Fresh cooked does not equal fresh food

As you've probably guessed, B and I really like food - everything about it! Cooking food. Growing food. Preserving food. Eating food. Probably one of our most favorite things, however, is sharing food with others. Many of the best times of our married life together have occurred while seated around a dinner table, or in a kitchen, with friends. More and more, we enjoy doing this in our own home above going out to eat. But at least once a month - sometimes as often as once a week when the chefs get tired - we leave our home and go out to eat at a restaurant.

Restaurants, after all, have their own value. No one has to set the table, or leave the group to check on the progress of the next course. There's no clean up, which I think is my favorite perk of all. Everyone gets to relax. For the size of Happy Valley, there is a pretty decent selection of restaurants, however there are a few standouts and the rest could be defined as mediocre. Asian food is something that is particularly hard to come by. We actually have a good Korean restaurant, but when it comes to Chinese and Japanese food, medium- to crappy quality reigns.

This past weekend, however, a groups of friends and we decided to try out the local Hibachi restaurant, the Fuji & Jade Garden. I'm calling it out by name because - well - they deserve it. For those who don't know, at a hibachi restaurant, you and your party sit around a griddle, where a chef performs as he cooks for you...twirling eggs, artfully clanging spatulas and knives, creating fiery volcanoes of towers of onions...it's stir fry meets circus clown. Though in some restaurants it might go so far as to qualify as performance art. Not in Happy Valley...

We were met at the door by a host who acted as though we were interfering with his day by wanting to be seated. He frowned when we asked to add a member to our party's reservation, even though there were at least 20 empty seats in the hibachi area of the restaurant. When said member was a bit late, and we called to check on her order, the bar tender (who came to the table to take our drink orders) chastised the caller and asked him to "next time step over to the bar," even after we explained why the call was being made.

We shrugged off the lukewarm welcome and each of the six in our party ordered something slightly different, and all dishes tasted good. Though I have to say, for the $60 that B and I spent on dinner (stir fried meat, veggies, noodles and rice) and drinks, we could have made a feast in our own kitchen! Still, the night was fun, our chef was entertaining and kind, and the food seemingly fresh.

Here's where it goes down hill for Fuji & Jade. I use the word seemingly with purpose. Food being cooked in front of you is freshly cooked food. It cannot be guaranteed to be fresh food. Two of our party got sick later that night. Each had ordered something different from the menu. Today, I learned of two people who ordered food on a separate day for a different occasion who were suffering from actual food poisoning from the place.

It really makes me angry when this kind of thing happens. Cooking as much as we do in our home, I understand that it is not difficult to take precautions to make sure that no one becomes ill from eating the food you make. For a restaurant - who the public put their faith in to serve good food that is safe to eat - the situation is inexcusable.

Has this experience made me any less likely to eat out? Certainly not! Every chef needs her day off and a good round of beers, but every food consumer also needs to be careful of what she's walking into when she agrees to let someone else do the work for the night. In this case, food quality was sacrificed for a half-assed performance. Sometimes too many people are working in the kitchen on too many different shifts. On other occasions, judgment goes out the window. In all honesty, my gut told my something wasn't quite right about the place when the host was so rude to us, and this often happens as we stand in line at an overcrowded chain restaurant or a place with gross restrooms...but we ignore it. As with the rest of life, our guts are usually right about these things - especially food things!! - so the next time your gut tells you to run away from a restaurant, be sure and listen!