Cockroach on the wall - do you never return?

[Stone]

Insects are essentially just extra protein, after all, and if the dish they've contaminated is properly cooked, I don't see how they can really hurt us.

This isn't the whole story. That humble bit of protein may have crawled across the unclean floor of the restroom before traipzing (?) across your pizza. The fly might have just arrived from a visit to the garbage can or worse outside, picking up all sorts of bacteria. In rural India and other areas, flies spread a great deal of disease as they hop from cow dung, etc., to plate.

That said, roaches in a restaurant don't bother me.

Edited July 7, 2004 by Stone (log)

[birder53]

I admit to being somewhat phobic about roaches since my experience in 1975 of being in Bangkok during flash floods at the beginning of their monsoon season and having waterbugs crawling up my legs to try to save themselves from drowning in knee-deep water that flooded the holes in the streets where they were living. That didn't make me too phobic to live with roaches for most of the following two years in a traditional Malay village house, whose space between floorboards made it part of the environment, with waterbugs, big spiders, and big, disoriented sticky-footed beetles part of the indoor/outdoor fauna (those unfortunate beetles, called kabur in Malay, didn't understand electric light and committed suicide every night by crashing into the light fixtures, but I digress). Nevertheless, undoubtedly, phobias play a part in my reactions and the reactions of many people to these kinds of food contamination.

Aargh!

[birder53]

Went to a party at a co-workers apartment in Greenwich Village about 20 years ago. The apartment was over a bar/restaurant. Roaches were crawling in and out and over the various boxes of cereal, crackers, etc in their kitchen. We left immediately. Run for your lives!

[NulloModo]

Roaches and most insects, depends where they are. If I found one in my food I would most certainly not expect to be paying for that meal, and would most likely not return for some time. A second occurance woudl blacklist the place permanantly.

On the walls/floor/etc, I would point it out, and if the waitstaff seemed suitably freaked out and seemed to get management's attention to put a plan in place to get rid of them, I could probably live with that. If on multiple visits I kept seeing them, I would eventually stop going.

If I found a spider anywhere in my food, never ever again would I go near that restaurant, even if it changed owners/formats/etc, the building would be cursed to me forever more. I refuse to eat anywhere I can even see a spider, and prefer not to eat outdoors in climates where spiders propigate... but that is just me.

[tommy]

i'm not too bothered by roaches. i know they are commonplace in NYC. and i know i've lived with them, so i have to assume that others have as well.

i drew the line at one thai restaurant in midtown after i saw a roach on my date. that kinda put the nail in the coffin. and there were a lot of other choices. i don't know that a roach at China 46 in NJ (note: i've never seen a roach at C46), for example, would put me off of that particular restaurant, though, as they are doing something very special food-wise.

Edited July 7, 2004 by tommy (log)

[Pickles]

One thing to keep in mind:  roaches don't eat human food.  They have no interest. 

http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/american.htm]

DIET: They prefer decaying organic matter, but being scavengers will eat anything. Sweets are attractive to them.

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/susan/c...ch_factpage.htm

Cockroaches like food that contain starch. They will eat wallpaper paste, cheese, beer,leather, bakery products,hair, flakes of dried skin, soiled clothing ,starch in book binding paint, bookbindings, and paper. They also like to eat the crumbs that we humans leave behind.

Edited July 7, 2004 by Pickles (log)

[beans]

Then in our case, those boxes/glue for boxes must really be yummy.

[reesek]

Roaches are a part of life in some parts of the country. When I lived in Chicago, I had them in every apartment I lived in - that certainly didn't keep me from eating there! If I had to choose my bug, I'd choose roaches over flies any day. I don't really like finding them in my food, but it's not really a calamity. As someone said, in other parts of the world, crawly things are food.

what is it with chicago? i moved in with a friend who had just given up. our apartment was infested...and we literally kept no food in that apartment. apparently roaches can live on coffee grounds. i used to boil my toothbrush. it was all over for me when one fell out of my hair onto a letter i was writing. i wrote the roaches an evicition notice, bought a ton of boric acid and never saw them again. until we moved out and took apart the waterbed the albino queen was quite a sight.

oh - our apartment was right above a restaurant that we used to eat at all the time. ice cream and bibimbap.

[Pickles]

More pests...Silverfish and Firebrats are often mistaken for roaches, even though they aren't, and one of their primary diet sources is glue from boxes, book bindings, and magazines. They scurry around much like roaches do and have that disgusting appearance. That hard outer shell and wiggly legs. :::: shudder :::

[beans]

Our professional bug man was wrong?

[rickmartin]

. As someone said, in other parts of the world, crawly things are food.

I've worked in restaurants for years and know that roaches are a constant battle. The worst is when you spend lots of money to irradicate the things and they scramble out into the open areas and your customers think you are infested. Or when your neighbor sprays and they scramble over to your joint. They are in most places that you would never expect.

But even though they are around, and even though they are eaten as food in some places, they should never be in or around food. Even better: nothing should be in food ever that is not intended to be there. This shows carelessness and neglect. It means there are other problems that you may not know of. And depite the fact that I have eaten insects by choice, it doesn't mean I want one in my rice.

A roach on the wall, be cautious. A roach in the food, leave and don't pay.

Oh, and a meal should always be comped if a roach is anywhere near the customer, let alone the food.

RM

[sequim]

what is it with chicago? i moved in with a friend who had just given up. our apartment was infested...and we literally kept no food in that apartment. apparently roaches can live on coffee grounds. i used to boil my toothbrush. it was all over for me when one fell out of my hair onto a letter i was writing. i wrote the roaches an evicition notice, bought a ton of boric acid and never saw them again. until we moved out and took apart the waterbed  the albino queen was quite a sight.

You can be clean as all get out and if your neighbors aren't, well, here come the bugs!

I am happy to live in Seattle now rather than Chicago. We don't seem to have roaches here. I haven't seen one

Although that's not to say I don't miss Chicago and racing cockroaches at the bar where I worked. I won't say where....

[lyz2814]

OK this:

until we moved out and took apart the waterbed  the albino queen was quite a sight.

has just ruined me for life! Jeebus!

[gingerly]

Not a bug story but another thing that startled me while eating in a Mexican restaurant in Guadalahara was having a lizard, maybe a gecko, gallop across my plate after a moth.  I scooped out the little footprints and deposited it on a leaf at the side of my plate and continued eating.

things like that make me lose it completely!a long time ago when dining in a slightly stuffy,formal situation,a cat bolted through the dining room in hot pursuit of a mouse that decided the velvet drapes were the best way to go.smart move and the cat ended up snagged pathetically about seven feet off the ground.i didn't finish my meal..

back to cockroaches.i guess my standards vary-a lot of places would be ruled out otherwise!but venturing out in daylight is definitely not a good sign.

[stephenc]

I'll often see roaches in my very own apartment.

I'm not scurred.

[egator]

Palmetto bugs are pretty - as long as they're outside.

Wow. That’s a first. I grew up in Miami and I’ve never heard “pretty” and “palmetto bugs” in the same sentence…ever. I’m curious. Do you think opossums are cute?

Edited July 8, 2004 by egator (log)

[winesonoma]

I once lived in a place that was advertised as architecturally designed. Fungus growing out of the wall Mushrooms in the bath room and finally Roaches on the counters. This was not big city. I figured it was a teenage science project gone bad and moved. I wasn't the teenager.

[gingerly]

er-not the'roach motel' by any chance ?heh!

[Pan]

Palmetto bugs are pretty - as long as they're outside.

Wow. That’s a first. I grew up in Miami and I’ve never heard “pretty” and “palmetto bugs” in the same sentence…ever. I’m curious. Do you think opossums are cute?

I can't picture an opossum offhand. I'll clarify: I think the coloring and spot on the back of palmetto bugs is pretty, but my appreciation for that feature of their appearance is mixed with loathing and fear that they may choose to walk up my legs. I looked at them with wary interest - when they were outside, near the palm trees. When I saw one or two in my dorm room in a music festival in South Florida, I was very unhappy, to say the least, and wasn't satisfied until I had smashed them. Even remembering those flying roaches gives me the willies!

To Beans' suggestion that roaches don't eat human food, I can offer the following anecdote: After I played an open jam in a bar on a very hot summer night, two fellow musicians and I got a late meal at a felafel place where we sat outside. We observed that there were two or three very large waterbugs living in a hole in the sidewalk. My fellow musicians, suffering from the mind-warping effects of intoxication, decided to throw a slice of tomato in the direction of the waterbugs, who proceeded to eat it voraciously.

[winesonoma]

Usually if you rented in this town you got yer own chicken [a good thing if you could find the eggs] or a bovine to feed. Northern Calif. You guess where?

[gingerly]

You guess where?

cockroaches might fly..no wait..oh ok

[beans]

Wow Pan. I've never seen roaches going after human foods. All of the ones that were running around the walls where I work were in the upstairs restaurant's dry storage area where there isn't any food product.

The only other time I encountered these insects was when I owned a condo in Shaker Heights that was a converted old 1920's apartment building, still with the original system of steam heat. There was a basement room filled with old refridges and stoves, as storage from the previous building owner. The roaches were infested in those until we got the former owner to haul those away! They were feasting on the insulation!

[jenny scibelli]

I have seen very few roaches in my life and have never seen even one in the kitchens that I've worked in. I guess they are inevitable but if you take care of your kitchen, they really should not be a problem. As far as dining goes, I feel that if you see a roach in daylight, it only exemplifies the kind of cleaning that the restaurant does. Would I go back? Well, yeah. Would I eat off the floors? Nope.

[johnnyd]

I ran an oyster bar from a restored wooden lobsterboat for three years. Every spring I'd paint the hull and cabin, oil the brightwork, scrub the stainless steel barsink and worktable, then make sure the bilge was spotless.

Before opening a bit after Memorial Day, I'd invite the State health inspector down to the dock for my annual inspection. She was very nice, and incredulous that anyone would invite her over for an inspection.

I would always fail one point: no screens. I had a mobile food service license, designed for outdoor fairs and such, and when they're all lined up at a carny, the flies get pretty bad. I always passed the inspection in spite of that one demerit, but she and I agreed screens would take away from the aesthetic.

I solved any interest insects would have in my seafood and work area by taking a lemon wedge and, pressing firmly, running it around the perimeter of the insulated sink and table. It seemed to create an invisible wall. While flies and some bees bothered sloppy boaters I was insect-free, thank god!

Oysters, clams and shrimp served outside can be dicey. My workspace, not only really cool looking in that rustic, Mainey way, was kept absolutely clean, inspiring confidence in my customers. Those lemons saved the day.

The health inspector happened to love oysters, especially the local Damiriscottas, and brought her whole family down to the marina on Fourth of July. What a testimonial!

Edited July 8, 2004 by johnnyd (log)

[TheFoodTutor]

Since I've managed restaurants that had palmetto bugs present on occasion, and even infestations of the small, german cockroaches - in the office area only, eating the paperwork - I'd have to say that I'd continue to eat in a restaurant where I saw a cockroach on the floor or the wall. Probably not served in my food, though, unless it was really, really good food that I could not find elsewhere.

I have stopped going to restaurants after being served obviously slimy celery and foul-smelling sauces - both of which should have been noticed by the food handler who served them.

I also never went back to a Vietnamese place where my long spoon, stuck in my ca phe sua da, was coated with something green when I pulled it out of the glass. I can understand a mistake like this possibly happening, but when I showed it to my server, he just repeated the word "dirty" and ran away. I kind of was hoping he'd replace the drink, but he didn't, and he never even came back to the table.