Gesundheit
Laval, QC, July 2011
I always smile as I pass by the salad bar and catch sight of the sneeze guard. I've never actually seen anyone sneeze into one, so I haven't been able to validate that these things actually do what they're supposed to do.
But just thinking about it is enough to creep me out. I may risk the wrath of vegetable lovers everywhere (see here for more), but the salad bar is little more than communal food, sourced from trough-like buffets in mostly public places.
Of course, there's no guarantee that I'll get anything better if I order a salad off the menu. One disgruntled chef in an unseen restaurant kitchen can be just as dangerous to my food-borne cleanliness as a lineup of customers at the very visible salad bar. All of which makes me wonder if I should be going to restaurants at all. Probably not.
Your turn: Feeding yourself in public. Gross or not?
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9 comments:
I use to like salad bars until I was at Whole Foods which is an upscale market and eatery... I saw a boy playing w/the salad greens and his mother was watching him and not admonishing him.. She also noticed me watching... From that day, I have never eaten from a salad bar.. Sure they may sneeze, cough, eat off of a salad made up in the kitchen but at least I don't have to witness it!. LOL
Many years ago I worked in a shopping mall that had a deli counter style eatery. They were famous for their free pickles that they put out every few feet in the center of the counters. My wife (girlfriend back then) and I went for dinner there one night. It was slow and the place was unusually empty. At the end of our delicious meal and free, all you can eat pickles, we went to the register to pay. A server came to take our money and behind her a little boy was going from one counter to the other, sucking the juice from the pickles and putting them back. Before I could say something, a bus boy came out and emptied the counter pickles back into a large barrel for the next day. Cel and I could never have the free pickles after that.
I completely agree with you Carmi, and having in the past and in the future again working with food....you see oh so many unthinkable things.....makes you wonder if you ever should eat out again..... knowing the hands that feed you makes great sense!
Heck, imagine the olden days, Carmi.
Germs make you stronger!
~
Co-incidentally we were having this conversation at the restaurant where we ate today. They bring out very big dishes of Mojo sauce to put on your Canarian potatoes (like in my TP post this week) - but you only ever use a tiny spoonful and we were speculating on how many times the sauce had been reycycled. Meanwhile it had been sitting on our table where we could have been sneezing into it with abandon. My husband made the same comments about not knowing what the chef is up to anyway. Years ago my son had a Saturday job in Woolworth’s,and when he told us what they used to find in the Pick and Mix at the end of the day , I could never use any form of help yourself food purchasing again. Loose dry goods, like flour etc, are so much nicer in hermetically sealed bags.
Oh my heck, Steve, I'm laughing so hard I completely forgot what I was going to comment!
Yes, eating out is taking a risk. Best not to think about I guess.
I had to share this...a friend of mine is actually the daughter of the man who invented the sneeze guard :) Check out her blog at http://barbaragarneaukelley.com/ !
As far as I know I haven't gotten sick from eating at a salad bar yet, so I'll probably continue to do so. But if you think about it there's no telling what kind of germs could potentially be there.
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