A Few Restaurant Horror Stories

There are several reasons to not eat restaurant food.  We can talk about the high calorie content, sodium, trans fats.  Or, we can discuss food safety.  There has been quite a bit in the news lately about food safety, with the recent U.S. peanut butter salmonella scare, melamine found in baby formula, and so forth.

A friend of mine turned up sick after eating at a local restaurant.  He believes he got a case of food poisoning from a dish that contained mayonnaise.  He was so violently ill that his vision blacked out for a period of time.  (A nurse later told him that that can be caused an increase in blood pressure behind the eyeball.)

I felt for him – my personal experience with the poor safety of restaurant food came after eating at a Chinese buffet a few years ago.  I thought I was going to die. You hear stories about people regurgitating the soles of their shoes.  I gave it a honest shot that night.  I swore off Chinese food for 3 years after that experience.  So, I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw these two articles about the safety of restaurant food.

Little Restaurant Of Horrors

This ad was clipped out of an area newspaper, and the restaurant is a well-respected place.  I can’t help but wonder why in the world someone would be compelled to advertise based on cleanliness.  If I’m going to pay someone to prepare my food, I take it for granted that the place will be clean and sanitary.  Apparently that’s an egregious error on my part.

And while we’re at it, see the end of the ad.  “…Our mission is to provide you with the very best bar-b-que possible…”  Again, I work under the assumption that I would get their best effort!  If you have to shout these things from the rooftops, what does that say about your establishment?

Then we have the story about the diners who recently died in Japan after eating improperly prepared blowfish testicles.  No – that’s not a typo.  Apparently, in some parts of the world, toxic seafood is considered an exquisite delicacy.  This despite the fact that they are generally considered the second most poisonous vertebrate in the world, with their toxin being about 100 times more deadly than potassium cyanide.

Why in the world would someone want to eat this fish???  I believe it must be considered a delicacy because of the risk.  And risky it was.  It seems that chefs in Japan must be licensed to prepare this delicacy, due to the risk.  In the case of these unfortunate deaths, the chef was not licensed.

We don’t eat out often these days.  Financially, eating out is a losing proposition.  Food portions at restaurants are distorted to justify charging higher prices, and there’s the very real risk of food poisoning.  And quite frankly, I prefer the taste of my own cooking over that of most restaurants.

What was your bad experience with restaurant-prepared food?  Seems like everyone I know has some horror story.  What’s yours?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!