Nice, juicy, delicious "Vinyl bag" and lots of thought afterwards...

Today we went with our dear visiting Tea sensei M sensei to a very famous restaurant in west Amman. I usually do not like that area or the shops there for many reasons (one of them is the empty snobbish elitist atmosphere, and the other being an unemployed teacher "read: can barely afford it" :P), but it was nice to invite our dear guest to a new place, as she has already visited other places already.

We ordered some light meals including a chicken salad. As our orders arrived the kind young waiter placed some of the salad in each of our plates. It was to our surprise to find a unexpected ingredient in my friend Saqf dono's plate... a nice, juicy, fresh and totally inedible ..."Vinyl bag".

We were naturally shocked and a little disgusted, I was a little bit apprehensive inside of continuing with our meal there, but it seemed like an "honest mistake". I took the spoon to my hand and I naturally got a little suspicious of how clean it was, and it was actually so unclean (for my standards at least, which are admittedly a little hypocondric) that I had to wipe it clean with some wet Dettol tissue just to feel at ease.

I know it is a bit disgusting, but I wanted to share this experience.

We should have made a scene and just walked away but we did not. And although it would have been the right thing to do, it would have messed up the atmosphere of the whole evening and stopped us from having a very nice and fruitful talk with M sensei. To be fair they did admit to being at fault and did apologize and tried to "justify" the mistake by being busy in the kitchen and provided us with some free desert (which was not bad) . So in the end it was not a total disaster.

I've recently seen some parts of the movie "Food Inc." and I have become a little bit more aware of what I put in my body and the risks of eating out. What happened today really shows that the best food you could ever truly eat with peace or mind is your own home cooked food. Although not all of us have this blessing of having that, I really say Al7amdulillah that I receive such a blessing each and everyday.

I am not saying not to eat out or anything, as I do that a lot (albeit in much cheaper places :P)!

It is just that you should demand the best, no matter how cheap or expensive the service or item you are receiving. I hope that some day we instill our selves with the passion and pride to be the best in our work as providers of any item or service, and the knowledge that we deserve the best from all around us as recipients of said item or service. It is a part of our religion and our long forgotten culture of working to be the best we can be. This is something I have observed in the Japanese people and I hope we will soon rediscover that long lost side in ourselves as well.

I understand that to be passionate you have to expect to be treated with the respect that goes with that effort, and I know that sometimes (insert preferred expression of frequency) this is not found in our modern society! But it is really worth it to say "I am doing my best no matter what"... There is a sort of satisfaction in that as well.

I know it sounds preachy.... for me I hope I can be a more consistently passionate teacher and productive person someday (Of course like all of us, I have my "glowing fire in both eyes" anime kind of moments) but I still really find my self to be a very big ol' lazy procrasitantor which I feel is my biggest character flaw (among a long list of others).

P.S.

I am not going to name the shop because this is something that could happen in any restaurant and I cannot honestly say 100% that it was not an honest mistake (which should never happen again).