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I'm not an insect expert, but it looks like the rear leg of a grasshopper.
I'm not an insect expert, but it looks like the rear leg of a grasshopper.
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Perhaps I'm in the minority, but somehow things like this just wouldn't bother me. Salads have vegetables in them, vegetables grow in the ground. Insects are found on/in the ground.
I'd probably go *crunch* \"Hmm, what's that? Oh, a bug must have gotten into the lettuce. Oh well.\" *Discard bug leg, continue eating.*
I don't think anyone really owes anything to anyone else, here.
It doesn't make me freak out cuz, you know, it happens, but I do hope that the kitchen staff isn't leaving it all up the farmers. After all, they had to wash, cut up, and otherwise prepare the food. So, perhaps an offer of a free replacement OR a refund would have sufficed. I can't say this alone makes an entire chain (or even just the one location) bad, mistakes happen.
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When did Applebee's start making frog-leg salad? Come on people, when are you gonna stop eating at these places?!
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So, that's where it went! (looks at stub where my left arm should be)
Strange, but all my trips to SE Asia means I probably would have eaten the leg anyway.
It's a grasshopper leg, I imagine Applebee's uses prewashed, bagged greens and stranger things have been found in bags of greens like live frogs. This doesn't excuse the leg being in the salad, but given the wide spectrum of horrible things you COULD find in a salad, this rates low on the \"ick\" factor.
Federal law actually provides for the maximum amount of rat hairs, feces and insect parts allowable in food..think about that.
It's entirely appropriate to offer a new salad, gift certificates or whatever Applebee's has at hand to make the situation better.
I hate to think how many posts I've commented on regarding pre-washed greens, but I'll reiterate..It may say it's clean, but it isn't.
A friend of mine found a whole grasshopper (one of those smaller green ones) in a salad in the cafeteria where we work. I figure that the lettuce is so sanitized before it gets to you that the bug may be gross, but It's probably pretty clean.
Not just big chain restaurants have this problem. There's a local chain of pan-Asian places around here (Joy Yee) that's pretty well-regarded. A couple years ago we ordered from the one in Evanston at work and a coworker found a cockroach cooked into her stir fry. We took pictures, we called to complain and they said that they didn't believe us. We photocopied the pictures and plastered them around the department. We don't order from Joy Yee Evanston anymore.
oh for f*ck's sake. now i know you warned us that there would be photos. but i just had to look, didn't i? and i just had to look at the 'close-up' photo.
well, will not be having BREAKFAST, LUNCH or possibly even DINNER today. also, note to self: never NEVER eat at Applebee's EVER again. dang that was gross. oh, and i just threw up in my mouth a little.
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I wish I wasn't eating my lunch when I read this. I just about yorked it up.
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@WindowSeat: I found the website with the guidelines a while back. It's a good read. It's called the \"The Food Defect Action Level Handbook.\" http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/dalbook.html
That's quite a grasshopper leg, by the way! Or is it a grasshopper?
The only acceptable resolution to this would be for applebees to offer a full refund.
Ok, this is totally nasty, and I'm dreading the 15 times I'm going to see it on my RSS feed (have you not been able to fix that problem yet?)
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That leg looks EXACTLY like Hopper's from \"A Bug's Life\"! Totes a grasshopper.
@Citron: Thanks for the link! A cursory glance at the glossery suggests the leg is an \"esthetic defect, one that offends the senses.\"
http://macombcountymi.gov/publichealth/foodprotection/Faci...
If you want to be disturbed, many counties have similar pages. Look up your favorite restaurant and there's a good chance you will never want to go there again!
*rolls eyes*
I'm sorry, but Stacey did overreact to this. Yes, it is gross to find a bug in a salad, but it can happen in any bulk packaged vegetable, especially lettuce. I don't find this Applebee's fault, no restaurant is going to check all it's greens for little insect bits. Plus, with the washing and sanitation that bulk lettuce goes through, she's likely to get just as sick from a bug-free salad as she would with this salad with bug added. If I were the manager I would have offered her a refund not just a free salad and perhaps a few other perks to keep her as a customer (to me customer retention is the key to service industries), and both parties should have been done with it at that point.
There are whole cultures out there who eat insects, there's nothing wrong with them as food, this is just a taboo of our culture that insects aren't food. Heck, we eat lobsters, which are insects of the sea, yet many will freak out when confronted with a grasshopper.
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I have to agree. This isn't bad at all even though there's more than a few people grossed out that are commenting. I think I'd be more worried about the employees using the bathroom and not washing their hands.
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No extra charge!
@heinzs: Pages like that are pretty common now and a lot of television newscasts use the reports as well. I think it's important to note that a lot of the information in these reports are comments on conditions that could be harmful and need to be corrected, but aren't indicative of an unsafe kitchen. The Macomb County cites an uncorrected backflow preventer and what that means is the County probably has amended their building code regarding plumbing and the situation hasn't been dealt with yet. Theoretically, sink drains can back up into the supply lines and contaminate the fresh water. If the building code had required a backflow prevention valve prior to the restaurant's opening, they couldn't have gotten their Certificate of Occupancy. Information on these sites are only useful if taken in context.
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To those who say \"I'll never eat at Applebee's again,\" you're dreaming pretty dreams if you think other restaurants don't occasionally have similar \"extras\" in their produce. That's the nature of produce, folks. Things will slip by no matter how hard you try to prevent it.
A bug leg: BFD. I hope you never eat any hot dogs or sausage.
The appropriate response for Applebee's was at a minimum to offer a replacement salad and and apology, and at a maximum to offer a free meal and an apology.
You people who are freaked out by this need to come to grips with where most of your food really comes from and get over it.
This is in a totally different league than finding a severed finger (you can presume someone knew they lost a finger) or something maliciously placed in your food.
Yeah, that specific report wasn't too meaningful. I just wanted to make people more aware of the fact that this information is often easily available. If there is a problem, it's usually not too big of a deal. It becomes an issue when you see a restaurant that's had a substantial history of problems.
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I'm pretty squeemish about foods (escargot, most shellfish, calimari, etc) but this just isn't that big a deal. They should get a couple free meals and move on. While I'm not going to eat a bug, they are a good source of protein. On the upside, you gotta figure the greens weren't overdosed with pesticides...
::shrug:: Extra protein in the salad? Sounds like a bargain to me.
Seriously, a refund for the cost of the salad would have been a nice gesture by Applebee's. But that's about the extent of it.
(remembers why we don't eat out much...)
I have to say, I do find it a bit odd that someone eating a salad made with chopped animal bits all over it would be so horribly bothered by bits of another living thing being inadvertently found in it.
It's very likely that whatever insect bits which ended up in the salad grew up in a cleaner, healthier environment than the chicken.
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@kerry:
ACK. I eat at Joy Yee a lot. Fortunately, it's usually the one in Downers Grove, but still...
I am more worried about the side of feces often served with Applebee's menu items than the occasional bug leg.
I've always thought Applebee's was notoriously filthy.
@c0nsumer:
Come on. Cockroaches or grasshoppers or whatever that have found their way onto the floor of a chain restaurant kitchen are gross, factory-farmed chickens aside.
If you only feel pity for vegetarians, I once found an entire moth in my (i thought) vegan salad from the Aramark-run dining hall at my university two or three years back. Ridiculously big thing; blended right in with the spinach leaves and whatnot. Almost took a bite out of the thing before I realized.
It was about a week or two before I had the slightest desire to eat leafy greens again.
@droppedD: It's unlikely that the grasshopper leg in the salad came from the floor of the kitchen. It probably was torn off during the processing of the greens and washed along with all the other bits.
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I think the proper response for Applebees is to refund her money, perhaps for the entire order but at least for her salad, and offer her a replacement salad free of charge. And no matter how fresh the greens are, finding a grasshopper in a salad is gross.
@mopar_man: Why? Do you think the grasshopper was kind enough to wash his legs before he jumped into the salad?
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One of my favorite local restaurants recently switched to organic greens, and a couple visits back a coworker found a LIVE centipede in her salad. They comped the meal, said they were instructing the prep cooks to wash the salad better, and you know what, we're still going there.
Applebee's should have comped the bug salad AND washed the salad greens, but yeah, bugs happen in produce.
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@mewyn dyner: My thoughts exactly. What were the Applebees employees supposed to ask, \"would you like to see our psychological counselors to help you get over your unfortunate trauma?\" Offer to replace the food, or to refund the price of the meal, or both.
This lady's trying to make a federal case because an insect part touched the inside of her mouth. I guess no one has ever told her what goes on when she goes to sleep every night.
I am a koser food inspector and as such first of all kosher law requires us to check all leafy products for insects for we are not allowed to eat a single insect knowingly (when theres the possibility that they exist we have to check). As such I can tell you that it is common for such things to end up in your salad when the salads are used straight from the bag. I can say with what I have found I am happy that I keep kosher and only eat in kosher places.
On another token I believe Applebee's is correct in offering a replacement salad and an apology. They didnt put that leg in your salad, blame the salad company!
I recently found a plastic twisty tie in a salad at a restaurant (it blended in with the salad very well and I discovered it while chewing). Although there was a chance it could have cut my tongue or gums and who knows what germs were on it, I'd probably prefer the twisty tie over the bug leg.
Course, just thinking about it right now while not eating, I kinda prefer the pre-cleaned bug leg, but the gross-out factor while sitting at a table and eating is so much greater with the bug leg.
Bug leg....not so gross, part of life and natural.
Band-aid... really gross, not natural
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@B: Word.
Frankly, I'm surprised at how many commenters here have not only have no problem with bugs being in their food but can't understand why it would bother people.
@c0nsumer: That makes no sense. That's like saying someone with a pet dog should be ok with getting a pet shark as a gift. Just because they're both animals doesn't mean they both make good pets.
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@scrooks: You took the words out of my mouth.
\"I'll never eat at any Applebee's again!\"...umm, the crappy Chili's down the street is just as prone to the same thing people. Any restaurant is prone to this kind of thing really.
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The chicken in the salad looks ickier than the leg does. I'd rather see the bug leg in it that the piece of broken glass I found in a salad years ago at a local mexican joint. They comped my meal and I was happy! I also ate there many times after that.
I think the original reason this was posted is whether we though Applebee's did enough. I'm a little disappointed that when the salad offer was refused they didn't offer a refund but other than that, it was handled properly.
The health department? Seriously? For a grasshopper leg? I think I've swallowed worse bugs riding on a motorcycle.
Meh...as a vegetarian, my initial thought is that the bug leg and bits of chicken are equally gross to me. That's obviously not Stacy's situation, though.
I think she should have asked for a refund and an apology and left it at that. Finding a bug leg in a salad is a little different from finding a bug leg in, say, a pile of french fries or a pasta dish. It happens, and while I'd be upset (seeing as how I don't eat ANY creature that once moved of it's own volition) I wouldn't have made as big a deal out of it as she had. Refusing to eat at the restaurant again is a bit much--I only stop patronizing restaurants that willfully cause problems (the ones that repeatedly switch out my veggie substituted for real meat, or where the waiter stole my credit card info, for example).
Applebee's was right to offer another salad and when she said no, they should have offered her a refund.
That said, I don't understand how one can be grossed out over an insect when there's a dead animal all over the salad. What that chicken went through and how it got onto her salad is a far more revolting story than a poor grasshopper getting accidentally scooped up, chopped and bagged. In comparison, a bug isn't that gross.
I had a similar incident at a Perkins in the Twin Cities some years ago, only I saw it before I put it in my mouth: a large, still-moving beetle.
I calmly called the waitress over and nicely asked her to identify the insect for me. She was horrified, immediately said, \"I imagine you don't want another salad, then?\" and proceeded to replace my meal (with something cooked, thank you!) free of charge.
I used to work in a grocery store and if someone like Stacie knew what came in the produce boxes she would probably never eat vegetables again. Bugs, frogs, and lizards are all pretty common. A grasshopper leg isn't really that bad of a find--even though it's still gross to find it in your mouth. Applebees should have refunded her money and given her a free salad (since she'll probably never redeem the salad anyway).
I saw a dead fly in the big bin of salad bar coleslaw at chain place once so I reported it to management.
Perhaps my expectations were too high but the resolution was stomach-turning. The worker came out from the kitchen with an empty plate. He used the scoop that was already in the coleslaw, scooped out the dead fly and surrounding slaw, dumped the scoop out onto the plate, smoothed out the slaw divot with the back of the scoop, returned the same scoop back to the slaw and went back into the kitchen.
I would have expected that they would replace the scoop they used to fish out the fly at the very least but replacing the whole bin would have been better.
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Grasshoppers have the same texture as shrimp and will absorb the flavor of whatever it is that you cook it with. Pretty good with rice and some boullion.
Unfortunately they served this poor girl the most unappetizing part of the grasshopper. Too bad the legs arent really very edible.
If trying grasshopper for the first time I reccommend removing the back legs and the wings. Make sure you get a nice plump one. The tiny ones dont have much flavor or meat on them and they just get stuck in your teeth.
BTW Meghann, I was totally ready to go eat some lunch and then I looked at the pictures. Shame on me. Maybe I will lose a couple pounds after not eating today.
NO biggie really. It was just a bugs leg. They live on veggies and leafy green things. You find those and lady bugs all the time in the produce before serving them (restaurants). One reason the manager wasn't all wigged out about it. I know that if I was not expecting it it would be weird but would just finish me salad.
Really it isn't the same as find a rats leg !
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I don't really see any issue here at all! This is what happens! Vegetables and Fruits attract insects. When we as humans harvest in Bulk you are going to find insects in your Produce.
If the Salad was fresh then the insect must be also!
Out my way we'ver known for a while that Applebee's salads can contain odd things. A University of Iowa professor and his wife ordered a salad at Applebee's in Coralville, Iowa in 2003 and found a 3.5\" lizard head in it. At the time, there were pictures, but I can't seem to find any now. Here's the link:
http://media.www.dailyiowan.com/media/storage/paper599/new...
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I think at most she should've gotten maybe a gift certificate that was twice as much as her salad or maybe 2 free meals, but it was just a leg. Many people eat bugs. But she, and others on here, act as if it was a bit of semen covered poo. It was a grasshopper leg. Nothing terrible, I'm sure that leg is healthier than most of applebees menu.
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I ate at Applebees once. At the Applebees I went to it was designed so that every table was in view of every other table in the whole place. At the time I was there it was very crowded and I felt like I was in some sort of sports arena which is definitely not a good atmosphere for me. Because of this experience and the lackluster food I never went back. And to all the \"OMG! I almost barfed up my lunch!\" WUSSES!
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I seem to be a magnet for bugs, etc. in food. I've found a dead potato bug (one of those little gray arthropods that roll up when you tap them) in Applebee's broccoli, larva of some sort in a pomegranate, a nice brood of tiny flies in a chocolate bar, and of course the requisite use-by stickers that assembly-line restaurants like Applebee's use on their produce packaging. With all these bad experiences, you'd think I'd have stopped eating most things by now. Unfortunately for my waistline, this is not the case. I have, however, stopped eating at Applebee's, since they have been responsible for most of these offenses.
Oh, and it might be worth mentioning that I live in metro Detroit and know exactly where that Applebee's is. It might even have been the one responsible for the buggy broccoli.
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A letter is due, an apology, a refund for the full meal AND a courtesy gift card worth at least $25 for the inconvenience. It's disgusting, I would deem the entire meal as soiled and not pay for anything. It just would upset anyone, especially while eating.
I hate despise roaches, that would kill me to find one fried in my food. I would probably just go into cardiac arrest. I absolutely hate roaches!!
JESUS! what kind of bug WAS that???
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I never liked Applebee's in the first place. The pictures and comments here have turned me off on eating at any restaurants for the time being. In the future, when my food is served I will be examining it more closely.
Finding a bug or its parts in your food is stomach-turning, and pulling a hair out from a mouth full of food is one of the worst!
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I've never eaten at an Applebee's. Partly I suppose that's because I'm a vegetarian, and those big chain restaurants where the entrées are shipped to them pre-made and frozen can't be very responsive to requests like, \"Can you leave the bacon out of that?\"
But really I think it's because someone told me that the nearby Applebee's has a two drink MAXIMUM.
@asherchang: Yeah, the one in Evanston. The one in Chinatown is supposed to be really top-notch, so I don't know if they suffer from the same cleanliness issues as the Evanston one.
@Hirayuki: That's not a potato bug, these are: http://whatsthatbug.com/potato.html
Potato bugs are bigger and way scarier than little pill bugs. They're also nigh uncrushable. A friend of mine couldn't kill one with a hammer while it ran around under her carpet. If I ever found a potato bug in my food I would never eat again.
If it's a grasshopper leg, you can go ahead and eat it.
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i dont think its a grasshopper leg. the thigh is too lean. grasshopper leg thighs are big and muscled, this one is thin and tapered.
personally, i rank finding bugs in my food as one of the top three horrors i can experience in life. id rather get shot somewhere non-fatal than have it happen again. ive found beetles in my salt; weevils in my bread and cereals; earwigs in my peaches; maggots in my peas and apples; maybugs in my drink; cockroaches in icecream; pupae in muffins; wasps everywhere and moths on everything. i cant think of any time ive experienced a greater sense of horror than when i find crawling things in what im eating.
all these people laughing about it must either be aborigines, survivalists or full of shit.
It is quite annoying so many of us are culturally adverse to eating a good, cheap protein source. I'm ashamed(of myself). If you had a chance of $1M payday, would you eat a bug(big part of Survivor, yes?). On another point, I emailed Applebee's as to why they didnot respond to my signing up for thier email offers, they sent me a gift certificate for $25. I wasn't really complaining! Really!
I don't order any salads or gilled chicken meals from applebee's to go any more. the Three times I had done so my chicken wasn't cooked all the way through. The chicken was white on the outside and raw pink in the middle; the cook cut the chicken into strips and arranged them on top of the salad with the pink visible. How they could have missed that is beyond me.
Ugh, until I read this story I had forgotten about finding a giant slug in my vegetable curry from what was previously my favorite Thai restaurant. Now I remember and I think I'm going to be ill.
Applebee's does not grow or package the lettuce the salad was made from. There are quite a few stops between the place the produce was grown and your to go bowl. Yes they made a mistake and it ruined your \"power lunch\" which is sad. The local vendors are not being mentioned and they are the ones to blame.
What in the world do you expect a manager to say when you call them in hysterics saying an insect leg was in your food? What could anyone say to make things better at that point? Get over it! Things happen, people make honest mistakes.
oh no! One dead animal part disgusts me while I gladly eat a different animal part! Stop the presses.
It's not what she ordered, and yes, to Westerners, that's probably gross, but I feel that allowing her to get a free salad whenever she wants was enough.
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I know Meghann warned us about the photos, so I was dumb for looking... Instead of NSFW, they should be labeled NSFLH (Not safe for lunch hour).