Lunch today was an uneventful experience. I had a late lunch due to my kick-boxing session that ended around 1pm. It was 2:30pm when I stepped into the cafeteria. According to my past experience, new hot food will usually be ready by 2pm for peeps who wanted a late lunch or just some snack for tea-break. So I ordered a plate of mee goreng, some clams (cooked in thick chilli and curry gravy). There wasn't much choice so I had to settle for the less platable stuff if not, I would have to go through the afternoon with an empty stomach.
The clams wasn't as nice as I thought, in fact, some tiny beads of sand found their way into my mouth. Spitting them out, I continue eating till I saw something. To my intensified horror, a pebble was among the clams, soaking itself in the gravy. My goodness, I almost vomitted out everything and it would have made a mess on my plate. Gruesome to be exact. All eating ceased no matter how hungry I was because it totally ruined my appetite.
So, with the evidence in my hand, I went over to the cafeteria supervisor (he got the meanest look and he is in the state whereby he is always almost ready to jump at anyone). I complained to him about my discovery. He just took one look at me, then at the pebble (which is still lying comfortably in the pool of gravy) and slowly (almost graciously) picked up the pebble and threw it aside. He tried to explain, mumbling away, trying to push away his responsibility. Though he apologised and wanting to compensate, I declined. It is not about compensation that I was concerned about, but through this incident, the degree of cleanliness and hygiene is questionable. The pebble is BIG enough to be noticed and yet it was taken as an extra ingredient.
Well, I can never overcome the psychological effect it caused me. So traumatised by the incident, I ended up vomitting out everything. I should have taken a photo and probably add to this entry to let you all have a look at the notorious pebble. Too shaken to think of anything. The thought of the pebble in the food just irks me. At least for the time being, I vowed not to touch the food at the cafeteria again.
I was comtemplating whether or not to raise this issue to the HR or should I just let it go till the pebble strike another victim again.
Talking about compensation, my fellow colleague was teasing me that the cafeteria supervisor might just get me an even BIGGER pebble. That was pretty assuring, huh??
Nevertheless, it still left me with an empty stomach. Bah!