I worked in a resturant where the cook would dip his finger into gravy, soup or whatever , put the finger in his mouth, suck the food off and then repeat the process.
I complained to the manager who told me it was an acceptable practice. I quit right then. YUUUUUUUCK !
Okay, I’d probably be grossed out by the carrot stick. A cracker, or baguette, or crouton, whatever, is going to absorb more than it will leave behind. I’m thinking DD’ing crackers is okay, veggies no.
But hey – tacky behavior isn’t limited to food.
The guy who catered a friend’s wedding reception is being pretty tacky, I think. He was a family friend, with a catering business “on the side.” (That should have been a warning.)
His van broke down on the way to the party, loaded with food, and not all of it packed for a long stay. (The trip was about 60 miles.) His wife was following in another car, also carrying food and stuff.
Rather than call for a tow truck, or call anyone and get some transportation, or even use the wife’s car and get the perishables to the party, he insisted on fixing the freakin’ van. Had his wife driving all over the county looking for parts!
Dinner was about 5 hours late. Much of the food had spoiled. (It was in the 90’s that day.) A beautiful bride’s table had been prepared, ready for toasting, all that good stuff, and it couldn’t be used. We’re talking $4,000 to $5,000 worth of food.
Many people left before the food was prepared.
The tacky part is the caterer did not apologize, or even act like anyone was inconvenienced. Even tackier is that he called the bride today and said his bill was ready and he’d be bringing it over. I’d be siccin’ the dog on him, and then the lawyers.
Know a place thats serves the Kobe beef that refuses to serve it more than medium rare. If you want the steak cooked more, they say buy a cheaper cut.
At my father’s wake, a “friend” approached my newly widowed mom and said “I know how you feel: I’m divorced.”
That guy was a smoothie…no wonder he is divorced.
I have to admit I am guilty of this one.
The first trip we ever took with our baby, I just assumed that fastfood restaurants which are situated along major interstate exits would have pulldown changing tables in their restrooms. WRONG! Our car was packed to the gills, there was nowhere to do it in the car… so we put little nipper down on the seat and did a really fast change. We put down a changing pad and wiped the seat well afterwards (with a CLEAN wipe!) but we were a little ashamed of ourselves. I just didn’t know what else to do. Since then, we’ve tended to use the grass, or our laps in the car.
Frickin’ restaurants.
That would be me, techie. If you’re ever in Boulder, avoid the two tops at the Siamese Plate On-The-Go restaurant. We haven’t been back there since.
My very first job was as a hostess at a family restaurant. Besides seating people, my duties included taking care of all carry out orders. My first day, my first carry out was for something that came with a side order of coleslaw. While I was looking for the tongs that should have been in the coleslaw, a waitress came it & asked what I was doing. I explained what I was looking for. She then stuck her hand (that she had been using to serve, clean tables & count money with) into the coleslaw & filled a container with it. She couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t give it to the customer. I then walked into the managers office, dropped off my name tag, told him to keep what ever I had already earned as well as my share of the tips & quit.
Two months later they were closed by the health department. (I wonder how that happened? ;))
When I used to be a waitress, I was clearing one of my tables and noticed someone had left their **USED HYPODERMIC NEEDLE ** on the plate. Whether you’re diabetic or a junkie, I don’t care- I can’t believe it seemed ok to someone to leave that anywhere, much less on a dinner plate.
When I was a teenager, my family went out to pizza with my first cousin (father’s niece), who is about fifteen years older than me, and her kids. Her oldest kid was about nine – ie, old enough to know better. We get a large pizza for “the kids,” which included my brother and sister and I (all teens), and the first piece is served to the nine year old. He sniffs and then licks his piece; announces “I don’t like the toppings,” scoops them off with his hand (including the red sauce) and throws them back in the middle of the pizza!
My father saw what happened and, to his credit, immediately ordered a new pizza for my brother and sister and me. When it arrived, the little shit announces he really wants a piece of that pizza (even though it’s the same kind as the other one and he doesn’t like the toppings anyway). He’s told “No; you and your brothers have a pizza all to yourselves,” and proceeds to throw a full-scale tantrum, kicking and screaming and rolling around on the floor. Throughout all this, my cousin (his mother) is wringing her hands and ineffectually murmuring “oh, dear, he’s just so used to having his own way . . .” and doing nothing to discipline the monster. As we walked out my father vowed he would never go out to eat with them again, and we never did.
My cousin was a great believer in giving children “freedom” to “be themselves” and “experience their emotions naturally” and in “not inhibiting children by saying ‘no’.” God, her kids were awful. They’re not great adults, either, but that’s another story.
My ex-in-laws were holding a big dinner, family and friends all invited. We had all just sat down, ready to eat, when my ex-mother-in-law whips out her diabetic kit, checks her blood sugar, then pulls out a hypodermic needle and injects herself. You know, I would have been ok if she had only done it around family members, but in front of company, too? I understand that she needed to take care of herself… but she could have excused herself to the bathroom, too.
IMO, double dipping is perfectly okay as long as it is limited to people you are on a spit-swapping basis with. Not just kissing, but the folks that you’d share your drink with or bite off the part of the sandwich that has already been bitten off. It is never, ever okay to lick your chip and then go back for more. Besides being nasty, it is greedy as well.
I saw a lot of just plain nasty stuff when I was working as a waitress. You’d be suprized how many servers have no problem with eating stranger’s leftovers. I’m not talking about fries or chips, but things like half-eaten slices of pizza and lasanga! And yeah, a lot of things got scooped up with hands, salad, breadsticks, ect. More than once I saw people cough into their hands and not stop to wash and continue handling food. Yuck.
[hijack]Speaking of, why do we teach people to cough into their hands. I try and always cough into my shoulder, that way I’m not spreading germs around. Seems a lot more sensible to me, esp. since you can’t always get to a bathroom to wash up.[/hijack]
The grossest thing I ever saw was this guy who came in to eat who had obviously just had his nose badly broken or operated on. He had the nose brace on, but it was still badly bruised and swollen and dripping pus and blood! OMG! I nearly threw up on the table when I saw!
My first job was in a small pizza parlor, and I never saw anything too gross or tacky, but people would leave whole pizza’s, untouched. And they weren’t cheap pizzas either, this wasn’t Pizza Hut or anything. My boss (The owner) was as greedy as they came, and would charge like 12.00 for a small cheese pizza. I would just be shocked that whole pizzas would come back untouched. I would understand if people complained, but they didn’t. They paid their bills, even tipped well. Well, I wasn’t going to let those pizza’s go to waste, and I usually took them home with me that night. It occurred to me briefly that maybe they did something weird to the pizza, like spit on it, or something, but I never got sick, so I guess the pizza wasn’t bad.
Al Zheimers, if ever you’re at my house for a BBQ, don’t use the ketchup! I do that too. :o But only at home, not in restaurants.
Tacky: Last night at the dance studio at which my fiancee and I are taking lessons, one of the ladies came up to me and said “I’d like to go to your wedding!” (which is in two weeks.) I was nonplussed so I mumbled “we’ll have to see” (she wasn’t invited and our wedding isn’t a free-for-all) and then dispatched the little lady to deal with her.
hijack]Speaking of, why do we teach people to cough into their hands. I try and always cough into my shoulder, that way I’m not spreading germs around. Seems a lot more sensible to me, esp. since you can’t always get to a bathroom to wash up.[/hijack]
I still cough and sneeze into my elbow. I taught myself to do so when I worked in a commercial kitchen. That was 13 years ago, but the habit stuck. I also sniff the milk before pouring it, every time.
My favorite rude behavior story happened when I was working a large and very crowded catered event. We were having trouble getting the passed appetizers to the back of the room, so I filled up my tray, lifted it high over my head and waded into the crowd. A well-dressed woman (who had payed a goodly sum to attend this party) reached up, grabbed my sleeve, and tried to pull my arm down! High society, my ass.
Yup. Back when I lived in Japan, I was out for dinner with my parents at a Chinese restaurant.
There was an old man sitting at a nearby table. After he was done with his dinner, he took his upper plate out from his mouth. The old guy dunked his dentures in a glass of orange soda, and swished it around to clean the food particles. When he was done, he put his dentures back in his mouth.
Phouka – can I DARE ask what the cook used to stir his sauces with?
– The Newly Wed Blushing MrsBaglady, who just finished reading ChrisP One Kenobe’s thread about names for a male member.
Hijack.
In Nashville, local waiters have a cunning little way of dealing with assholes/customers.
They add a dozen or so drops of Viscene (sp?)eye drops into the customer’s food or drink.
Does no lasting harm—but creates one hell of a case of the trots!
No, I don’t have first-hand knowledge. The local alt. paper ran an article on it.
I was at a Roy Rogers in New Mexico, sitting next to three elderly people, who proceeded to put drops in each others eyes at the table. Old people kill me. There was also an elderly man who walked into the ladies’ room at a department store because he thought his wife had been in there long enough. And an elderly man who walked past my table at Sizzler and pretended he was going to snag a fry off my plate.
I was at the Golden Corral buffet restaurant a few months back when this tender moment happened. I took my son to the restroom so we could both wash our hands before we ate. An old man was in one of the stalls using the toilet rather forcefully and with much volume. Like we say in the old country, “Sounding like a herd of butterflies coming out his ass”. Stifling my laughter at the same time taking a deep breath of the last unpolluted air, I attempted to finish our task.
This elderly man then comes waltzing out of the stall and proceeds to head out the door. I immediately became unglued and asked him if he was going to wash his hands! He was pretending not to hear me and placed one unwashed hand on the door handle. I told him that if he was heading out the door without washing his hands, I would publicly embarass him in front of everybody in the restaurant and tell the manager. The thought of those hands going into the salad bar was damn near close enough to toss my cookies considering that I was fortunate enough to hear his bowel movement in Sensurround and Smell-O-Vision.
He grumbled and walked over to the sink area where I helpfully left the HOT water running. Yikes, what the hell goes through some people’s minds?