Canada's restaurant secrets [General]
2014 Apr 11
The associated article: www.cbc.ca
I'd like to see a posted grade for each restaurant in Ottawa, much like Toronto and New York City. Customers have a right to know how serious a business is about food safety.
My worst food poisoning experience was with salmonella from an undercooked turkey burger at a popular local restaurant back in 2006. (Tip: unlike pork dumplings, turkey burgers should never be pink when cooked through.) I was seriously ill for 5 days and under the weather for a week after that.
More recently, I fell ill for a couple days after eating a seafood stew at another popular local restaurant. That case seemed to be more just bad luck rather than a food safety issue but who really knows?
Food safety is good business and good health.
I'd like to see a posted grade for each restaurant in Ottawa, much like Toronto and New York City. Customers have a right to know how serious a business is about food safety.
My worst food poisoning experience was with salmonella from an undercooked turkey burger at a popular local restaurant back in 2006. (Tip: unlike pork dumplings, turkey burgers should never be pink when cooked through.) I was seriously ill for 5 days and under the weather for a week after that.
More recently, I fell ill for a couple days after eating a seafood stew at another popular local restaurant. That case seemed to be more just bad luck rather than a food safety issue but who really knows?
Food safety is good business and good health.
2014 Apr 14
I watched this episode and found it quite amusing how Chef Roger Mooking was their 'expert' consultant on kitchen hygiene, yet he was wearing a ring on his finger while cooking.
I'm not sure if there's actually any official regulations regarding this..but I personally find it disgusting to see anyone cooking with jewellery on their hands. There's no way your ring or the skin underneath it is completely disinfected during handwashing.
I'm not sure if there's actually any official regulations regarding this..but I personally find it disgusting to see anyone cooking with jewellery on their hands. There's no way your ring or the skin underneath it is completely disinfected during handwashing.
2014 Apr 14
One dirty secret of All You Can Eat (and other) sushi restaurants is that they mislabel fish. For example, at most All You Can Eat restaurants they have "Snapper." This is almost always Tilapia, which is a cheap farmed fish very tolerant of poor water quality. White Tuna is also Escolar (Butterfish) which is not only unhealthy but can also lead to serious digestive issues.
2014 Apr 17
CBC Marketplace tends to be very sensational journalism. The whole host cooking competition in this episode was pointless and obviously just a filler for the lack of a real story.
I gave up on taking Marketplace seriously when they did their customer service episode last season and suggested we should all be shocked and appalled that an employee at Walmart/Zellers/Canadian Tire didn't have the expertise to recommend which coffee maker the customer should buy. Seriously?!
Another recent episode admonished retailers for their return policies and suggested that we should be allowed to return a dress that had been worn, a half-eaten McDonalds meal because we 'didn't like it', and items without the original packaging or receipt simply because we changed our minds.
Poor television indeed.
I gave up on taking Marketplace seriously when they did their customer service episode last season and suggested we should all be shocked and appalled that an employee at Walmart/Zellers/Canadian Tire didn't have the expertise to recommend which coffee maker the customer should buy. Seriously?!
Another recent episode admonished retailers for their return policies and suggested that we should be allowed to return a dress that had been worn, a half-eaten McDonalds meal because we 'didn't like it', and items without the original packaging or receipt simply because we changed our minds.
Poor television indeed.
2014 Apr 17
I can't comment on this particular episode yet since I only saw the first half and haven't formed an opinion one way or another. (Although I do agree about the wedding ring comment upthread - there must be alot of bacteria festering under there....)
As for the store return policies I worked for two large chain stores when I worked in retail and they took pretty well everything back. Even clothes that were purchased a year or two earlier, underwear, bathing suits the works. The store manager would write off the bathing suits and underwear so it was a loss for the store but they were a large operation so they could absorb the loss. The smaller stores can't afford to do that hence the more rigid return policies IMO.
I also think we need consumer shows like Marketplace, despite what we all think of the show, and sometimes the best way of getting a business to change their tactics is through public shaming.
As for the store return policies I worked for two large chain stores when I worked in retail and they took pretty well everything back. Even clothes that were purchased a year or two earlier, underwear, bathing suits the works. The store manager would write off the bathing suits and underwear so it was a loss for the store but they were a large operation so they could absorb the loss. The smaller stores can't afford to do that hence the more rigid return policies IMO.
I also think we need consumer shows like Marketplace, despite what we all think of the show, and sometimes the best way of getting a business to change their tactics is through public shaming.
2014 Apr 19
I know the city of ottawa does post some food safety reports online and have read them before.
I was pretty shocked at the Green Door's reports that I remember reading they had problems keeping foods at the correct temperatures.
(I did get quite sick from some egg dishes there a couple times).
I also remember calling the city a couple years ago about one grocery store that was tampering with best before dates and scratching them off products and the people I contacted at the city were not too helpful in what to do.
I did contact the company who made the product and they did something about it though...
Sometimes the city (if you call 311) is really good with requests and sometimes they are just so clueless...like when I called about a road sign at least a dozen times...
Would be nice if it was easier to find any of the restaurant safety reports online more easily.
I was pretty shocked at the Green Door's reports that I remember reading they had problems keeping foods at the correct temperatures.
(I did get quite sick from some egg dishes there a couple times).
I also remember calling the city a couple years ago about one grocery store that was tampering with best before dates and scratching them off products and the people I contacted at the city were not too helpful in what to do.
I did contact the company who made the product and they did something about it though...
Sometimes the city (if you call 311) is really good with requests and sometimes they are just so clueless...like when I called about a road sign at least a dozen times...
Would be nice if it was easier to find any of the restaurant safety reports online more easily.
2014 Apr 19
I think the city has done a good job at making this information accessible in the last few years. Check out the online search tool:
app06.ottawa.ca
app06.ottawa.ca
Pasta lover