Friends sometimes joke that I could write a book with all the strange events that occur to or near me, sometimes good and sometimes not so good. My suitcase heading off to Angola is a rather nice example.
That brings me to this evening.
I was passing by a “tabun” style bakery this evening when I decided to give in to a post-Passover craving.
For those who don’t know, a “tabun” is not a bakery that makes bread. They make things like pita bread, bagels with salt or zatar spices, all sorts of baked pockets called sambusak, etc. Most have a gas-powered open oven designed to look like a wood-burning oven where they cook or warm up the food.
Anyway, I placed my order while the clerk was accross the store from me. He had to walk about 4 meters to get to the counter to put the food in a paper bag. He decided to make good use of the intervening time. He pulled out a tissue and wiped his nose. He then picked something out of his teeth with the same hand. Seconds later, this same hand was grabbing what was supposed to become my food. No gloves, no tongs, no hand-washing in the middle. UCK!
I stopped him and asked him to either use the tongs that were nearby, or to wash his hands. He looked at me as if I’d just asked him to take off in a spaceship. Fortunately, the “boss” seemed to react and walked over. He said to me with heavy sarcasm something to the effect of “what do you want me to do, use a bag on my hand?” Before I could answer, he said to me “This is how we do it here. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to buy from us.“
Stunned
Shock
Disbelief
WHAT? I mean, was he actually implying that basic sanitation was AGAINST THEIR POLICY?
He was telling me, the customer, that I have to accept his employee essentially wiping his nose on my food, and that this was their policy? I wished I’d recorded him. This is simply horrible. In North America this would never be tolerated, and I’m not going to let this slide. Maybe I’m wasting my time. I really hope not. The idea of eating from this place sickens me, and I am going to try calling the Ministry of Health this week to find out if Israel even has a restaurant health code. This place needs to learn a lesson.
[tags]food, sanitary, israel[/tags]
