food stories....

[TooPatient]

What have you seen done to food (intentionally or accidentally) that people are going to eat? In your home, at a friend's house, restaurant, picnic, catered event, whatever....

 

[TooPatient]

We were at a catered evening movie event at FI's work. They had a buffet line set up and people could eat as they wanted. A teenage girl (probably 15-1 dropped the serving tongs for one of the dishes on the floor when she was the only person in line then took a quick look around, picked them up, and set them back in the dish of food.

Luckily her father saw this happen and walked across the room to pull them out of the food and found one of the waiters to give them to. (food was left out for people to keep eating...)

 

[Autumnovember]

When my best friend and I were younger, her family was having a get together. One of the guests was a lady we both really despised at the time so while everyone was taking a smoking break, we decided to put some new food on her plate. We grabbed a little bit of food from each dish...chewed it a little bit and then spit it back on her plate. When she came back, she had no idea what we had done because the food didn't LOOK chewed and she ended up eating it.


We were bad.

 

[TooPatient]

By far my WORST food story comes from when I worked in a deli. (during my last few days there) ---

I got in to work in the morning around 6:30 (an hour or so before people started coming in for breakfast) to find the owner mopping up the floors and this colored liquid dripping off of everything. There had been a leak in some pipe in the office building and it got this stuff all over the counters, refrigerators, sinks, cutting boards, food bins, etc (Everything!). They had NO clue what it was but it smelled like some sort of chemical thing (anti-freeze?, coolant?, ??????) and the maintenance were trying to track down what it was and where it was leaking.
We all had to scrub stuff to get the place cleaned up and ready to serve breakfast & lunch that day...
Well.... there was too much to scrub and really clean so we were instructed to just wipe it off and move on

A couple of hours later (and still mopping up) we had to get set up for lunch -- the stuff had managed to get inside of the refrigerators under the sandwich prep area (open top to keep food in bins cold) and all of the food had this liquid on it. The owner pulled the plastic wrap off of stuff and stuck it out anyway -- some of it still had the bluish/greenish/brownish stuff ON the food.

I told the owner I was concerned about stuff and he said to serve it anyway....
Lucky for me I had to leave before lunch (new job!) so I didn't have to serve people food contaminated with who knows what.



Oh....
After I left I called the non-emergency police line and reported this to them so they could get the health department out ASAP to keep people from getting sick. I'm a little vague on the details after that since I wasn't around for the rest of the day but based on what I heard from my angry former co-workers (people showed up and it slowed lunch down ) the police or fire department showed up first to do a quick inspection of what was going on and the health department came later in the day...



Scary bit --- The owner still runs that place (and does catering for some of the big buildings (and big name companies) in the area).


ETA: There was a LOT more that happened before this that left me concerned for people's health (I did report to the health department inspector when he was there a couple of times but he never wrote anything up ) ---- this was just WAY too far for me to not actively report. (they never did say what the chemical was)

 

[dragonfly411]

I haven't done anything purposely. I did once cut my finger while preparing frozen sausage to warm up, and I had to wrap my finger and keep working. I felt horrible, but the customer was completely ok and actually offered to help me get stuff out for other people. I was the only one working at the time (very small family owned coffee shop). I called the owners and they came and took over so I could go to the doctors.

 

[packrat]

JD used to be a salter. Everything was salted while he cooked and he never tasted, just dumped. One time when he and my brother were working construction and laid off for the winter, he made chili and the guys all came over for supper. They sat down to eat, everyone took a bite and they did this and started chugging water and all the while JD's busy eating. Then our friend Todd said "JD will you pass me the salt?" and JD got all pissy hahahaha. I started watching his salt usage like a hawk when we got together and after several meals so salty I couldn't finish one bite he got the hint. We always used to tell him we were going to get him a salt lick he could hang around his neck. Salt on a rope.

When my cousin turned 21 JD had a party for him out at his old bachelor farm house. We took a glass of whatever alcohol my cousin was drinking and went into the bathroom w/a camera..JD put..himself shall I say, in the cup of alcohol and we took a picture, and then brought it out to my cousin and took a picture of him drinking it.

 

[Dancing Fire]

i used to work at a cannery. i don't think you guys wanna know what goes into the big S/S tank of ketchup...

 

[Nashville]

The worst thing is when people double dip in chip bowls at parties!!

 

[Dancing Fire]

words of advise for Americans...don't go into the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant....

 

[packrat]

DF please do not tell me that. We have a fantastic place here in town and I can't bear the thought!

 

[Dancing Fire]

DF please do not tell me that. We have a fantastic place here in town and I can't bear the thought!

don't worry...the filthiest kitchen serve the best tasting foods...

 

[packrat]

Oh well heck this must be a cesspool.

Crap now I'm hungry for it.

 

[radiantquest]

When I was 15 I was working in this dive that sold pizza and subs and whatnot. Whenever my boss would piss me off and then have the nerve to ask me to make him something to eat I would do raspberries all over it. ( you know where you stick out your toungue and push air through and it makes spittle go everywhere)It was a terrible thing to do and I never did that on customers food, just his.

 

[soocool]

I constantly wash my hands before I even touch, cook or serve food. So yes, I am a fanatic when it comes to keeping food safe and uncontaminated. I have raised heck at stores where flies are buzzing around in the donut or bread bins or any food that is uncovered in a refrigerated case. What do those people think. Get the flies out of there.

I don't eat at salad bars, won't eat at anyone's house where the house including the kitchen is filthy. I think this all stems when I was in my 20s and went to a friend's house for dinner and there were bugs in the refrigerator because there was food spilled and no one cleaned it up. Totally grossed me out and they all ate like it was nothing.

 

[TooPatient]

I used to watch our neighbor's two kids and they always made sure to tell me I could eat whatever I wanted and have dinner with the kids when I fed them....
I saw the "clean" dishes I took out of the cupboard and was there a couple of times to see the "clean" dishes removed from the dishwasher.

Never did eat there.