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You Cannot Be Serious! (Sandwich Edition)

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  • You Cannot Be Serious! (Sandwich Edition)

    So Wednesday, after waking up with a huge hangover in Miami, driving four hours back to Key West, and doing magic for three hours for the kids at the restaurant, I was tired, I was hungry, I was ready for some dinner. And I didn't want to spend a lot of money eating out or make a lot of effort cooking something, and didn't really have anything at home to cook anyway. Solution: Subway!

    So I go in, and after I select my bread, cheese, and meat, the girl slides my sandwich down to the veggie area. She looks down to the floor, leans down, and picks up a knife that had fallen there, and puts it on the board. Okay....certainly she is going to clean that shortly, but she wants to take care of me first. I'm fine with that. I select my veggies and dressing, and then....she uses the knife that had been on the floor to press everything together in my sandwich and starts to cut it.

    "NO!" I said forcefully. She looks up, confused. "That knife was on the floor! You can't use it to cut my sandwich!" She doesn't quite understand me, as she was clearly not a native English speaker. I repeat myself. She still doesn't know what I'm talking about, so calls over her coworker. Her coworker, while also not a native English speaker, has been at that shop a while (I recognized her from previous visits), and I repeat my objection to her. At first she doesn't quite understand what I'm saying. "That knife she was going to cut my sandwich with as on the floor. She can't use that. It's unacceptable!" Finally the light bulb goes off, and the senior staffer grabs the entire sandwich and pitches it in the trash, and instructs the rookie to start over. The rookie makes me a whole new sandwich....and as she's doing this, I notice the offending knife is STILL on the board. I'm being pleasant--I never yelled about the incident, merely made myself clear on the point of contention--but watched that knife, wondering if she still didn't get it, and would try to use that knife yet again. So, she slides my sandwich over to the veggie area, picks up the dirty knife....and puts it aside, presumably (hopefully!) to be cleaned later, then picks up another knife (presumably clean), and finishes up my sandwich.

    No muss, no fuss, I was very polite and friendly, merely making my very valid point.

    But seriously, I don't care what language you speak, you HAVE to know that using a knife that's been ON THE FLOOR on food is just not something you can ever do.

    I left on a positive note, and enjoyed the sandwich, but it does make me wonder what I may have missed at that place in the past, especially with new employees. I will say that, had she tried to use the knife from the floor on the second sandwich, I would have walked out and found my dinner elsewhere. Fortunately she didn't, but still....meh.

    "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
    Still A Customer."


  • #2
    Geh. @_@ That is gross. It's hearing stories about this sorta thing that makes me glad I don't eat out all that much. Reminds me of this one episode of Restaurant Impossible where the cook dropped a piece of chicken on the floor, picked it up, and casually tossed it into the fryer.
    "Things that fail to kill me make me level up." ~ NateWantsToBattle, Training Hard (Counting Stars parody)

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    • #3
      I hardly want to use stuff thats on the floor when I cleaned it. Ick.

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      • #4
        Oh, jeeze! You'd think anybody would know not to do that! Saw a lady do that with my sandwich at a local sub shop years ago. Never went back.
        "If anyone wants this old box containing the broken bits of my former faith in humanity, I'll take your best offer now. You may be able to salvage a few of em' for parts..... " - Quote by Argabarga

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        • #5
          Quoth firecat88 View Post
          Geh. @_@ That is gross. It's hearing stories about this sorta thing that makes me glad I don't eat out all that much. Reminds me of this one episode of Restaurant Impossible where the cook dropped a piece of chicken on the floor, picked it up, and casually tossed it into the fryer.
          I remember that one, he ended being fired for being a dirty git

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          • #6
            I hope someone pulled that employee aside and explained why you can't use a dirty floor-knife on a customer's sandwich. I'm sure the health department wouldn't have appreciated that.

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            • #7
              *casually finishes eating sandwich made with own floor-knife*

              I can't say as I'm ever all that picky about dirty stuff. I've spent enough time in my life having eaten DIRT, and out of dumpsters and whatnot, and I know my internal septic system is quite efficient. That being said...I can very much understand people who ARE squicked out by dirty stuff. If I'm just cooking for myself, I have no problem picking up utensils or even food dropped on the floor and eating it anyway, but when I cook for other people, NO. BIG NO NO. That is one thing they absolutely drilled into our heads in culinary school, was CLEAN EVERYTHING AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN POSSIBLY GET AWAY WITH IT. If it touches the floor, it goes into the dishwasher without passing go and you get a new one. If you switch from meat to veggies, wash your hands. Switch from veggies to meat, wash your hands. Switch from cooked meat to raw meat? WASH YOUR HANDS GODDAMNIT.

              Other aside: my teacher would go on rather constantly about how nasty Subway stores are, and considering how much I see about them on here, I'm starting to understand his refusal to eat there. ...as long as I don't find a bloody thumb, though, I'm still good with it.
              "Maybe the problem just went away...maybe it was the magical sniper fairy that comes and gives silenced hollow point rounds to people who don't eat their vegetables."

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              • #8
                Quoth MystyGlyttyr View Post
                *casually finishes eating sandwich made with own floor-knife*

                I can't say as I'm ever all that picky about dirty stuff. I've spent enough time in my life having eaten DIRT, and out of dumpsters and whatnot, and I know my internal septic system is quite efficient.
                I'm glad you can see the difference when it comes to feeding yourself and actually feeding other people. Apparently, some people (like my mother, AUGH) don't get that.

                If it's your food, go for it. As long as you know your stomach can handle it, it's completely up to you if you use dirty utensils. However, as you were taught in culinary school, it opens a restaurant up to a huge amount of liability if dirty food or utensils are served to a customer. That's why Chef Ramsey gets so pissed and grossed out when cooks pick up meat from the floor and throw it into the frier. D:

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                • #9
                  There was one in Alaska I refused to go to after they were making my sandwich, spilled CLEANER into the pickles, and then tried to get them out of the contaminated container to put on my sandwich. I made her change gloves and get new ones out. She didn't seem to understand the problem.

                  I wouldn't have eaten it anyway, but especially considering I was 5ish months pregnant at the time.

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                  • #10
                    Surely you can't be serious.
                    To right the countless wrongs of our days... We shine this light of true redemption, that this place may become as paradise...Oh, what a wonderful world such would be...

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                    • #11
                      Quoth MystyGlyttyr View Post

                      Other aside: my teacher would go on rather constantly about how nasty Subway stores are, and considering how much I see about them on here, I'm starting to understand his refusal to eat there. ...as long as I don't find a bloody thumb, though, I'm still good with it.
                      I'm interested now. Do tell!

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                      • #12
                        This discussion (especially the original post) reminds me of a line from the film Twelve Monkeys:
                        I go in to order a burger at this fast-food joint, and the guy drops it on the floor. James, he picks it up, he wipes it off, he hands it to me like it's all OK. "What about the germs?" I say. He says "I don't believe in germs. Germs is a plot made up so they could sell disinfectants and soaps." Now he's crazy, right?

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                        • #13
                          Quoth MystyGlyttyr View Post
                          I can't say as I'm ever all that picky about dirty stuff. I've spent enough time in my life having eaten DIRT, and out of dumpsters and whatnot, and I know my internal septic system is quite efficient. That being said...I can very much understand people who ARE squicked out by dirty stuff. If I'm just cooking for myself, I have no problem picking up utensils or even food dropped on the floor and eating it anyway, but when I cook for other people, NO. BIG NO NO.
                          I am glad you recognize the difference between preparing food for yourself and others.

                          Whatever your views on personal food preparation, when you are preparing food for other people, especially the paying public, you have to rise to a much higher standard. I am hardly a germophobe, and am not myself above eating stuff I would not serve to friends or family. That being said, I have no personal knowledge of how clean or dirty that particular Subway's floor is....and even if a floor is sparking clean, I am NOT eating anything off of it, or anything prepared with utensils that have been on it.

                          I have a very simple standard when it comes to the floor. If a utensil has been on it, that utensil must be washed before it can come in contact with the food. If a bar towel has been on the floor, it must go in the dirty linen bag immediately. If any food has been on the floor, even for a second (five second rule my ass), it is by definition now trash, and must immediately go in the trash receptacle.

                          It is bad enough to think that shenanigans go on like this behind kitchen doors when no one is watching. But how STUPID do you have to be to pick something off the floor and use it in food preparation when you are totally visible to the public you are preparing that food for, as this woman did?

                          I will not be boycotting this Subway. However, if I walk in and see THAT employee is on the line, I WILL be walking right back out again. They are, after all, right by a supermarket AND a Quizno's.

                          "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
                          Still A Customer."

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                          • #14
                            One other thing to consider is that the customer who witnesses things like this might work for, or be related to someone who works for, the health department. Even if it's an out-of-jurisdiction department (e.g. someone from the Edmonton, Alberta health department stopping in for a sub while on vacation in Florida), they'd be likely to give a "heads up" to their counterpart for the appropriate jurisdiction.
                            Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

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                            • #15
                              back at my first job - pizza - i had a coworker who tried doing that with dough. i wasn't in charge but i made him throw it out anyway.

                              i mean it's just fucking dough. we had plenty more. it just meant that the single-size pan pizza went through with just 3 slices vs 4. big whoop.

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