No sane New Yorker would eat in Chinatown? A New York City Department of Health restaurant inspector’s comment about Chinatown’s restaurants offended Chinatown’s regulars and irked the restaurants’ owners.

Nicolle Woods, a 33-year-old restaurant inspector, was quoted in “The New Yorker” magazine. The story, “Everyone Lies” by Elizabeth Kolbert, covers a whole day of restaurant inspection. All the restaurants they inspected, including a Chinese restaurant in Greenwich Village, had health code violations. While talking to Kolbert, Woods “volunteered that she had sworn off Chinatown, noting that ‘any sane New Yorker wouldn’t eat there.’”

“It is crazy!” said Enrique Calzada when he learned of Woods’ comment while eating at Jing Feng restaurant at Chinatown. “I love Chinese food, and come here to eat every two weeks since I moved to New York four years ago. I’ve never had a problem.”

“I think it’s discrimination,” said another New Yorker, Juan Real. Since Real and his Chinese wife Siew Lim met seven years ago, the couple has come to Chinatown to eat frequently. “Frankly, if you go to see the kitchen, it’s possible that you’ll find health code violations. But it’s not only in Chinatown. I know a lot of restaurants in midtown that have violations as well,” Real said.

According to the Health Department’s website, since the beginning of this year, there are 30 or so Chinese restaurants in Manhattan with violations. In Chinatown, there are at least 250 Chinese restaurants. The Health Department divides violations by two categories: “critical” and “general.” Only four or more critical violations, or five or more general violations, can make a restaurant fail the inspection. According to the website, no Chinese restaurants failed inspections this year.

The Chinese restaurateurs said the Health Department does inspections twice a year—violations mean heavy fines. But the strict health code is hard to follow, and some rules are not suitable to Chinese food.

“In the last inspection, an inspector required us to put a thermometer beside the oven and try the temperature of each dish,” said Zhongxing Ho, the owner of Zhongxing Restaurant. “It’s true that if food is not cooked well, it’s risky. But Chinese food is all cooked very well. Sometimes we overcook the food to make sure it’s soft enough. It’s ridiculous to require us to put the thermometer in each dish.”

Peisen Chen, the president of Sweet-n-Tart Restaurant, was concerned Woods’ comment would affect the business of Chinatown restaurant industry, which has been struggling since September 11th.

“A lot of tourists who don’t know Chinatown restaurants well might be scared by her comment and won’t come to eat here.” Chen said. “Actually, because the health codes are too demanding and no inspector wants to leave with empty hands, receiving violations are almost unavoidable.”

Chinese community still angry at Health Department inspector’s anti-Chinatown comment, Manhattan borough president calls Health Department, which apologized, by Xiaoqing Rong, Sing Tao Daily, 20 August 2002. Translated from Chinese by Xiaoqing Rong

The Health Department restaurant inspector’s comment against Chinatown restaurants, after being disclosed by a story in Sing Tao yesterday, triggered more anger among Chinese community. Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields also showed her concern by calling the Health Department yesterday.

The Health Department has apologized for the inspector’s comment.

In a New Yorker story about restaurant inspection, Nicolle Woods, a city restaurant inspector, was quoted as saying she had sworn off Chinatown, and “any sane New Yorker wouldn’t eat there.”

Tammy Do, director of Constituent Affairs of District 1, said: “This is really unfair to Chinatown.” Do explained that the Health Department only has 66 inspectors, and they are in charge of the restaurants inspections all over the city. “There are at least 200 restaurants in Chinatown. It is obvious that the inspector hasn’t been to all the restaurants in Chinatown. I think her comment is irresponsible,” Do said.

Qingquan Chen, chairman of the North American Fujianese Federation, thought Woods’ comment was discriminatory. As more and more Fujian immigrants rushing to America and pursuing their American dream through Chinese restaurants, Chen has seen an increase in discrimination against Chinese food. He said, “In the 70s, they said the MSG in Chinese dishes can give you cancer. But America never stopped importing the Japanese MSG. In the 90s, they said Chinese food contains more cholesterol than western food. In a TV program, they said one pint of Kung Pao Chicken contains more cholesterol than a quarter pound hamburger at McDonald. But one pint is 16 ounces and a quarter pound is four ounces. Of course the former contains more cholesterol than the latter. Now they are saying our restaurants are dirty. I think our community should get together and fight the unfairness.”

The boiling anger from Chinatown also drew attention from Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields. Since September 11th, Fields has done much to help Chinatown’s businesses recover. The Chinatown summer festival, initiated by Fields for the purpose of getting more tourists to Chinatown to eat Chinese food, just finished two days ago.

During the three-day-long festival, the Chinese food booths as well as traditional performances attracted about 10,000 people.

Fields said: “Health violations exist in restaurants throughout all parts of all boroughs of New York City. It is disturbing the restaurants of an entire community would be generalized about in such a way.” She called the Health Department in yesterday’s afternoon to communicate her concerns about Woods’ quote and then told Sing Tao that the latter had “profusely apologized” about the quote and said “the comment were not based on any quantitative research study that Chinatown restaurants would do any worse in health inspection than any other community in the city.” The Health Department has sent a formal statement to Sing Tao at 5:30 p.m. yesterday.

“In the wake of September 11th, the Chinatown restaurant industry needs our collective support not irresponsible reporting,” Fields said.