I've known about the online restaurant inspection report made handy by the Department of Health for years and have been avoiding it with all my might. Once I have a favorite restaurant, I don't want to know whether they found vermin in the kitchen or the refrigerator was ten degrees warmer than the city mandates. Even in the wake of the KFC/ Taco Bell scandal a few years ago, I don't want to know.
Call it denial. Call it stupidity. I call it preserving my sanity. The city is dirty. Restaurants are dirty. I don't want to know, even if that means risking food poisoning. In my close to 15 years living in the city that's happened only once and I think I might have been allergic to the food, not poisoned by it.
That's why the city's latest food patrol initiative scares the bejesus out of me. According to a press release from the mayor's office and Deputy State Majority Leader Jeff Klein (now THAT was a mouthful) the Health Department will be increasing the amount of inspections it conducts and will mandate that restaurants clearly and prominently post their ratings in the window or entrance of the establishment. The ratings will range from As to Fs, just like the grade school method. The public school system currently adheres to the same system, to mixed reviews (even though more schools got As last year, indicating that the system just might work).
I know they mean well, but somethings are better left alone. In this world of worries and anxiety, I'd like my food to remain an anxiety-free zone. Can't the city do a girl a favor and let me live in my bubble of denial?
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