Snake heads? In food? The culprit needs to be caught and given the death penalty. That is just too disgusting to even think about!

I hate snakes.

I will never eat in a T.G.I. Friday's again

No great loss there.

I remember reading a Zen story about a novice who, starting to cook lunch late, just took a knife and cut off the tops of a bunch of veggies and tossed them in for soup.

He served the other monks. One of them held up a snake head in his chopsticks, and said, "What is this?"

The novice grabbed the snake head with his chopsticks, ate it and said, "Oh, thank you, Master!"

I think the story was entitled, "Eat Your Mistakes" or something like that.

why is anyone surprised? if snakeheads can walk from one body of water to another, i'm sure they can make their way into a restaurant. sheeeesh!

Fact or fiction; what's summer without a snake story?

Maybe Guy Fieri put it in there.

I have found little worms in my broccoli grown in our garden after it's been cooked. The worms are the same color as the broccoli, therefore difficult to detect. No matter, my niece refuses to eat the broccoli from our garden.

As usual, I seem to be the only one confused.

Lab tests showed that the snake head wasn't cooked (they needed lab tests for that?), and therefore the snake head was added to the broccoli at the restaurant.

Does this mean that T.G.I.Friday's food is cooked elsewhere and then shipped into the restaurant?

Notable - I never understood the direction to soak fresh broccoli in salt water before cooking until just this minute.....

Bucky, it means that the complaining customer most likely added the snake head to the food after it was served.

Hal - gotcha. Thanks. "...wasn't cooked, therefore it was added after the broccoli was delivered out of the kitchen."

I took it to mean either the kitchen help added it or the customer. But if it had come in with the broccoli and somehow escaped the kitchen's notice, it would have been cooked with the broccoli. EL

Eve, don't let your new found knowledge deter you from enjoying your homegrown broccoli. My parents fell victim to a similar revelation. Just remember, its all mental.

At least you can tell it's a snake head. You know what it is. Unlike what's in b--f s--------f.

My cousin used to work at Friday's and told me once the veggies come in plastic steambags. Individual servings. So they microwave them and add them to the main course on the plate. So i'm guessing they mean if the snake head was NOT cooked, it was not in the steamer bag.

But ewwww. I also hate snakes. A lot.

You know, YumPo, I bet we could make rattlesnake stroganoff...

...and instead of using noodles, serve it with quinoa, AND wash it all down with birch beer. Oh yes, Lissa, sounds like a FINE, FINE meal. Mmm, mmm, GACK.

I think, since rattlesnakes are a ground creature, that root beer would be more appropriate than birch beer with snake stroganoff.

I don't hate snakes, as long as they are in their rightful place, which is not on the plate lurking among the broccoli.

John McPhee told a story about a family out west who entertained an unexpected guest. The wife made a stew out of rattlesnake. The guest made alarming noises about what he would do to anyone who would try to serve him snake, but she just calmly offered him second helpings of "this delicious chicken," as I recall. Oh to be as cool as a pioneer woman!

For the second time this month, I walk up to get my mail at the mailbox kiosk thing, and there is a 4-foot black snake in there. Most times they hightail it away (or coil up in fear), but yesterday (no lie) this snake had a long stalk of grass in its mouth and appeared to be chewing it, all while its tongue went in and out. It was like it was sizing me up.
I heard that black snakes fear humans but still, I got my mail and got out of there.

I hate snakes too.

I had Rattlesnake at the Roadkill Cookoff in West Virginia. In a word: bony.

That story is full of Do Not Want. *shudder* its like my worst night mare.

PCB Rob, your story makes me recall a true story I read many years ago about someone who had an infestation of black snakes in an old chicken house. They tried everything they could think of, but the snakes kept returning. One day the man was so infuriated by the big snake casually draped over the door that he picked up a big paintbrush and started painting the snake. That did it--they left, never to return. Might be worth a try!

Send your extra black snakes to my neighbourhood! They love rats.

Thirty-something years ago, an elderly widowed (then) in-law of mine was living in a (minimum) 200-year old cabin up in the Catskils. The only sources of heat were the big black woodstove in the kitchen and the Franklin Stove in the front room. The basement had been chipped out of the rock that the "Skills are.

My (then) mother-in-law had, quite frankly, bullied us into taking her up there for this visit. In the course of cooking dinner, MIL grabbed the flashlight to head down to the basement for some sort of canned vegetables that were always provided by the (really, very dear) old guy's women-kin. (I'd been deemed to "Liberal" - hey! it's the in-laws! - to find the correct jar.) He proudly announced that the flashlight wasn't necessary because someone-or-other had run a light at the bottom of the steps. Just pull the cord when you get down there. So, MIL went blindly about halfway down those dark, narrow, rickety old stairs and sensed rather than saw the cord hanging. Black snake hangin' from the rafter.

Ewwwwww Broccoli.

Eve--your story tops mine!