Oh my God.

[GayleShy]

I just want to figure out how to write this hypothetical letter without sounding like the most sucky customer on the planet. I want to be polite, and non-sucky. I dont think it's possible for me to do that.

I would suggest simply telling them exactly what you told us. Keep the tone of the letter civil and don't ask for free stuff. Maybe suggest that they could train the staff on what goes into the food better, and maybe list that the chicken soup has seafood in it. They need to be able to tell their customers this anyway, because next time they might not be so lucky as to have someone who's not going to sue them for every penny they have or worse, die on them.

Good luck handling this.

[ArenaBoy]

(I also tell my students that THEY don't want me to try to quit smoking!)

OT:
My dad has just decided to quit smoking, cold turkey too as a matter of fact. The thing with my dad is that when he yells he can silence a room, hell he made an ex-Marine tremble once. I'm bigger and taller than he is and I'm still scared of him. So yeah granted from what I've been told my family has been expecting to explode but he's been restraining himself. I still won't visit my parents until he's completely clean. For now I'll stay in the comfort of my home.

[Sliceanddice]

So, now I really want to yell at the owners of this restaurant. They really need to inform their wait staff about what foods have seafood in it.

i feel like that when ever my family wants chinese fast food, because it means panda express and not the good place, big bowl. Not that i hate panda express (i mean except for the fact no matter what their steamed rice is greasy) but im allergic to pineapple, and panda express of course makes their sweet and sour with pine apple. I have to ask what was cook in a wok that had pine apple (generally im ok because they use sause bots for the sauses and only sweet and sour pork/chicken has pineapple) so i only eat steamed veggies, mushroom chicken (almost always cooked in a differnet wok than the sweet and sour) and mandraine chicken (its basically just grill chicken).
I wish my sister would learn the joys of rice ( i love rice my sister, like out father, hates it) or learn the joy of a chinese salad, or be adventureace. Because i love big bowl, small place, nice staff, best teriakye on earth (its to late to spell correctly) and most of it is cheaper than panda.

[AFpheonix]

I'd like to point out at this opportunity that the menu reads SWISS BURGER WITH PORTABELLO MUSHROOMS, and that this is a hamburger served with swiss cheese and sauteed mushrooms on top.

Oh god.....how I love me a good mushroom swiss burger.... mmmmm......gurgle....

[kibbles]

When I first read the story I thought she was going to complain because she didn't expect mushrooms, but she didn't expect the meat at all? LOL! That's different

[Lil Bunny]

(I think I'll stop going to the fancy restaurants with my parents from now on and stick to Burger King and McDonalds.)

I'll probably catch heck for saying this but idiots working in a place in West O? Never.... *ducks and runs* I shouldn't be so mean and biased but it just seems like the further west I go, the stranger the night becomes. If I want fancy eating, I'll stick with the old market places or some of the cute little things I've found in my neck of the woods.

Thanks for the heads up on that place though! I have the same thing happen with shellfish (which was fun working for Red Lobster all those years). Let me know how the letter goes!

[mariamousie1]

Burgers have meat in them??? Why didn't anyone tell me? If it didn't have meat in it wouldn't it just be a mushroom sandwich?

[Andara Bledin]

It would be really nice if restaurants were aware of what dishes they serve that have nuts, shellfish, and mushrooms in them. Those are the three big ones that can kill people.

Erin, when you write your letter, include all of the information you gave us. Also include a passage that basically states this: "Thankfully, I am still only slightly allergic to shellfish. There are some people who might have died from eating the soup." Make sure to mention the possibility of them having killed someone. As long as you present it as a slightly offhand comment, it should give them a good jolt.

I used to have a friend that was severely allergic to mushrooms. He told the waitress specifically that he could not eat mushrooms or he would die, and to make sure the sauce for the dish he was ordering didn't have any in it.

Well, they didn't, and half an hour later, his friend found him curled up in the bathroom, barely breathing. He lost what remained of his eyesight (lost most of the vision in one eye due to an auto accident a year before) and that caused him to lose his job (he was an independant web designer).

And here I thought not eating meat was supposed to REDUCE stress and aggression?

My mother went to the original MacDonald's years ago to get some promotional item they were giving away. That site (much like the original Ben & Jerry's location) doesn't serve any food. It's a tourist attraction with souvenirs, now. There were a bunch of anti-meat people out front picketing. My mom tells me that she never ran into a less healthy-looking, more aggressively unpleasant bunch of people in her life. One of the police that was on hand made some comment about them having problems with anti-meat protesters being prone to getting out of hand.

^-.-^

[Boozy]

My mom tells me that she never ran into a less healthy-looking, more aggressively unpleasant bunch of people in her life. One of the police that was on hand made some comment about them having problems with anti-meat protesters being prone to getting out of hand.

I don't think that has anything to do with their diet, or even their cause. Fanatics of any sort can get out of hand, whether they be anti-meat, pro-meat, or "pro-mop anti-horse".

Brownie points if you get that last one.

[wagegoth]

I am so glad that I didnt eat this roe stuff (it looked like mayo or ranch dressing, both of which I hate) Roe is apparently made from the sex organs of male fish. (Ewwww!)

Roe refers to fish eggs, which would include caviar. I've never heard it used to refer to fish sex organs, which would probably be smaller and less available than the eggs, but some people may have applied it incorrectly to anything having to do with fish reproductive systems.

[wagegoth]

Re the OP:

I've complained about people like this before. They have "chain restaurant/fast food mentality," in that they believe that a food item is the same no matter what kind of restaurant they eat at or where it's located. I used to work with a woman whom I quit going to lunch with because she would always complain about the food because it wasn't "what [she] thought it would be," or it wasn't like her mom made, etc. I went to lunch with her three times, and I never went with her again.

[Sofar]

I used to have a friend that was severely allergic to mushrooms. He told the waitress specifically that he could not eat mushrooms or he would die, and to make sure the sauce for the dish he was ordering didn't have any in it.

A good thing to say, we appreciate it when y'all inform us of the severity of your allergy. Does your throat close up or will you just get some welts? "Or I'll die within the hour" garners some attention.

Okay, it seems to me that we haven't always been this allergic. I'm getting six or seven people a day allergic to something, (and five outta seven are allergic to something we actually serve.) They don't serve peanuts on aeroplanes anymore, we have to keep seperate frialators, one for things that may have gluten or wheat products in them and one for things that don't, I had someone last week tell me he was allergic to rapeseed oil, and we have to keep a seperate milkshake spindle for peanut-butter milkshakes because sanitizing doesn't eliminate the allergen.

Is there something in the air?

[Erin]

I shouldn't be so mean and biased but it just seems like the further west I go, the stranger the night becomes. If I want fancy eating, I'll stick with the old market places or some of the cute little things I've found in my neck of the woods.

Thanks for the heads up on that place though! I have the same thing happen with shellfish (which was fun working for Red Lobster all those years). Let me know how the letter goes!

this thread is going totally off topic here (sorry!)

oh yeah...the stupidity rises the further west you go in Omaha. Altho, one of my favorite restaurants in town is just down the street from the place that likes to hide seafood in their chicken soup. Ever been to the Carrabbas that's on the corner of 144th and Maple. OMG! The sirloin marsala is so tasty!

I just went to an Italian restaurant that's just south of the Old Market tonight, that my boyfriend and I have been trying to get to for over a year. (everytime we want to go, it's closed...but it's always closed on sundays and that's usually when we're in that area) The place is called Malaga's (sp?) It's at about 22nd and Pierce. It was excellent. Tastes a lot like the Italian food at Cascio's on 10th street, but I thought it was pretty good. They had handmade noodles, delicious spaghetti sauce. The meatballs reminded me of the one's that my Great-Uncle used to make for my birthday every year. And I thought the wait staff were pretty cool. They forgot my root beer, but other than that, they were a lot more friendly than the wait staff at Cascio's.

We were going to go to Cascio's, but they were closed tonight! (they're always closed on tuesdays, and we didnt know) I was a bit disappointed by that, I kind of wanted a steak.

[Erin]

Erin, when you write your letter, include all of the information you gave us. Also include a passage that basically states this: "Thankfully, I am still only slightly allergic to shellfish. There are some people who might have died from eating the soup." Make sure to mention the possibility of them having killed someone. As long as you present it as a slightly offhand comment, it should give them a good jolt.

I started out writing the letter. I still need to edit it some, remove a bit of strong language out, and maybe I should not insult the manager/owner's inability to speak and understand English.

I do have a statement in there similar to the passage you wrote about the possibility that other people could die from eating the soup.

I understand about food allergies. My mom has a nephew with a serious nut allergy (he nearly died after eating a cookie that had some sort of tree nut in it). My mom also has a grand-niece who has a severe peanut allergy. She's had to get very snotty with people who insist that she's not really allergic to peanuts, and she's only 8 or 9yrs old. My cousin (her mom) has gotten into some people's faces when they say that her daughter is being spoiled and lying about being allergic to peanuts. If she were lying about it, then why did she end up staying in the hospital for a few days last summer after some moron sent their kid to school with peanut butter sandwiches. She had an allergic reaction with the kid with the peanut butter sandwiches open their lunch up a few feet from her. (the school is a No-Peanut-Butter Zone) My cousin is now homeschooling her daughter.

I hope your friend who lost his eyesight to the criminally stupid waitstaff is doing better.

I've had a few of those asshat waitstaff screw up my food by not making sure there was no seafood in my food too...and even had a doctor screw up and Rx me an antibiotic I'm allergic to (anything penicillin based) Hate it when someone nearly kills me with something I'm allergic to. It's just a matter of time one of these allergens hits me harder than just hives.

[Sofar]

We didn't want to go the warning-label route, but then we though maybe we can make some real jazzy warning labels and put 'em on our menu, like it'd be all in an orange starburst with bold writing and it'd say CONTAINS DELICIOUS GLUTEN AND SENSATIONAL WHEAT PRODUCTS!