Inedible Objects in Food Stories

So yesterday in the middle of enjoying a delicious pizza from a popular local pizza place (I won't say the name since accidents happen, and I don't think they deserve a reputation hit), I bit down hard on what I thought was a bone...then knowing I was eating a vegetable pizza, I came to discover that this was in my mouth:



Naturally I freaked out a bit, and I told my manager at work who ordered the pizza. The manager of the pizza place was absolutely mortified, and they tracked down the source of the screw as coming from a slider they use to place the pizza in the oven.


So with this story in mind, I was wondering if anyone else had any stories similar to this as to finding unwelcome objects in their food at restaurants (or at home, even). Knowing of course that there are a lot of local restaurant owners here, you certainly don't have to implicate anywhere you work... that's not really the idea of this thread... or implicate anyone else's restaurant (unless, of course, they were well known for having massive problems such as health code violations).

Mine was a salad at an upscale local restaurant. I was having lunch with my mother, mostly talking and not paying attention to my food. Toward the bottom of my delicious salad made with local farm-fresh greens, I did happen to look down as I speared the last layer of greens on my plate. Underneath was a large ( 1/2 inch) beetle scurrying around. Luckily, I'm not at all bug- phobic, but it still made my stomach lurch a bit. My Mom however would have sworn off salads for life , so I swiftly killed it and buried it under the remains of my salad..... She never knew.

Deb

[Robin Garr]

Underneath was a large ( 1/2 inch) beetle scurrying around.

Mary found a small live snail in her salad at Christian Constant in Paris. She put it on a napkin, took it out, and gave it its freedom in a small grassy spot out front. Madame looked at me with question marks in the thought balloon over her head. "Escargot," I said, and her eyes got big ...

I dropped a white plastic ring from the lid of a Rice Wine Vinegar jug in a batch of White Chili one time. Search as I may, I could not locate the obviously round plastic ring in the 40 gallon kettle of chili. One of my stores found it later (before it made it to the customer) when they were preparing the batch for service.

Close call.

Because we use fresh chicken thighs and legs in our chicken dishes, we occasionally get pretty sizable bones, but we can usually fish them out as we cook. I got a whole chicken neck once! How does that make it into a case of thigh meat?

As a diner I've not found anything more exciting than a small pebble in any dish that was served me.

I was on a cruise last year and found a red plastic something (looked like a vinegar top) in my food. I hated to tell them, but like the screw incident, you want to be sure something isn't back there broken or loose. Anyway, I got a plate of chocolate strawberries and a bottle of wine the next day. NOT what I wanted, but okay....

Found a wing nut in some mashed potatoes once. Took it to the manager and he said "thanks". Nothing else.

My mom found a bolt in the bottom of her hamburger bun at Lum's, thankfully before she bit into it!

Several years ago, I found a piece of hard plastic the size of a fat toothpick in my moo goo gai pan at a local Chinese restaurant. I was offered a replacement meal (even though I found it the next day in my leftovers!) I didn't have time for it, and it was a holiday weekend, and imho the food wasn't up to it's usual quality.

Just this month, there was a plastic bag (about the size of a plastic utensils wrapper) in my iced tea from the Burger King drive-thru (St. Matthew's). I had trouble withe the straw, and I thought it got caught between some ice, but when I was about done, I opened the lid again (first time it was dark and I couldn't see the bag) and found the culprit! I called, and they didn't offer me anything- just a "That's not supposed to be in there! I'll tell the workers." I mentioned where because it's rather slow and always gets my order wrong. I try not to have to eat there often.

And, my mom was making bread pudding for a family gathering, and my dad was asked to assemble it in the pan for her. He had a band-aid on (thankfully to cover a blister and not a cut), and he noted it was missing afterward. Later, my cousin took a big bite of dessert, and she found it...

Years ago I was eating a bowl of Campbell's Hearty Vegetable and bite down on something very crunchy. Turned out to be a whole large grasshopper that had been canned with the soup. Wanna ask me if I but canned soup any longer?

Years ago I was eating a bowl of Campbell's Hearty Vegetable and bite down on something very crunchy. Turned out to be a whole large grasshopper that had been canned with the soup. Wanna ask me if I but canned soup any longer?

Gary,
Maybe it was purposeful- meant for the Chinese market.....
Deb

Well you did say it was "hearty" vegetable.

There was a shard of sharp plastic in the BBQ sauce on my BBQ chicken pizza once. Apparently the bottle of BBQ sauce had broken, and they thought they'd gotten all the bits of it, but clearly not. Management was mortified, sent out a whole new pizza, and gave us a free pizza for our next visit (which we tried to refuse.) I didn't tell them about it to score a freebie - I was concerned that another shard might turn up in someone else's pizza. And so were they.

A catering utensil at the bottom of soup bowl at one of our best white tablecloth restaurants in Louisville.

I had a stir-fry dish at a local restaurant a few years ago that had bean sprouts in it... can anyone guess where this is going? There I sat across from my friend with a forkful of food while finishing a story, and thank god I looked down at it before cramming it into my mouth. It did take me a couple of seconds to realize that what I thought was a bean sprout between the tines of my fork was in fact... a grub worm. Yes, they gave me the worm for free, and I proudly accepted.

It did take me a couple of seconds to realize that what I thought was a bean sprout between the tines of my fork was in fact... a grub worm. Yes, they gave me the worm for free, and I proudly accepted.

Sounding awful squeamish for a gal who eats snails.

I found a cockroach in the bottom of my water glass one time.

Technically, it's edible, I reckon.