Williamsburg, KY – There are a lot of popular jokes and stereotypes about Chinese restaurants in America, and one such cliche was painfully reinforced in Kentucky when a Chinese buffet was shut down after roadkill was found inside the kitchen.
The Red Flower Chinese Restaurant enraged customers of the popular establishment last week when diners spotted a trashcan stuffed with what appeared to be a dead deer dragged into the kitchen, reports CBS local affiliate WTVR .
“It was really disturbing. There was actually a blood trail that they were mopping up behind the garbage can,” one customer told the station. “There was like a tail, and like a foot and leg sticking out of the garbage can and they wheeled it straight back into the kitchen.”
Enter environmental health inspector Paul Lawson, who was soon called in to verify the claim. When he set foot in the Chinese restaurant’s kitchen for himself, he stumbled upon “the craziest thing he’s ever seen.”
“Upon arrival, I confirmed they did have a deer carcass in the facility,” he said.
Lawson told Lex18 that the dead deer “had already been gutted,” causing “many health and illness” concerns. Officials say that the restaurant owner’s son admitted to picking up the roadkill along Interstate 75 and bringing it “into the kitchen of the restaurant in order to clean and dress it.”
“They said they didn’t know that they weren’t allowed to,” Lawson said, implying that this might not have been the first time the restaurant has done such a thing. Still, they told Lawson that they weren’t going to serve the roadkill to guests, but rather take it home for personal use, which is legal in some states.
Still, the roadkill made its impression on customers of the Chinese buffet.
“I don’t think I’ll ever eat Chinese food ever again,” said one customer who witnessed the incident.
