I just had supper at a diner. It’s your typical 24/7 diner with decent food.
I ate my meal, paid my bill, then sucked down the rest of my ice water through my straw. As I did, I felt a few chunks hit the back of my tongue and slide down my throat.
I don’t know what those chunks were.
I keep getting that sensation of those chunks hitting my tongue and going down my throat.
Oh God, I can still feel it.
BTW, this place takes buckets of ice from the machine in the back and dumps it in the ice cooler near the counter. Perhaps some film of mold found its way into my glass.
Several years ago my best friend visited one of the fast-food restaurants owned by the company I worked for. (I worked at the corporate office.) Sandwich, fries, drink, all good… Until she got close to the bottom of the soda cup.
There was a 2 inch whitish chunk of *something *in the bottom of the cup. Best guess is that maybe the soda lines hadn’t been flushed in a while, and this was the result. Worst case scenario, the object was intentionally put there by a store employee (why???).
Never did figure out what it was. She’s never been able to stomach going back to that particular location since. Come to think of it, neither have I…
Day tripping along the Thai countryside.
We stopped at rickety Mom & Pop store by the side of the road to get something to drink; I bought a can of Sprite, they gave me a straw and I walked back to the car.
I opened the can, inserted the straw and who knows why I looked directly down into it just before drinking, the dead eyes of a a small cockroach stared back at me.
Then again, I’ve found half a cockroach in my food… twice. But at least they were cooked. :eek:
If the OP had a lemon wedge in the water the mystery chunks could also be bits of seed. I’ve certainly swallowed a few that way and they always feel creepy going down until I figure out what they are/were.
I worked at a very popular local barbecue place as a teen. The kitchen was as gross as gross could be, but the customers never saw that.
As one example of the filth, I made the mistake of cleaning the tea urn. There was an inch or so of slime at the bottom. It had been that long since that urn had actually been emptied. (I also got in trouble for disposing of the tea left before the cleaning.)
I still don’t order ice tea when eating out and avoid homey bbq joints unless the kitchen is visible. That early work experience left quite an impression.
Once in Japan, someone in the group I was with was brave enough to try some odd-looking soda. It turned out to have chunks of what can only be described as grass-flavored Jello in it. You could see them traveling up the straw into his mouth.
I had the absolute worst night sleep last night. All I did was toss and turn with my mind churning out one bizarre dream after another, and none of the dreams had anything at all to do with the swallowed chunks.
It reminded me of the line from a Christmas Carol where Scrooge blames the visitors on bad dreams caused by bad food.
