Saw something disgusting in supermarket

amother

Gold

Fri, May 31 2019, 12:25 pm

karat wrote:

The owners and managers of food establishments turn a blind eye to these kind of things.

You know the packaged cut-up fruit sold in supermarkets?
I observed an employee cutting up the fruit with bare hands.
Ew

An employee serving me falafel in a restaurant wore the requisite gloves, placed the pita in the oven with his gloved hand-then used his germy cell phone with them while waiting for pita to warm up-then used the same gloved hands to prepare the falafel.
Ew

Isn't there any supervision? I assume the fruit has a hescher.

amother

Sienna

Fri, May 31 2019, 12:29 pm

amother [ Aqua ] wrote:

Hello - wake up and smell the coffee!!!!
This is what goes on in every restaurant, commercial kitchen, catering business etc.
What you don't know can't hurt you, so we blissfully eat out...

Further - what you do know - usually doesn't hurt you either.

amother

Gold

Fri, May 31 2019, 12:30 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Asking for a sample and being given it is very different than sampling stuff and not buying, it’s thievery according to halacha. How could someone justify tasting it and then not buying any?

It tasted bad. If you must buy, then there's no sense tasting.

amother

Sienna

Fri, May 31 2019, 12:32 pm

amother [ Seafoam ] wrote:

Maybe we issue is saying she is Chinese? She could be Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.

She was Asian. There is your descriptor.

What if she was described as wearing a blue shirt, black pants and a baseball hat?

What's the relevance?

33055

Fri, May 31 2019, 12:44 pm

Fox wrote:

If the woman was actually Chinese -- as opposed to, say, Japanese or Korean -- it makes a huge difference to the story.

China is known for having very, very different public hygiene norms than most Western countries and even many Asian countries. In fact, Western tourists to China talk about first being revolted and eventually getting used to how things are done. David Sedaris wrote hilariously about the acceptance curve when it comes to these cultural differences.

So if the woman was truly Chinese, I'd cut her some slack. Doesn't mean it's okay or that you shouldn't be bothered by it; simply that she might not have realized she was doing would be considered not just impolite but seriously gross in the U.S.

As for horror stories from expensive restaurants, yup! Years ago I had a friend who worked as a waiter in such an establishment; he had plenty of those tales. I still like to eat out. I'm willing to forgive a lot if someone else does the shopping and cooking. But I inwardly roll my eyes at people who claim to be ultra-fastidious in one breath and then talk about their favorite restaurants in the next.

Exactly what I was thinking. Even the Chinese government knows their population does disgusting things.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ch.....0332/

amother

Sienna

Fri, May 31 2019, 12:48 pm

Squishy wrote:

Exactly what I was thinking. Even the Chinese government knows their population does disgusting things.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ch.....0332/

So - should our membership be cautioned never to use 'open bin' items in areas where there are Chinese residents, or tourists?

amother

Silver

Fri, May 31 2019, 1:00 pm

amother [ Sienna ] wrote:

It makes a HUGE difference to the story only if the point of the post was to ask for feedback on whether the person sticking her hands into the food is culturally unaware, or just yucky.

But that wasn't the point of the story.

Of course all these stories are gross but if it was someone's dipping their hands if your food, you don't think you feel at least a drop better if it was a frum person's hand vs a non Jew?

watergirl

Fri, May 31 2019, 1:02 pm

amother [ Silver ] wrote:

Of course all these stories are gross but if it was someone's dipping their hands if your food, you don't think you feel at least a drop better if it was a frum person's hand vs a non Jew?

No, I think all germs are created equal.

amother

Brown

Fri, May 31 2019, 1:07 pm

Hahah amother silver, I must laugh at your post!!! Why would a normal person be more disgusted by a non jewish person sticking his hand in food to a frum person?? Omg!! Do you really think frum people are cleaner and have less germs?? Or does it make you feel better that the germs of a frum person is at least "kosher"???
This is so funny!!!

33055

Fri, May 31 2019, 1:09 pm

amother [ Sienna ] wrote:

So - should our membership be cautioned never to use 'open bin' items in areas where there are Chinese residents, or tourists?

I don't use open bin food ever unless the food is washable. I also don't eat at kiddishes because of what I have seen frum Jewish kids do.

Perhaps the warning should be don't eat food from open bins with Chinease residents or tourists nearby, and don't eat at kiddishes.

amother

Silver

Fri, May 31 2019, 1:11 pm

amother [ Brown ] wrote:

I was being sarcastic!!

amother

Sienna

Fri, May 31 2019, 1:12 pm

amother [ Silver ] wrote:

Of course all these stories are gross but if it was someone's dipping their hands if your food, you don't think you feel at least a drop better if it was a frum person's hand vs a non Jew?

No. Not even a drop.

amother

Sienna

Fri, May 31 2019, 1:14 pm

Squishy wrote:

You don't use open bin food because of Chinese people, or people generally?

33055

Fri, May 31 2019, 1:19 pm

amother [ Sienna ] wrote:

You don't use open bin food because of Chinese people, or people generally?

We need facial recognition software for the phones. Until they develop it, I stay away from all places with open bin food that have oriental residents, tourists, or frum kids within a half mile radius.

Fox

Fri, May 31 2019, 1:20 pm

amother [ Seafoam ] wrote:

Maybe we issue is saying she is Chinese? She could be Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.

She was Asian. There is your descriptor.

In other words, you are making an assumption that the OP didn't really know whether the woman was Chinese or not. You are assuming that the OP is some dumb Anglo to whom all Asians look alike?

As an aside, there are a bunch of hilarious videos on YouTube where Asians of varying backgrounds attempt to identify the precise ethnicity or nationality of other Asians -- and fail as often as they succeed.

But even if the OP has reason to believe the women is Chinese, you'd rather the woman be described as Asian, despite the fact that it makes her look worse?

A Japanese person who did this would probably be considered mentally ill by his countrymen; a Chinese person would be acting completely appropriately -- for China. I'm not in favor of interrogating random people with typically Asian features about precisely why they are behaving a certain way, but lumping everyone's cultural norms together as "Asian" is just as bad as mis-identifying all Asians as "Chinese."

amother

Sienna

Fri, May 31 2019, 1:22 pm

Squishy wrote:

I conclude then that White/Black/Hispanic/Indian.... people are to be trusted not to put hands in bins?