hold the vermin, please

lots of food safety violations at san diego restaurants were the topic of this weekend's front-page expose in the union tribune. while many of the violations were on the order of food storage temperature issues, others included cockroaches and rat poop in the kitchens. some places, like the hotel del restaurant, actually were forced to close temporarily to address the problem.

since the san diego county inspection site requires you to click on each restaurant, it's nice to use the UT interactive utility to see the worst repeat offenders. it's funny how the places that you've always thought were kind of sketchy (ichiban, los panchos, hong kong restaurant [next to bread & cie]), really are. and it's scary to see places you've eaten at (la torta on montezuma) with repeated vermin violations; disappointing to have to scratch half the asian restaurants on el cajon and university off your to-do list (check out 92115).

articles like this serve as a reminder that you're really putting your digestive fate in the hands of the restaurants you frequent. but at least we have resources like the utility above to inform us before we make our dining decisions.