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Thursday, September 13, 2007

Vastly divergent basic standards of hygiene

Was at Plaza Singapura with Lin last evening as I had my flute lesson and Lin had to pick up some photos she had sent for developing. Walked around a bit and decided to grab some post-dinner snack of Fried Mars Bars at Chippy's British Take Away.

This is where I realised that not everyone's very BASIC standards of hygiene were similar.

There were two youngish persons at the Take Away. I placed my order and the female promptly opened a box full of Mars Bars (which had already been pre-cut), took out 1 bar (consisting of 4 pre-cut pieces) and plonked them into some dubious looking, but extremely yummy, batter. As she was dropping it in, one piece dropped onto the black, oily, greasy floor that both she and her compatriot probably walked on and stepped on at least ten billion times that day.

I stared at her as she promptly picked up the run-away Mars Bar and ran it under the tap for all of 2 seconds before dropping it into the batter to join its other Mars Bar friends. I continued to STARE at her as she mixed it all up.

I couldn't take it. I had to do something.

I gently confronted her and asked her about what she had done. Surely that was a cue that the customer has been watching with eagle eyes and was certainly not pleased. All I got was a defiant stare and a very lame explanation of "yes it was the same piece I dropped onto the floor but I washed it already", "yes I know which piece it was (even though I mixed it all up in the batter)" and "no, I am NOT going to get you a new piece cos I think washing it under a tap would do the trick".

You should have seen my blood boil and the steam coming out of my head at this point. Of course, I blatantly stood my ground and insisted (almost arm-twisted actually) that she get me a new set (I was prepared to walk away cos I didn't want to risk food poisoning cos of her laziness and utter lack of hygiene, but greediness on my part stood in the way). To cut the long story short, I did get a new "set" of Mars Bars, but the "old grimy one" that had wiped the greasy ground with got washed and thrown back into the box of clean Mars Bars.

Good luck to whoever placed the next order. Ignorance is always bliss. I didn't stick around to warn him, but I sure hope he has a strong tummy!

I'm not usually a stickler for hygiene and I can tolerate some degrees of lack of cleanliness, but this...? Geez.

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