Well, I was up early this morning, despite the attack on my intestines, at 5 AM this morning. I'm not sure what caused it but Shelagh and I both felt icky.
Before I get into that intriguing topic, I wanted to bitch about something that happened to me yesterday involving a major grocery chain in the area.
I did all my shopping and waited an inordinate amount of time, for there only being 2 people in front of me, with about 10 items each. When the cashier asked the customer what green onions were, I knew I was in trouble. He didn't even seem that new to the job, just extraordinarily apathetic. Anyway when he finished up my payment he must have left the last bag hanging on the packing rack because I got home with one less bag of groceries.
So, no worries, I'll just call them up, I'm sure the bag is still there and buddy probably already passed it in at the customer service counter. Long story short, I spoke to 4 separate people with no lead in by the previous, I had to repeat myself 4 times to reach the last person saying basically, sorry it isn't here, tough shit.
So I hung up and sat for a minute, pretty peeved about what just happened and cranky about getting the run around. I decided, I was definitely not going to take no for an answer and stormed back off to the grocery store, determined to get my bag of groceries.
It took me no longer than 5 minutes to get there and I walked directly to the customer service counter and politely said, I left a bag of groceries here with these items in it and I wish to pick it up. I explained that I tossed my receipt but pointed out the cashier. She said, oh yes, we found that bag and here is a list of everything in it, logged here in this journal, if you can read the handwriting, you can go grab it, otherwise I'll get the guy who logged it all and it will only take a moment and you'll be on your way.
I'm sure your thinking the same thing I was, why the hell did I speak to 4 different people to be told, to bad so sad, to walk into the store and have my problem solved in less time than the call took. This is unacceptable as far as I'm concerned and they will surly be receiving an informative e-mail from me later today.
Retaliation Part 2
Whatever I ate yesterday that made me feel the aforementioned ickyness, is still lingering in my system and making me feel terrible. So I thought about what I ate yesterday and oddly enough for lunch, I decided to grab a junior donair from Pizza Town on my way home from groceries.. The reason I say it was odd is because latter that evening as I was glancing through a newspaper, I saw and article about donair meat being unsafe for consumption and the whole industry is under scrutiny.
I worked as a pizza cook for about 6 years and in that time, I consumed a lot of donair meat and I never got violently ill from it. This is a hot debate going on now in Halifax, which has donair meat almost on every corner. I don't eat donairs very often anymore due to high cholesterol so I honestly wouldn't miss them if they were gone. I guess it could hurt local business but there are many ways to make sure donairs are safe to eat and can be as simple as cooking the meat on the grill before serving it. Basically, I don't think it was the donair but I guess I can't be sure.
The only other thing I ate yesterday was the Presidents Choice Chinese Combo meal. Due to the fact that the rice and vegetable side had either peanut oil or fish sauce in them, (I'm still at a loss for why vegetarian rice needs peanut oil in it or why vegetable noodles need shrimp juice, my wife Shelagh is allergic to both peanuts and Seafood) we only purchased the Sweet and Sour Pork main dish and the General Taos Chicken main dish and grabbed a steamed rice and a couple veggie spring rolls at a local establishment.
I love good Chinese food and eat it as often as my budget allows and General Taos Chicken is one of my favorites so I was really excited about this one, especially after yesterday's success . I cooked them both by conventional oven instructions, which usually tends to be the best results. The Sweet and Sour Pork was definitely better than the General Taos Chicken which was pretty flavorless. As impressed with the Indian Selection as I was, I was equally unimpressed with the Chinese one.
Both meats were reasonably tender but the sauce dried out quite a bit during cooking and the edges of the meat was a little over cooked and chewy. The green and red peppers were soggy and disgusting and the Sweet and Sour Pork only had 4 small pineapple chunks in it. Overall This was a pretty unimpressive meal to the point that I will not purchase it again or recommend it to anyone.
So my suspicions are that either the combination of the donair and Chinese food made my insides retaliate or it was just one or the other, the fact that Shelagh felt Icky after we both ate the Chinese food leads me to believe it was indeed that and not the donair. However the effects of tainted meat can delay up to 7 days before symptoms arise so indeed it could be the Donair. Knowing that also means it could have been something I ate several days ago.
I can't place sole blame on anything specific, so no angry letters from Presidents Choice Lawyers or The Donair Association, please, I have insinuated nothing.
Let me make this clear though , I don't recommend these dinners because of their flavor and texture not because of the possibility that they may or may not have made me ill.
Lesson learned today is, in my opinion, don't purchase Presidents Choice Chinese Combo main dishes and if you do, don't precede it with a donair.
Before I get into that intriguing topic, I wanted to bitch about something that happened to me yesterday involving a major grocery chain in the area.
I did all my shopping and waited an inordinate amount of time, for there only being 2 people in front of me, with about 10 items each. When the cashier asked the customer what green onions were, I knew I was in trouble. He didn't even seem that new to the job, just extraordinarily apathetic. Anyway when he finished up my payment he must have left the last bag hanging on the packing rack because I got home with one less bag of groceries.
So, no worries, I'll just call them up, I'm sure the bag is still there and buddy probably already passed it in at the customer service counter. Long story short, I spoke to 4 separate people with no lead in by the previous, I had to repeat myself 4 times to reach the last person saying basically, sorry it isn't here, tough shit.
So I hung up and sat for a minute, pretty peeved about what just happened and cranky about getting the run around. I decided, I was definitely not going to take no for an answer and stormed back off to the grocery store, determined to get my bag of groceries.
It took me no longer than 5 minutes to get there and I walked directly to the customer service counter and politely said, I left a bag of groceries here with these items in it and I wish to pick it up. I explained that I tossed my receipt but pointed out the cashier. She said, oh yes, we found that bag and here is a list of everything in it, logged here in this journal, if you can read the handwriting, you can go grab it, otherwise I'll get the guy who logged it all and it will only take a moment and you'll be on your way.
I'm sure your thinking the same thing I was, why the hell did I speak to 4 different people to be told, to bad so sad, to walk into the store and have my problem solved in less time than the call took. This is unacceptable as far as I'm concerned and they will surly be receiving an informative e-mail from me later today.
Retaliation Part 2
Whatever I ate yesterday that made me feel the aforementioned ickyness, is still lingering in my system and making me feel terrible. So I thought about what I ate yesterday and oddly enough for lunch, I decided to grab a junior donair from Pizza Town on my way home from groceries.. The reason I say it was odd is because latter that evening as I was glancing through a newspaper, I saw and article about donair meat being unsafe for consumption and the whole industry is under scrutiny.
I worked as a pizza cook for about 6 years and in that time, I consumed a lot of donair meat and I never got violently ill from it. This is a hot debate going on now in Halifax, which has donair meat almost on every corner. I don't eat donairs very often anymore due to high cholesterol so I honestly wouldn't miss them if they were gone. I guess it could hurt local business but there are many ways to make sure donairs are safe to eat and can be as simple as cooking the meat on the grill before serving it. Basically, I don't think it was the donair but I guess I can't be sure.
The only other thing I ate yesterday was the Presidents Choice Chinese Combo meal. Due to the fact that the rice and vegetable side had either peanut oil or fish sauce in them, (I'm still at a loss for why vegetarian rice needs peanut oil in it or why vegetable noodles need shrimp juice, my wife Shelagh is allergic to both peanuts and Seafood) we only purchased the Sweet and Sour Pork main dish and the General Taos Chicken main dish and grabbed a steamed rice and a couple veggie spring rolls at a local establishment.
I love good Chinese food and eat it as often as my budget allows and General Taos Chicken is one of my favorites so I was really excited about this one, especially after yesterday's success . I cooked them both by conventional oven instructions, which usually tends to be the best results. The Sweet and Sour Pork was definitely better than the General Taos Chicken which was pretty flavorless. As impressed with the Indian Selection as I was, I was equally unimpressed with the Chinese one.
Both meats were reasonably tender but the sauce dried out quite a bit during cooking and the edges of the meat was a little over cooked and chewy. The green and red peppers were soggy and disgusting and the Sweet and Sour Pork only had 4 small pineapple chunks in it. Overall This was a pretty unimpressive meal to the point that I will not purchase it again or recommend it to anyone.
So my suspicions are that either the combination of the donair and Chinese food made my insides retaliate or it was just one or the other, the fact that Shelagh felt Icky after we both ate the Chinese food leads me to believe it was indeed that and not the donair. However the effects of tainted meat can delay up to 7 days before symptoms arise so indeed it could be the Donair. Knowing that also means it could have been something I ate several days ago.
I can't place sole blame on anything specific, so no angry letters from Presidents Choice Lawyers or The Donair Association, please, I have insinuated nothing.
Let me make this clear though , I don't recommend these dinners because of their flavor and texture not because of the possibility that they may or may not have made me ill.
Lesson learned today is, in my opinion, don't purchase Presidents Choice Chinese Combo main dishes and if you do, don't precede it with a donair.
