Holy, holy shit!!!! Popular Atlanta Restaurant

[CatWoman]

:scared:

email I just received, along with pictures of the packaged, frozen and cleaned rats.

A popular Asian/Chinese restaurant bistro in Atlanta was closed
Down this morning after authorities received a tip that the owner was
accepting shipments of rats and mice from a vendor to prepare in his dishes.
the owner and his wife were arrested early this morning and charges are
not known at this time. After a full search of the kitchen, authorities found,
packaged rats, mice, kittens, puppies and a large frozen hawk. The restaurant
is a popular gathering spot for local celebrities such as Whitney Houston
and husband Bobby Brown, Jermaine Dupree, Janet Jackson, Usher, Monica,
Puffy, TI, Ludacris, Lil Jon, Toni Braxton, TLC and others. The restaurant
has locations off Peachtree Road and Alpharetta near North Pointe Mall.

[LeftCoast]

1. EWWW!

:puke:

I hope you never ate there! I think I'd want to cleanse my digestive system w/ Draino.

[jeff30997]

2. That's it ! No more Chinese food for me.

[CottonBear]

3. I hope the celebs enjoyed their meals!

A hawk? Oh my: puppies and kittens.

EDIT: I'm eating chinese food right now. I'm not so hungry anymore.

[LudwigVan]

4. A few eat dog...

But I've never heard of Asians eating rat or cat (except when damn near starving to death). I know, however, that capybara (the world's largest rodent) is a delicacy in parts of South and Central America.

I've probably eaten rat and not known it. I should avoid fast food.

[Patiod]

69. True story: Vietnamese client asked us

"She said she's allergic to dog. Is that a food allergy or a pet allergy?"

Everyone piled on him, until I pointed out that he probably was grossed out by us eating moldy, spoiled milk (he was) and I was a little grossed out by his Swedish colleague who probably ate horse (she admitted that she had)

Rat, however.....

[RubyDuby in GA]

5. Name names so I can tell everyone I know not to go there

or better yet, please just forward the email to me.
PM me for my email address please :)

[RubyDuby in GA]

7. Is it PF Changs????

[CatWoman]

9. check your DU mail

[RubyDuby in GA]

21. I called my mom who works across from the capital at the state Dept of Ag

but she says they don't inspect restaurants. That's done by the local counties. She's going to check with some people in other departments to find out anything.

[KoKo]

11. The only time I ate at PF Changs I swore it was something like rats.....

In NC a Chinese Restaurant was cited for serving "road kill deer." I kid you NOT!

All of our Chinese restaurants here are terrible....But, they eat that stuff in China so we shouldn't be surprised. A friend of mine came back from China and talked about being sick the whole time she was there because of just looking at what people ate and how they ate it. On a train trip folks were eating boxed lunches and spitting the bones and pieces of meat in the aisles. It was considered custom to spit it out on the floor.

:shrug: I apologize for offending any native Chinese here.

[Phentex]

35. PF Chang's does not have "locations" off Peachtree....

unless some have suddenly popped up in the last few weeks, so I don't think this is the one. PFC has locations at North Point, Perimeter and Mall of GA.

[RubyDuby in GA]

41. Sorry, you're right about no locations

I apologize for slandering the good name of PF Chang's.
I immediately thought Lenox, when I meant to think of Perimeter Mall.

Mea culpa.

[BikeWriter]

36. "custom to spit it out on the floor." The dogs get hungry, too! n/t

[sniffa]

6. you promised me dog or higher!

[maveric]

8. Is this the Year of the Rat?

[iamjoy]

70. Year of The Rooster

year of the rat is 2008

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. Which restaurant?

Just curious. I'm hoping I haven't eaten there. Heh.

[Modem Butterfly]

12. Please let me know the name of the restaurant

At your earliest convenience.

:scared:

[BikeWriter]

31. No, sit up straight and eat your rat, Dear!

:)

[Modem Butterfly]

34. Not funny

And yet, I'm laughing anyway.

Laughing and puking, that is.

:)

:puke:

[BikeWriter]

37. LOL! I'm sorry, Dear. :-) n/t

[no name no slogan]

48. There was a great, cheap Chinese place in London, UK

...called Wong Kei, IIRC. The service was obnoxiously rude, but the food was dead cheap (for London, anyway-- you could stuff your face for £5!).

One night, I made the mistake of ordering the Assorted Meat Fried Noodles. The only thing I immediately recognized was the calamari. Needless to say I didn't order that again. So I can relate.

[Phentex]

13. I have suspected dog....

but not rats.

[Ravenseye]

14. A Chinese place near my old apartment...

..had a big poster of a cat in the window. I'm not kidding. We walked by it after we moved into the neighbor hood and I turned to my wife saying 'We are NEVER eating there.'

[johnnie]

15. Is this real?

Or one of those emails that will be on snopes? I'm curious to the name also. Not that I disbelieve you, but it sounds fishy (or ratty).

[alexisfree]

16. you should be grateful ...in some ....

part of the world that is a delicacy....that is why you people should stop nagging....as for me... I pass :puke:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

17. Not believing this without some other documentation.

[KoKo]

18. If it's a chain please let me know by PM, too, Cat.

We were just getting ready to try a big new "Asian-American" chain sort of like PF Changs that opened in our new mall..

After reading that...I think maybe we should pass it up. But...God, I miss good Chinese food down here in NC... Used to have better restaurants in the NorthEast...but maybe they are all bad now, too.

[RebelOne]

19. Yes, someone please PM me when you learn the name.

[DrWeird]

20. You mean it wasn't on the menu?

nt

[yellowcanine]

28. Actually it was - Number 14. Ratatoui with duck sauce.

[BikeWriter]

33. General Tso's Rat!

:)

[sniffa]

22. is there a Link anywhere?

[yellowcanine]

23. I smell Onions. Anybody else smell it?

[BikeWriter]

45. It could be "The Onion" or another parody site... n/t

[Kire]

24. "a large frozen hawk"

I wonder what that tastes like.

[ropi]

25. chicken

more moo goo gai pan, anyone?

[RubyDuby in GA]

Chicken?

:shrug:

[yellowcanine]

30. mice. You are what you eat.

[Beware the Beast Man]

26. Link?

[BikeWriter]

27. It doesn't appear to be on Google yet. n/t

[CatWoman]

29. If any of you want the email, pm me your email addy

I'm still doing an on-line search for a link

[GoddessOfGuinness]

32. Was it the Mao See Tung?

:evilgrin:

[yardwork]

38. I am skeptical about the truth of this

I don't doubt that you received this info, CatWoman. I just think it's probably one of those internet rumors. Anyone checked snopes.com yet?

[peekaloo]

39. As long as it's not Mr. Wang's Deli.........

I giggle because I'm immature.

[Blue Diadem]

40. Please, before spreading this type of rumor

call the health department and find out the truth.

It's been a common practice for years to have this type of email circulating and it can hurt a totally innocent business.

Here's a link to snopes with some email similar in kind.

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/chinese.htm

snip:
Ancient slur or not, wherever this rumor goes it affects how the locals feel about the Chinese in their midst, and it often impacts a restaurant's fragile bottom line.

snip:
In 1991, after a Burlington, Ontario Chinese eatery lost 30% of its trade to this rumor, its owners attempted to combat the talk by inviting the local professional football team, the Hamilton Ti-Cats, to eat there on the house. Due to the loss of business, restaurant staff had seen their work week cut by 10 hours. The trouble had started two months earlier, with its first sign being a phone call from a woman asking if the restaurant was closed. A friend had told her health officials had padlocked the 434-seat restaurant because it "had been serving cat." That call was the first of many to the restaurant, the health department, and the media. Callers often said others told them the rumor was on radio or in the papers, but no such reports had been broadcast or published. Again, this restaurant had a good reputation with the health department, but that didn't stop the progress of the rumor and the damage it did to the livelihoods of the small business owners and their employees.

[BikeWriter]

43. That would be the responsible thing to do, but its more fun to go EWWWW!

;)

[CatWoman]

46. no!!!!

[DemoTex]

42. King Rat!

Changi Chow (Changi was the infamous Japanese POW camp on Singapore and remains notorious today as a Singapore prison). King Rat was James Clavell's novel about the POW "food" entrepeneurs at Changi.

[da_chimperor]

44. I'd try rat or mouse . . . not much meat on them though

I've eaten weirder things than those. I'd steer clear of puppies and kittens though, I think they're too cute to eat.

[Mr.Green93]

47. This sounds like

a racist lie.

[CatWoman]

50. why, pray tell, would it be "racist"

inquiring minds, ya know :think:

[Dookus]

53. Did you read the snopes page?

these slurs against Asians have been going around for over 150 years.

If not racism, it's at least xenophobia.

[CatWoman]

54. well, Ruby's mom just investigated and found that this story is not true

thanks again, Ruby.

[RubyDuby in GA]

57. Just doin' my job

:)

[KoKo]

60. It was the "Hawk" that was the tip off.....Why was that hawk on the list..

:D

[RubyDuby in GA]

62. Maybe it's wishful thinking because the Atlanta Hawks suck!!!

[n2mark]

49. Ive been having a taste for Chinese food

not anymore. Guess, I will stick to homecooking, at least I know what it is in it.

[UncleSepp]

51. Pictures out of context perhaps

There would be legitimate reasons for a laboratory or even the highway department to have frozen animals. Maybe the pictures come from such a source and have been paired with the story to create a falsehood.

[paula777]

52. I'm going to pretend I didn't just read this

[slutticus]

55. I've eaten cat before.

Similar thing happened at a restaraunt I used to eat at. Beware of the "Pork on a stick"

[RubyDuby in GA]

56. Hoax according to GA Dept of Agriculture

From my mommy:

We had Consumer Protection check with the Fulton County and found out that this rumor is a hoax that someone is trying to cause trouble for certain restaurants.  They are trying to find our who is doing it so they can be charged and prosecuted.

I feel sheepish.....but at least we checked it out with the people who would know before forwarding to all our friends. :)

[Phentex]

58. Thank you!

[Dookus]

59. Thank you Ruby

these kinds of urban legends are a pet peeve of mine. Why people pass on such obviously suspect stuff without checking it first is beyond me. This kind of stuff can do real damage to individuals and businesses.

In this case, no business was named - well one was, but it was the wrong one. So now it's more likely people will associate PF Chang's with this lie.

[RubyDuby in GA]

61. Everyone please don't associate this with PF Chang's

It was my stupid guess and I was thinking of the wrong part of town.

I apologized before and I do it again. My fault, my bad, mea culpa <--me taking responsibility (further proves I'm in no way a Republican)

NOTHING TO DO WITH PF CHANG'S.

[KoKo]

63. And I posted something bad about PF Changs too...If you love it..Eat there

maybe our NC branch is just disgusting. It doesn't mean that it's not a great chain Chinese elsewhere.

Something about where I live in NC that food can be ruined by the chains here...but if you eat somewhere else they are great...Management or whatever might be the problem.

[BikeWriter]

64. "we checked it out with the people who would know before..." Uh...

Oh, yes! Certainly we did. Yes, indeed! ;-)

[bigwillq]

65. Yuck!I just had Chinese for dinner!

:puke:

[KoKo]

66. Oh dear....visions of rats, kitties and a BIG HAWK in your dreams..I know.

I love "good Chinese." Sometimes you just gotta have it...but the visions of what you ate are active in your mind after you eat...:-(

[bigwillq]

67. Fuck it. I don't care what it was I ate. It was still good!

:)

[supernova]

68. EWWW Ga--- rosssss!

:puke: :puke:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

71. Since it has been debunked, this thread should be locked or deleted.

Leaving it up still gives the possibility of spreading the rumor and damaging the targeted businesses as was the intent of the malicious rumor monger.

If anything it should be replaced by a thread explaining how the poster was duped into spreading a false rumor and what the nature of the debunking was.

[skygazer]

72. Sounds like a Monty Python sketch

"We have rat pudding, rat cake, rat pie and strawberry tart."
"Strawberry tart?! Is there any rat in it?"
"Well, a little."
"How many?"
"Three. Rather a lot really..."

[Lydia Leftcoast]

73. I've heard racist jokes about Chinese restaurants serving

dog, cat, and rat for years.

In any case, those chain Chinese restaurants serve greasy, overly sweetened food, and it's hard to find something healthy there.

If you follow the principle of going only to Chinese restaurants where real Chinese people eat, you'll have a much better experience.