Good Egg Roll, stuffed with cabbage, celery, bean sprouts and young buck served with a peanut and Penzoil dipping sauce. For an entree, we have Ma Po Doe Tou Fu which is spicy deer with aromatic bean curd and served on a bed of lettuce with an asphalt garnish. For dessert we have Coconut Balls that are normally made with a sticky rice flour but for tonight only is made from the actual testicles of a dead deer we found on the road and then sprinkled them with some coconut we bought at the Piggly Wiggly. Bon appetit!
The restaurant will not pay any fines (Yeah, I don't get that either) and will be allowed to open again once they can prove that the whole kitchen has been cleaned and sanitized. I don't know why they will bother opening again though. After this story goes viral, and you know it will, know right-minded Kentuckian is going to want to eat at the Red Flower again. Then again, I don't know Kentucky. Maybe it will increase business.



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17 comments:

Practical Parsimony said...

This is not good news!

JoBo said...

This is why I personally don't eat animals from story tales, you know, bunnys, duckys, deer. You get the picture. The only good meat is supermarket meat. The kind with the nify plastic packaging already attached.

Don't judge me.

Anonymous said...

Though it is appalling that the deer was brought into the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant...it's not like people picking up deer off the side of the road is a new concept. As long as the deer hasn't been there for longer than a day, i.e. if it was JUST hit and killed and the driver knows someone who will benefit from it, why not take it?

My mom hit a doe back in the day and my uncles came and picked it up and ended up with some nice venison jerky. Meat is meat, and venison is one of the best meats for you because it is so lean, there is really never any fat on it.

JoBo, though I see your point in not wanting to eat the animals from story tales, and please know that I am not judging you when I say this...supermarket meat is usually processed with fillers and pumped with steroids (pink slime anyone?). Just saying, it's probably the worst meat for you...and FYI I have a lot in my fridge because I am not a hunter, but I know plenty of people who are. I even buy the frozen bags of chicken breast from Walmart for convenience!!

Anyway I would never go into that restaurant EVER after reading that story, I agree they will have a hard time finding customers to brave the Kung Pao "Chicken/Raccoon" if/when they decide to reopen.

Mind Of Mine said...

I remember an episode of Judge Judy, involving two sisters, one was suing the other for damages to her car.

The damage was done hitting a deer. The one who killed the dear proudly exclaimed that she went back, brought it home, cooked it and ate.

I was then I realised that some people are odd.

Teresa said...

"peanut and Penzoil dipping sauce" made me laugh water through my nose.

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of a chinese place in atlantic city years ago that was shut down after it was discovered they were catching pidgeons on the boardwalk and selling it as chicken

California Girl said...

hahaha! my husband's paternal side are from Kentucky.

his father loves to tell the story of going into a Lexiington, KY cocktail lounge, back in the day, and ordering "bourgon with a water backer." He says the waitress was gone about 15 minutes before coming back with the bourbon, saying

"Here's yer bourbon sir but we ain't got no wads er terbacky."

I lived there 2 years and I believe it.

Anonymous said...

Eating a deer that was killed by a car is not unheard of. It's a huge animal, and alot of meat. At least it's not pumped full of hormones and antibiotics like a factory farm raised cow. As the daughter of a hunter who had to endure years of venison being snuck into my dinners, I can tell you that it has a distinct gamey taste, and I doubt they could get away with serving that to customers without anyone noticing, no matter how it was prepared. I actually believe them that they were just preparing it for feeding their family. You can't just drag a deer into your kitchen at home and prepare it; it is a very large animal that requires a very large kitchen. NOT that I think what they did was ok. There are places you can bring a deer to be cut up; they were probably just too cheap to pay. While I think what they did was wrong, I don't think it is as horrifying as some people do. I probably wouldn't eat at a Chinese food restaurant in Kentucky to begin with, deer or no deer.

Unknown said...

this was all over consumerist/gawker yesterday and apparently the family claimed they were going to eat it, not the customers. whether that's true or not, but they did clean everything up off the road so there's that. I hate seeing roadkill, poor animals

Kevin Fields / KAM said...

Having lived in Kentucky for 15 years now, I wasn't shocked by this. My guess is that it's not that the son of the restaurant's owner was too cheap to take it to a deer processor, but simply figured it was easy enough to do himself, and his family already had what he thought was a suitable facility to do it in.

If it were me, I'd probably have done the same thing.

I also wouldn't be surprised if they WERE going to process it for use in the restaurant. Might be interesting to find venison served in a Chinese buffet, but, hey, I've seen stranger things. I'm pretty sure that the health department frowns on using roadkill in food served to the public, though. If the son had actually hunted the deer, prepared the deer in the field, and then took it to a tagging station, then all would have been fine. In fact, the only charge authorities issued was for the son not having a tag for the deer. You live and learn.

JoeinVegas said...

Hey, they said they never did it before, don't you believe them?
And it's Kentucky, from the comments and stories elsewhere there doesn't seem to be a problem.

KC said...

I'm sure people in KY were shrugging their shoulders and thinking, 'what was wrong with doing this?' That's why there was no fine.

KC said...

People in KY were wondering what was wrong doing this?

LS said...

There was a local Chinese restaurant that was always rumored to have dead cats in their freezer, but it was always treated as a joke.
Coincidentally, it's the same restaurant where the B-52's were inspired to form while sharing a Flaming Volcano cocktail.

nevernakednails said...

That's disgusting. There's always rumors about cats or dogs being on the menu, but this makes it too real to laugh off. I have no problem with deer meat..I have problems if you found it and are serving it. I wonder if they were going to try to pass it off as chicken? I can assure you there will be a lot of people not coming back to this restaurant, though I'm not sure where williamsburg is. But I bet the turtle man probably wouldn't have any problems.

I've lived in Kentucky my entire life, it's really not so bad.

Anonymous said...

I'm from southern Ohio. My grandpap used to butcher deer. I'd come downstairs to him cutting up a deer on the kitchen table. It's never bothered me. Deer meat makes for some awesome tacos.

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