I t's late morning and Diane Olson is standing outside a Chinese restaurant on St. Paul's Grand Avenue. She's thinking about lunch. The St. Paul restaurant inspector raps her fist on the glass door of Grand Shanghai to grab the attention of a worker. The restaurant doesn't open for another half-hour, and he's vacuuming. But she needs no appointment.
Surprise is key to seeing how a kitchen really operates.
Heck, we don't want them to know anything,'' she says. When the door opens, Olson flashes her identification. Owner Tak Yeung will be back in about 10 minutes, so she takes a seat and waits. When Yeung arrives, he asks Olson to come back after lunch. He needs to get ready for the noon rush, he says.