It seems that as the years roll by, I’m hearing more and more horrifying stories about people who have had bad restaurant and take-away experiences, and to be honest it’s making me more apprehensive about eating out. I could reel off ten, maybe twenty tales right now – and that’s just experiences my own family have had.
My mum found something hard and crunchy in her Chicken Chow Mein take-away a few years ago which looked remarkably like a jaw bone. It was – and it belonged to a rat. A few years later in a restaurant, she cut her mouth on a shard of glass which was in her fish pie. I’ve dug out bits of plastic and hard, unidentifiable lumps of stuff from microwave food, I’ve found hairs in the middle of my pies and have often wondered what the Indian guys are doing when they’re having a laugh and a joke in their kitchen. We’ve all seen the sketches on the telly where the chefs – slightly annoyed by the English lager loutish banter – have dropped their trousers, reached inside their boxers and have put godknowswhat into someone’s curry. Only the other day, the environmental health were called into a McDonalds drive through because a staff member was seen chasing a rat out of the door with a broom. And Rob, tucking into some spicy beef from the local Chinese last week, found himself chomping on one of those big staples you find in cardboard boxes.
Looking for a chocolate cake recipe today, I came across an article (it’s here if you want the full story) which made my stomach turn. Two shop owners were charged £1,500 for selling a chocolate cake which had been sprinkled with human faeces. No shit! (Sorry ‘bout that!) I’d rather have had the shard of glass and dealt with the stitches, I think.
No, I don’t think, I know!
It’s Rob’s birthday tomorrow -
Happy Birthday Rob! xxx
- and the two of us along with our friends Rhonda and Nathan are going out for a meal.
Yeah. I’m really looking forward to it.
It’s often said that ‘you get what you pay for’ but surely, no matter what the price, we should be able to buy food in the knowledge that it is what it says it is, it has no hidden extras and it hasn’t seen the floor.
Have you ever had any bad experiences? Do tell!
Yikes! You certainly seem to have had some bad luck with food. I can’t remember ever having found anything out of the ordinary in any of my take-out foods. Of course, perhaps I swallowed whatever it was without knowing it.BR/BR/Happy Birthday, Rob! Hope your cake is just cake!
yikes! i don’t think i’ve ever had an experience…yet. *knocks on wood* but then again, who knows? maybe someone spit in my food when i special ordered everything on the menu LOL there are strict standards here, but even that doesn’t guarantee that stuff like that isn’t in there. trying not to think about it here…stomach getting queasy.BR/BR/happy birthday, rob! hope it’s a great one…beware of the cake and whatever other food you’re going to consume LOL
Yippee, I’m glad you found my blog so that I could find yours! I don’t have any food horror stories, not actual substance ones. However I used to be appalled when working as waitress, to notice how many chefs shout and swear over the food they are making. Finally found a beautiful place to work, where they played Mozart in the kitchen and never raised their voices. BR/I really hope that the (fascinating) subject of your what is love post and this one will never ever meet..
Oh don’t, we went for an Indian buffet for lunch yesterday and I’ve been on and off the lav all day today! (Sorry if that’s too much information. I haven’t ever found anything suspicious in my food but who knows I could have swallowed something without knowing!
BR/BR/Happy Birthday RobBR/BR/I hope the birthday meal goes without finding anything untoward!
Yikes – I am still gagging from reading this post. The worst thing I have ever found, I think, is an occasional piece of hair – which makes me totally grossed out. I never dare special order or complain about my food because I am afraid of what they might do to my meal. Rob, I think you should request a homemade meal as your birthday dinner! Enjoy!
Advanced birthday greetings to Rob. Its the one thing I like about going to my sons restaurants, I can walk through the kitchens, up to yet everything has been spotless. It the one thing I hate about going abroad, you just never know do you???? Good luck with your birthday meal, don’t go up-setting the waiters!!!!
Bring back food tasters!!
I’ve found occasional hairs, but once in a major Italian restuarant chain here in the states, I found a wad of chewed gum in my chicken alfredo meal. When I told them this, they comped our entire party’s dinner, and sent me home with another complete meal, since I found it after eating 3/4 of mine. I laugh about it now with a friend who was with me that night, still remembering my “chicken gumbo”.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ROB!BR/xo
we’ve had so many bad experiences that we’ve stopped going out. Mind you, we can’t afford it either. HOpe you have a great evening though and happy birthday Rob!!
EWWW, I think I’m a little queasy nowBR/BR/Have fun at dinner though!!!
I’ve had bad dining experiences and bad food but, nothing like that… ick.BR/BR/I hope you had a wonderful evening!
I once found a wooden stick in my ice-lolly. How gross is that?
Absolute YUK. Those are horrendous tales! I can’t say I have any of my own but I have found hairs in various things, like chinese takeaways. BR/BR/Hope you enjoy your meal tomorrow.BR/BR/And a very happy birthday to Rob!BR/BR/CJ xx
p.s. Happy Birthday Rob!BR/BR/I knew I forgot something…
It would be kind of nice of you to send an email to me and let me know THE TRUTH about what happened to me.BR/BR/I think I deserve that much. I trusted you, and you lied to me.
I have never (knowingly) ate anything unusual from a takeaway. I may have had one or two hairs over the years but I’ve always spotted them before they’ve reached my mouth. You just seem to be really unlucky when it comes to food. At least you are doing the rest of us a favour by taking all the potential problems. Thank you! *snicker*
Great post Laney…BR/BR/May Rob’s cake be free of sprinkled shit!BR/BR/Tell him from me that Virgos Rule. He’ll know what I’m talking about!
Jebus, the link just about turned me stomach and raising 4 lads thats quite a feat…..BR/BR/Sounds like you have had loads of bad luck….. only really got sick once with eating out, with prawns lol…. 3 of us went down with food poisioning…. not just an upset tummy, but the real hog…. BR/BR/So now I NEVER order anything with prawns and we dont even buy frozen prawns, always fresh and cook them ourselves…..BR/BR/gagging at that cake ewwwwwwwwww….BR/BR/x
We were once in a restaurant and a cockroach walked across the wall right next to our table. BR/BR/Once, I was in a restaurant and found a large hair in my burger and one wrapped around the opening to the ketchup bottle. I left without paying and never went there again. BR/BR/Once, I bought a bottle of 7-up and there was a piece of a mouse floating in it. BR/BR/I have bitten into a raisin bun and chewed down onto a piece of wire. BR/BR/I think sometimes, at the Chinese, they put pre-masticated meat in their food, so I don’t eat there anymore. For all I know, they put the left overs back in the pot.BR/BR/I don’t go out for dinner anymore, because of my gastric band, but I wonder if that is such a bad thing.
Well.. aside from Flowerpot, it seems I must be unlucky. Either that, or the Westcountry has something to answer to. BR/BR/FP – Perhaps we’re living in the wrong place? (Having said that….a STICK in an ice lolly? That’s cringeworthy!