bad news for chinese restaurants

Over the weekend, New York City Councilman John Liu led a protest against TV station CW11 over two newscasts that reported a woman found a mouse in her Chinese food takeout: 'Mouse' report makes pol roar. CW11 aired two segments about the New Food King restaurant in Brooklyn: one showing a weird piece of meat that a customer said she found in an order of chicken and broccoli, and a followup with a food inspector pronouncing it was a rodent. Here's the first segment: Mouse in Chinese Food?. And the second: Chinese Food Mouse pt2.

Let the jokes begin. Unfortunately, this isn't just bad news for New Food King, this harms Chinese food restaurants everwhere. The "oddly shaped piece of meat" may or may not be an actual mouse... the fallout, of course, is the enduring stereotype that Chinese/Asian restaurants throw anything and everything into their food—cats, dogs, mice, whatever. Said Councilman Liu, the coverage "perpetuates [a] ridiculous stereotype that does exist out there - that somehow mouse meat [is] fair game in a Chinese restaurant." The damage has been done.