Waiter, there’s a Snail in my Salad

May 21, 2007 — 6 Comments

I tossed up writing about this over the weekend but it’s too bizarre not to share.

So we decide Friday night that we’d go out for dinner. The golden child is impartial to pasta so we head to Uncle Vinnies Eaton for a cheap and cheerful meal (when I say cheap I mean BYO + under $20/ meal). We order, food comes out quickly. I ordered the “Vinnies Special” chicken dish, some sort of cream sauce on chicken with mushroom, bacon and sun-dried tomato thing and it came with a side of salad.

So I’m eating the salad, and I spot what at first appears to be a mussel, I like seafood but I hate oysters and mussels, so I put my fork under it to remove it. And up pops a snail!

It gets better. The snail wasn’t dead. So I flick it up then drop it in shock, it lands on top of the salad and starts blowing bubbles!

I should have taken a picture on my mobile. I’ll never forget the image in my head as long as I live.

Suffice to say the meal was replaced and I didn’t have to pay for it, but I couldn’t bring myself to eat the replacement salad, and she who must be obeyed didn’t eat hers either. The golden child on the other hand thought it was the most hilarious thing he had ever seen (mind you, 4 year olds think everything is funny) and continued to talk about it for hours to come, even going so far as telling me this morning on the way to school how he was going to tell his teacher about it, some 3 days later!

I don’t write this out of anger towards Uncle Vinnies Eaton, it was an accident and they did everything they could to repair the situation, and yet they might be better of switching to French Cuisine, they’ve certainly been practicing it.