Snakehead Found In T.G.I.F. Sandwich
UPDATE: Snake Head On T.G.I. Friday's Plate Wasn't Cooked With Broccoli
Snakes on a sandwich! Jack Pendleton was dining at a T.G.I.F. in Clifton Park, New York, and somehow a rotting snakehead, pictured, above, gross, found its way into his side order of broccoli. He writes:
I was at Friday's for dinner last night and as I am wont to do I ordered a side of vegetables instead of the fries that came with my Jack Daniels Chicken Sandwich.
I picked at the broccoli and string beans a little but focused on the sandwich first. After the sandwich was done, I dug into the veggies in earnest.
I wasn't too alarmed when I came across a gray mass under the broccoli. Many restaurants include mushrooms in their veggie selection. It was when I noticed the green spots, and then the mouth that I became alarmed.
It was a decomposed reptile head.
Roughly the size of my thumb from center knuckle to nail. The eye sockets were rotted and black, bits of spine and tendons were hanging out of the neck, and the skull plate was showing through the missing skin on the forehead.
I took a couple of pics with my cell camera, but they don't do it justice. Here are the pics.
When I told the waiter he thought I was joking until I pulled my hand from over the top of the thing. At which point he started to gag. And of course the manager was apologetic and paid for our entire meal.
I worked in a restaurant, but the most I ever had to see behind the scenes was hair or maybe an insect in the salad bar stuff. This was a whole other level.
Guess those suckers like hanging out in broccoli and got caught up in the harvest. Poor guy, what a way to go. Personally, I'd prefer to be eating dessert.
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Comments:
Was the picture necessary?
Incentive to NEVER eat at Fridays again....as if I really needed that additional incentive.
You can't really blame the restaurant. They seems appalled and handled it well. It likely got caught up in the food manufacturing process and the restaurant cooks up so much quantity at once, they didn't see it go in the pot.
I wonder why this isn't getting any press coverage. I live in the Albany area and I've seen nothing. Was this at the Albany or Clifton Park TGI Fridays?
I probably would have puked everywhere. I was on a Carnival cruise about 2 weeks ago and a large cricket/some other type of bug showed up in my salad. I'm a huge wimp when it comes to bugs, and was pretty disgusted by it. I talked to some manager and he just apologized and started walking away.
I said "maybe I could get an on-board credit or something?" He responds with "We don't really do credits, isn't an apology enough?" I looked at him with a blank look and he says "I'll have the chef make you some chocolate covered strawberries and put them in your stateroom."
Yeah, 3 things wrong with that:
1) I'm partially allergic to fruit.
2) Um, I can walk up to the dessert counter and get them myself?
3) Like I want more of your food to make up for the nasty crap that just happened to me.
I've had it with these monkeyfightin' snake heads in this Monday to Friday sandwich!
Where was the rest of the snake body..... eeek.
The mouse baked into the loaf of bread was tolerable. This is just... oh my god.
Why are these kind of pictures always so blurry? I'm not saying I don't believe that's a snake head, but it would be easier to believe with a clear picture.
Seriously.... 2girls1cup didn't make me puke. This did.
Fridays, KFC, MacDonalds.... Is there any place that I'm going to want to eat?
Don't say my kitchen. You don't wanna know what goes on in there...
Vegetarian snakes are rare, so it's a shame it didn't survive.
Clifton Park.
HFC: The picture's probably not clear becuase it was taken with a cell phone camera. I don't really carry around a high-quality camera just in case something gross pops up in my food and I need to take a picture.
@Anathema777: Most cell phone cameras use a fixed focal length lens. Back off a bit and the image will be clearer. It's not rocket science and you don't have to carry a "high-quality" camera with you. Just learn to use what you have.
Probably because the cell phone camera doesn't have a good macro capability. The OP said the snake head was only about the size of part of a finger, and with those tiny little cameras and crappy lenses, there's only so much they can do with something that small.
HFC: I'm not sure I'd want a better picture.
Lawsuit!
I regret reading this story. Is there a way to unsee this?!
Who goes to Fridays?
I ate at an airport TGI Fridays and all the food was premade and had to be heated. Does anyone know if this is the case in all of their restaurants?
Snakes on a plate.
gonna be chicken-in-a-can for lunch again today. thanks consumerist.
Any time you eat broccoli, you are taking your chances. It's a crap-shoot and you should know that going in. I have a friend whos friend's sister-in-law found a lawn mower grass catcher bag in an order of broccoli. I think it was a Toro.
@rainbowsandkittens: Really? The mouse was better than this? Both are pretty horrible to find in your food.
@KStrike155: I would have pushed for free booze, considering everything else is already paid for on a cruise ;)
@HFC: IMO it's because a lot of camera phones don't have built in flash. It's the same thing with normal cameras if you try to take pictures in low light conditions and turn off your flash. Because lighting is so crappy, the camera shutter stays open longer to try and compensate. But because of the increased exposure length, you get a blurry picture because of the minor camera shake that happens when you're holding the camera.
@HiPwr: I'm guessing that only happens with bag broccoli because I always buy fresh and I don't know how it could happen...I can't find mysterious grass catchers in my broccoli crowns. Maybe in the big crate they're displayed in, though.
I was in the middle of eating my cereal one day when I discovered that it was full of moth larva. The thing that makes this even worse is that they were halfway through eating the thing before they found the snake head.
Most likely no one is at fault here for something like this (snake got caught during harvesting, pieces were so small that nobody noticed them among the broccoli, etc), but hopefully after this incident everybody will be a little more mindful of what's going into the food that they're preparing.
@dingdang: If they wouldn't have posted the picture, but made mention of it, people would've complained about that too.
@squinko: Yes - you beat me to the reply. Took me a good five minutes just to get the reply feature to work. Anyway...
I don't think this person called the press. They took a picture and sent it to Consumerist instead. Of course, now you'll see it on the 5:00 news.
The picture looks like it was taken with one of those toy Hannah Montana cameras.
If it is true, T.G.I.F**king time to start eating at home more.
I'm sick and tired of these monkey-fightin' snakes on a sandwich!
i haven't even had my coffee yet.
i hate you.
The description of the reptilian was sorta eewwy, but is this anything to get worked up about? People have eaten a lot worse and they don't even know it. You people are so spoiled to be even disgusted by this. Shit people in the Far East eat snake hearts while they are still beating!
First of all I was an assistant manager in Philadelphia Pa. It was a very busy store. I was surprised at the things that would find its way into food. A customer complained of ants in the ice cubes, I thought it was a cheap jackass trying to get a free meal. None the less, I walked over to the ice machine and saw ants walking into it. At another point a customer complained of glass in the salad. Now the salads are pre-packaged, but sure enough, there was glass in it. At another point we had a terrible outbreak of cock-roaches. There was a dumbwaiter between the floor, and no where in the cleaning rounds was the job to clean out the bottom pit. I could go on, but why bother.
@William Platnick: Because it has nothing to do with Fridays. This is the type of thing that gets in there when the plants are harvested. It's rare for it to make it all the way to the plate, but it happens. Hopefully Fridays contacts the manufacturer so they can track down the batch and equipment and make sure something isn't wrong with whatever is supposed to screen for foreign matter.
@KStrike155: Not too many crickets on boats. Like this snake head, the cricket was probably from the fields. You are blaming someone who has no responsibility for it and demanding things.
kaptainkk: But those people choose to do so. The OP obviously didn't go into the restaurant expecting a snake head in her food.
@William Platnick: that is what i'm wondering too. i've eaten at the Stuyvesant Plaza TGI Fridays more than once. I know it's highly unlikely that this snake in the broccoli was the fault of the management, kitchen, or waitstaff there, but still, i'm dry-heaving like a cat with a hairball.
@Mark Swieca: Yes, because every Friday's restaurant conspired together to make this happen. Never mind the fact that whoever cultivated and packaged the food had a lot more to do with it...and I wouldn't be surprised if that same exact distributor supplies food to many of the places you eat.
Reply still broken. :'(
edwardso:
"I ate at an airport TGI Fridays and all the food was premade and had to be heated. Does anyone know if this is the case in all of their restaurants?"
I don't know; I don't think all of it is, but the fact that it was at an airport might have made a difference. Was it a small place that didn't have a kitchen?
Snake head: That is SO GROSS I don't know what I would have done. If they didn't comp the meal I guess they could have just given it back in the form of throwing it up!!!
This is hands down the most disgusting thing I have seen on Consumerist. I don't know how the OP didn't vomit upon seeing it, as my gag reflex is at full throttle right now.
@ Pecan (reply f'd up)
"I regret reading this story. Is there a way to unsee this?!"
Alcohol.
I'm so glad the guy doesn't know how to use macro on his camera phone.
I think I would vomit on sight.