Rodents Of Unusual Sauce? I don't think they exist.

I love how these stories always come with some uber-blurry photo. If you plan on spending the $$$ on a lawyer, wouldn't you think that investing oh, $100 or so on a camera that can take a clear picture of your monster meal would be just as important when reporting this to media outlets?

"...wasn't no chicken."

A double negative, so it WAS a chicken! Case dismissed your honor.

"I felt something in my mouth that I know wasn't no chicken." So it WAS chicken? Now I'm all confused. But hey, at least it was covered in Buffalo sauce, so it would have been a tasty mouse...or chicken, depending on how you like your double negatives.

Yet another hick who is looking for a pay day. Hope the restaurant counter sues!

mmmmmm mickey mouse......

I'm sorry, but anything coated in hot sauce is a friend of mine ;)

Everything looks and tastes the same out of the deep-fryer anyway, so what's the difference?

The photos aren't clear enough to be of any help.

@GitEmSteveDave_IndustrialStrengthLasagna: Dammit! Slow interwebs connection let you beat me to it. How DARE you, good sir.

@ryan_h: Considering I whinced at the woman's statement in and of itself, I highly doubt photography is her forte, hobby, or even a regular vocabulary word. Somehow, I don't think a decent camera is anywhere near this woman.

@RogerTheAlien: Correction: hot wing sauce.

Reminded of the rat-in-fried-chicken urban ledgend.

@RogerTheAlien:

While she may not own a decent camera, I refuse to believe that there is not a walmart in close proximity to her. $50 for some cheap off brand 5mp. no need to have skill of any sort, just point that there picturebox at the meat-fur and shoot!

Bigfoot, is that you?

@Trick: They're one of three hazards of the Des Moines Fireswamp, along with the lightning corn and the burning fried candy bars.

@Trick: Is it supposed to say "source"? I mean, the title as-is KIND OF makes sense, but not really.

The OP ordered wings, not necessarily chicken wings. What's the matter with a little bat every now and then? Doesn't the sauce (source?) mask it anyway?

+1 to this story for The Princess Bride reference

@RogerTheAlien: Double negatives are used for emphasis in many English dialects. It doesn't mean she's stupid or incompetent.

No need to 'whince' [sic].

Iowa Fried Mouse would make a great name for a band.

@lincolnparadox: INCONCEIVABLE!

@RogerTheAlien: No.

@spanky: Generally I would agree since I'm in no place to argue, given my lack of a read-through prior to hitting "submit" (and no dang edit ability on the comments). However, I think the whole statement, to the press, provides a modicum of insight. And to me, that insight is that the potentially-unfortunate dinner-goer probably doesn't partake in photography or have said equipment.

Besides, bad grammar is still bad grammar, no? Dialectal or not, it's wrong - regardless of the intelligence of the person speaking (or spelling, in my case) incorrectly.

And I apologize for the trolling - restless night in my part of the world.

@madanthony: +1. I should copyright that shit immediately.

@GitEmSteveDave_IndustrialStrengthLasagna: I have a relative who once accomplished a triple negative. It was a thing of beauty and horror.

@RogerTheAlien: Besides, bad grammar is still bad grammar, no?

Linguists would disagree that that is bad grammar. Using a double negative for emphasis is very common in most US dialects, and there's nothing quantifiably inferior about it. It's useful, and people know what it means, even those who disingenuously claim otherwise.

Different dialects have different conventions, and they're all perfectly valid.

Prescriptive usage rules aren't real grammars, and they're only applicable in limited contexts--usually when someone is either paying or grading you to do it.

Yummy! Better than road-kill! Like they say, everything tastes better fried!

Why do we give these scammers and attention-starved losers any press? Of course she retained a lawyer.

@GitEmSteveDave_IndustrialStrengthLasagna:Fortunately the incident occurred on opposite day, so she still has a case.

Why didn't she didn't bring the food (or whatever it was) to the ER and do so right away? Calling a lawyer before going to the ER and leaving the source of whatever illness you may need to be treated for at home doesn't add up - unless you don't really need to go to the ER. If she was concerned about losing the evidence I would think she could have called someone, like her niece, to meet her at the ER with a camera or even asked the hospital staff to take photos before they handled it.

I can't tell WHAT that is in the picture.

Of course it wasn't no chicken. It was a buffalo wing! Big, furry, bovine-type thing.

The pics on the linked blog aren't nearly as blurry and much easier on the eyes. The top pic looks pretty disgusting whatever the meat is. The "skin" in the lower right looks like a mouse face and where that skin came off looks like a mouth, nose, and eye sockets.

Then again people see Jesus in their corn flakes and Elvis in their pancakes all the time so who knows.

And in case she ever wants to defrost that hunk of meat and have at it, heres a how-to on having a first class river rat dining experience: First you gotta cut off the head and the tail, and then you gut it. Then it's all a matter of the sauce. You don't just plop down a rodent on a plate and say here's your river rat--would you like red wine or white with 'em?

@RogerTheAlien: The Dread Pirate Roberts would have made you walk the plank for that comment.

@LupusGray: Ahhh, but the place where she ate was hosting a Calvin Ball tournament, which has roving reversal zones, which negated Opposite Day!

@H3ion: Reminded me of "The New Guy" where the O'Connel brothers scream BAT WINGS!

@☠Grяrяrяrяrя sings the doom song now!: I'd deep fry a shoe and call it tasty.

@spanky: I will have to verify the veracity of your claims, but until then, touché spanky, touché.

mouse bones are not that big

@GitEmSteveDave_IndustrialStrengthLasagna: Peanut gallery hours are closed now...please proceed out the nearest exit...

Needless to say, for those that don't realize why this is a big deal, any rodent anywhere around a restaurant kitchen, let alone cooked and served to an unwitting consumer, is about as disease plagued and gastro-health threatening as you can get.

The thing missing from the story is what the local health department did or said, and whether the OP contacted them, which would have been a basic first step assuming they cared about other consumers' welfare dining there after them.

Oh an further any nimrod who is cooking stuff there not being with it enough to avoid rodents getting into the food, let alone being served should be fired and N E V E R allowed in food service again E V E R.

@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer: Hey, when you get at least a hundred or more comments under your belt, THEN you can tell me when not to talk.

@GitEmSteveDave_IndustrialStrengthLasagna: my you have such hostility in you. Have you covered that with your therapist?

I suppose there is someplace for irrelevant cheeky little busybody posts like yours, maybe Consumerist can try a proofreader link or column for non-substance related observations on stories...

@spanky:

you've got a purty mouth

@DonkeyJab: Um, a shredded up chicken wing that was ripped apart and overly fried (see the burned edges on the bone) - one that likely had a broken bone before it started?

It has hollow bird bones. You can see that along the burnt edges of the bone. Whatever food distributor they had didn't have good quality control. This was battered and flash frozen with exposed bone. So it likely had some freezer burn. There's no fur, just burnt bone, which will taste funny.

Sounds like there was a certain Lionel Lutz waiting in the lobby of the hospital coaching her to say a few things. In fact, the double-negative chicken wing statement is probably his idea - that way, they can't counter-sue!

@ryan_h: @ryan_h:

Retains a lawyer instead of dealing it in a mature manner with the store itself. Figures.

I thought the thumbnail was of a michaelangelo painting..

(Sorry, I'm a guy. I look at the pictures first)

@DonkeyJab: I'd have a hard time believing that a mouse head made it through the preparation process, as well as the frying process, retaining that much of its fur and skin as to remain that recognizable. My best guess is that at least some of the skin would have burned or crumbled off after frying, revealing some of the underlying bone structure. I can't see any of that there. It just looks like a cute, well-preserved mouse face.

A question that comes to mind is do they bread their own wings, or do they buy them pre-frozen? If the latter is true, then I would say that they are not at fault here.