Sunday, April 04, 2004

Is it safe to eat in Chinese restaurants?

Never mind food poisoning, SARS or even just the slow accumulation of fatty deposits in your steadily hardening arteries - watch out for those Dim Sum trollies!

In recent news from Indonesia's southernmost province, authorities in Sydney now plan to subject the waiting staff in Chinese restaurants to the same regulation as drivers, namely compulsory training, testing and L-plates.

No doubt something needs to be done to stop the carnage in our hostelries, with people crushed to death every day by stray slices of seasame toast, instead of dealing with rampant forest fires, prowling serial killers, the odd suicide bomber and the world's deadliest spiders.

Extreme bureaucratic pettiness can be found anywhere, but the cow-town attitude of the natives towards people "straight off the boat" seems typically Australian.

Peter 笔德