\n<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, tofu wasn’t the only source of protein in the dish.<\/p>\n
Local actor Thomas Ong was dining at a restaurant in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, last week when one of his friends scooped out a dead cockroach halfway through their curry yong tau foo meal.\u202f<\/p>\n
Thomas, 57, detailed the incident in a Facebook post yesterday (Sept 16): “The entire table fell silent instantly. If I were younger, I probably would have lost my temper, but over the years, along with the wrinkles, my emotional intelligence seems to have grown a bit too.”<\/p>\n
Trying to diffuse the awkwardness at the time, he said to his friend: “Your eyesight is too good!”<\/p>\n
Thomas said the restaurant, which he did not name, waived the bill for that bowl.<\/p>\n
But the bill wasn’t the issue anymore, he remarked.<\/p>\n
“For the entire following week, whenever I ate noodle soup anywhere, the first thing I did wasn’t taking a photo. Instead, I’d use my spoon to inspect and scour the food in the bowl with wide eyes, checking for cockroaches, mice, or any protein that shouldn’t be there before daring to eat,” he recounted.<\/p>\n
He said he’s “not naive enough” to assume every restaurant’s kitchen is spotless enough to have zero pests: “But there is a world of difference between a cockroach in the kitchen somewhere and a customer having to fish it out of their own bowl.<\/p>\n
“There are some things you can stomach as long as you don’t see them. But once you’ve seen it, every bowl of soup thereafter turns into a ‘treasure’ hunt.”<\/p>\n
Thomas asked his followers how they would have handled the situation: “Call the manager, refuse to eat, demand a refund, or like me, perform a safety check before every sip of soup from then on?”<\/p>\n
Netizens in the comments section shared their own horrific experiences, while others asked for hints on the restaurant’s name.<\/p>\n
If you’re dining in Johor Bahru and the restaurant happens to have woven wooden dining chairs, sell curry yong tau foo and provide black cutlery\u2026 perhaps try the next eatery.\u202f<\/p>\n