Allston fried-chicken place cleans up act, re-opens after being shut for several health violations

Of all food safety rules, proper hand washing should be foremost. When a restaurant fails to provide basic soap and hot water for employees preparing food, how can it be trusted to keep anything in the kitchen safe?

Massachusetts leaves it all up to the cities and towns, with varied results. In fact, Boston's public health department got in some hot water some years ago when they were trying to keep inspection reports secret.

California eateries are inspected regularly, and given a report card that they are required to post in the window of their establishment. The bar for passing the exam is very high, and they have to fix anything they fail very quickly, too.

New York City just instituted a letter grade system for sanitary inspections as well.

I think kimchi might be one of those foods which if prepared traditionally violates several food-safety rules. Still, I'm willing to take the risk: I love the stuff.

Sure, and fermentation in your fridge leftovers can give you food poisoning or botulism. Most people throw out food that's undergone fermentation in their fridge. Also, there's very limited fermentation going on in your fridge because the temperature is lower than most dangerous bacteria prefer for good growth conditions. That's the opposite of kimchi which is fermented (and warmed by the fermentation) at room temperature.

What kimchi has going for it is a very acidic pH level. This can also be a control against bacteria. However, it means you have to check the pH to make sure you didn't screw up something and now you're just fermenting Clostridium botulinum (agent for botulism) along with whichever benign bacteria you thought was making you tasty fermented cabbage instead.

Having a plan in place that says "I don't have to follow the refrigeration/cooking rules because my pH is sufficiently low" is a very reasonable safety procedure to ask them to follow in my book. I'd actually rather have them handle U-235 than cook kimchi without a safety plan in place. The alpha radiation emitted by U-235 can't penetrate your skin, so they'd have to be shredding it into the sauces as a secret ingredient to present much of a danger to you by ingestion.

In comparison, all they have to do is get the pH wrong (an unseen error if you're not testing for it) and the whole process of the fermentation would be working against you. And just "adding enough vinegar/acid" isn't always going to be certain your pH is where you think it is. Depending on what else is in the solution/recipe, you could easily create a buffer situation where pH does not act linearly with volume of acid.

But I don't know the scruples or "secret family recipe" of every humble Allston Asian joint that's peddling street cuisine. That's why it's nice to know there's a common outline that they all have to follow in order to safely serve me food. I'm never expecting ANY restaurant to give me an illness...however, whether it's a fine-dining spot or not, there needs to be an accountability when they do (or have conditions which easily lead to it).

It is what it is: fried chicken.

I haven't been in that KFC near Twin Donuts for over a decade because it is a disgusting grease trap dressed up like a drive-thru. Wings over Brookline used to satisfy my hot-oil dipped breaded chicken cravings but the quality of service there has steadily gone way down hill. I could cook my own but I'm probably healthier by relying on going to others.

I got a taste of Bon Chon a few years ago at a Taste of Allston festival and it was really good (first time I learned about the awesome Garlic'n'Lemons take-out joint too). It's just fried chicken...but it's probably the best to-go fried chicken in the area...and you want to give me other awesome Korean foods at the same time? Bonus.