California Chinese Fast Food back to approved

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff writer

GALLUP — The New Mexico Environment Department Food Specialist Andrew Wilson inspected California Chinese Fast Food at 1020 W. Maloney on Saturday and found four high-risk violations.

The violations include uncovered meats and other foods in the walk-in refrigerator, knives stored in plastic container were in touch with the old food debris in the bottom of the bucket, fried wonton stored in a cardboard box, and egg rolls being prepared in a non-food prep area. Chicken, beef and shrimp were thawing in room temperature of in stagnant water, no sanitizer in the rag bucket and food in the freezer in the back of the storage area was from unapproved sources. Two low-risk violations were found; ceiling tiles in the back prep area were not smooth, easy to clean and non-absorbent and the light bulb under the hood was unprotected.

When Wilson changed the status of the restaurant to “unsatisfactory” and gave the paperwork to restaurant owner Peter Soohoo, “they got into a verbal disagreement,” said his mother Sally Soohoo in a telephone interview Thursday through translator Jeremy Liu. Liu was eating in the restaurant when Sally Soohoo asked him to translate from Chinese. Gallup Police were called to the scene Saturday, but no information was available about the incident.

Sally Soohoo explained, through Liu, that Peter Soohoo was the owner of California Chinese Fast Food and the building had been there for 11 years. She also said the Soohoos had lived in Gallup for 25 years, and another part of the extended Soohoo family has been in Gallup for over 50 years.

Wilson told the Independent “I cannot officially talk to you,” and suggested calling the press information officer in Santa Fe, Marissa Stone. Stone had not returned the call Wednesday morning.

California Chinese Fast Food has had its status changed to “unsatisfactory” in the past, mostly because of food temperatures, but on Tuesday afternoon, Food Specialist John Rhoderick was back at California Chinese Fast Food to see if the Saturday violations were corrected and he said he had taken off the “unsatisfactory” stickers on the front of the door and told the Independent “I have upgraded and the violations have been fixed.”