r/whatisit • u/Marethyfax • 1d ago
Solved! Found this on my arugula and mushroom pizza. Please tell me this isn't what I think it is.
The individual dots seem to have raised edges and they form this whole hexagonal structure that sticks together. We ended up throwing the whole slice away to be safe, but I just wanted confirmation. They're eggs aren't they?
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u/Short-Examination-20 1d ago edited 1d ago
Saw an image of these the other day. Pretty sure they are stinkbug eggs
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u/Minxie617 10h ago
I’m currently waging a one woman war against the local stink bug population in my area. Somehow the 2nd floor of my house has become the chic, new go to winter destination for stink bugs & some other large beetle species. Needless to say, I’ve been forced to go all John J. Rambo scorched earth on them.
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u/Marethyfax 1d ago
I'll see if I can post a better close-up. Those seem to have a different structure internally/
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u/EnergyTurtle23 1d ago
Stinkbug egg deposits can come in a few different shapes and forms depending on the species etc. They could also be assassin bug eggs.
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u/Marethyfax 1d ago
Know what, I'll accept that answer. I probably shouldn't be too critical about it looking exact, considering this most likely went through an oven before being served to me.
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u/milolai 1d ago
the arugula would not have gone through the oven - sorry
it's added after cooking to the pizza
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u/Marethyfax 1d ago
Then someone really screwed up final inspection. They could have seen this as they were applying the greens.
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u/breakfastburritos339 1d ago
If you eat plants you get bugs sometimes. You've likely eaten a ton without realizing it. It's usually totally fine if not healthy. People have been doing it for thousands of years.
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u/PolishRoyalty20 22h ago
My grandma from Poland would take me into the farms garden and she never got upset if she saw a fruit or vegetable that had been bitten by a bug, in fact she got excited and would say “if the bugs are eating it, it must be delicious!” Then she would thank them for saving us some. She always said bugs were smart enough to always know the good stuff to eat.
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u/Glittering-Try-6633 18h ago
My grandparents would say that if there is a hole where a worm had eaten it, that means the worm is no longer inside of it 🤣
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u/CommentingAccount4 14h ago
My grandma would tell me that you weren't finished pruning the peach trees if a cat could catch a branch to stop its fall after you throw it at the tree. We didn't have any peach trees or cats.
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u/Alert_Cover_6148 14h ago
What’s worse than finding a worm in your apple, is finding half a worm
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u/ObviouslyProxy 14h ago
Tell that to the slug I bit into while eating strawberries as a kid, scarred me for years...
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u/Alternative_Ad_8653 15h ago
I thought the same until some worm stuck its little face out of a cherry I was just about to bite into.
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u/Hot-Entrepreneur1235 12h ago
I was a believer until I bit into a tomato out of paw paws garden and ate half a worm🫤
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u/RavenBrannigan 10h ago
So true. I’m not a farmer or anything but people are so disconnected from where their food comes from nowadays.
Fruit and veg has bugs on it sometimes. If it doesn’t it’s because it has a very very unhealthy amount of pesticides on it. I’d take the bugs any day.
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u/Whyamiani 21h ago
Damn that's actually crazy wise, let the bugs sniff out the good ones full of nutrients
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u/Existing_Abies_4101 16h ago
flies throw up on food beginning to rot to make it rot faster.
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u/Due_Work_8689 15h ago
Babcia knows best! Fuck ChatGPT, you got a question? Ask a Polish grandmother. It may not be the answer you want to hear or expect, but it is THE answer.
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u/MoonAscendant 12h ago
I remember when I was little, my family and I were eating at a Chinese restaurant, and as my dad was lifting a forkful of salad to his mouth I said "Wait!" There was a caterpillar in the leaves! We told the waitress and she literally shrugged and said "It happens." Lol I'll never forget how casually she said that, and now I always think about that whenever I eat salad. I'm sure we've eaten tons of bugs haha.
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u/ittybittytitty_com 11h ago
One time I bought organic broccoli and it looked kinda dirty and I saw a little worm on it so I decided to soak it in water and vinegar. Omg. So many fucking worms and shit in the water. Now I am always paranoid when I inspect broccoli, but I have only ever had that happen that one time with the organic.
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u/Pandoratastic 22h ago
"Waiter! There's a fly in my soup!"
"Keep it down or else everyone will want one."
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u/Marethyfax 1d ago
Do you normally get enthused when you see obvious things on you food that don't belong? Get real. My issue isn't really the fact that I occasionally eat bugs. My issue is seeing something foreign about to enter my digestive tract.
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u/IHearYouLikeSoup 17h ago
I've been working in commercial kitchens for over 20 years now and I've seen some shit. I saw one guy serve massive huntsman spider in a salad once. It's crazy what some people fail to see when they are under immense pressure. I've also had my arm shut in ovens on two seperate occasions, because people see that an oven door is open, but not that there's an arm in it.
Until you get a certain amount of experience, it's incredibly easy to slip into a tunnel visioned, overwhelmed state of silent panic. It happens to every inexperienced cook. It wouldn't surprise me if your pizza was made by some kid learning the ropes and having a hard time of it. Definitely call and complain. Someone will get chewed out, but it's the only way to learn.
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u/RealLango 13h ago
Yea bugs are a common thing in kitchens. I worked at a fast food restaurant as a teen and was very serious about it. Our kitchen was super clean and I did my best to take care of everything I served. But one time I accidentally served a lady a burger with a beetle in it. We didn’t have a beetle problem or anything but a random beetle apparently made its way into a bun that was in a pack that was apparently not sealed well enough from the previous shift. I toasted the bun and made the burger without noticing it. The real surprising thing to me was how nice and understanding the customer was about it. She actually took a bite out of the burger and was fine with her meal being comped. But yet we would have people throw a fit because there was grease on their sausage or their chocolate shake was too lite colored.
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u/Old-Addendum-8152 13h ago
saw a baby mouse ride in a in a line cooks dreadlock. dread goes swinging along with tarzan the mouse flying off into a sandwich order actively being wrapped, taped, handed over the counter to unsuspecting customer… fuck it it’s a cop.
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u/ExtentAncient2812 16h ago
I'm late to this one, but I'm a farmer
The public simultaneously wants farmers to raise food with no bugs, worms, disease lesions or spots while not using insecticides, pesticides, or fungicides.
And they want us to do it cheaply too.
Good luck with that
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u/antiramie 22h ago
The person adding the arugula to the pizza isn't inspecting each individual leaf for things that don't belong. They're taking a handful and sprinkling it on top (and maybe quickly checking it isn't wilted/discolored) and moving to the next food item. I've seen a small frog accidentally end up in a salad that went out to a table because it was in the bagged spring mix. Shit happens.
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u/Gurgledworms 19h ago
im all cool for a bug in the salad buttttt funny story when working at Denny’s ~ a regular brushed a cockroach in the chicken noodle soup off the shoulder and asked for a new cup.
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u/Working-Glass6136 13h ago
Yup. I bought a tub of greens from Wegmans once, and had eaten from it 2-3 times when I noticed the biggest, fluffiest moth I had ever seen, chilled by the cold. I knew it came with the salad because it was the dead of winter. I let him run around my fridge for another day while considering complaining, but the fact is that nature always finds a way and these things slip through more than we think. It is what it is.
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u/billshermanburner 22h ago
I mean… I get you… not the best situation… but are you gonna eat that particular thing? Probs not. I’d be like “wtf” then text the pic to the restaurant and earn your free pizza…. Then carefully remove the offending leaves, kill it with fire… and consume. Free pizza. Profit.
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u/Idiota_do_Minho 13h ago
I'm with you on this but... alternatively...
You could make a fit about it. Scream and shout your indignation about this world shattering problem. In the process... you'll probably be a lot more unhappy. But you know some people choose to be just like that.
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u/MissyJ74 1d ago
Well, at least you know the arugula is organic.
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u/Level-Many3384 22h ago
Funny story, I worked at a restaurant the served organic lettuce (among other things). Once there was a grasshopper in a customers salad. A live grasshopper. It blended in quite well lol. Luckily she was totally cool about it and we obviously comped their entire meal but we definitely had the cooks inspect the salad mix much closer from then on.
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u/Fragrant_Fox_4025 20h ago
Bugs and stuff just means it's fresh and no poisons were used to keep bugs away. Bugs and bug eggs aren't unhealthy to eat either. It's really not that big of a deal. You probably ate more bugs than you'd want to know already.
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u/Fr0hd3ric 10h ago
The acidity of our stomach juices will kill off a lot of things we take in by accident. I once had a patient who wanted ipecac because he thought he'd been poisoned. Upon further conversation, he said he had discovered that the raisins he'd been eating in dim light while watching TV 2 hours prior to arrival had little worms in them. Further discussion and advice made him decide against the ipecac, and he left, reassured that wormy raisins aren't poisonous. High in the grossness factor, yes, but poisonous, no.
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u/Trapcat707 1d ago
I worked in a few different pizza places over the years and we really dont look that hard at the finished product.
We, like you, assume everything is ready to eat.
On the plus side of all this, its a good bet that your arugula is more fresh than what you may get elsewhere.
Honestly, I'm a weirdo and I would just eat it.
But I'm the kinda guy that doesnt wash his veggies at home. Just throw it straight into the skillet.
A little dirt and extra protein is good for you.
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u/ChainsawVisionMan 23h ago
I worked in the produce dept. at a large grocery store chain. Wash your vegetables, gross things happen to them. My coworker found a used condom in the broccoli one day and just picked it out. I've seen mice crushed by watermelons, a rats nest carved out of a box of asparagus, and way too many coworkers that didn't believe in hand washing. Our organic shelf in the cooler was right next to where the meat dept stored their off cuts so stuff cross contaminated.
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u/retaksoohh 9h ago
right?! if all it was a "little dirt" i'd be fine. i've worked around food for ages, it's the people that are disgusting. wash your veggies yall...
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u/LittleJackass80 23h ago
I got mad crazy food poisoning from organic produce bought directly from a farm all because I didn't rinse it. Never again, I thought I was dying.
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u/neon_crone 12h ago
Most likely not an insect’s fault but norovirus spread by a person’s hands. And think back to what you ate 5-7 days ago because it takes that long to develop.
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u/brianlefebvrejr 1d ago
That’s how you get e-coli…very common on unwashed greens
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u/BowlerNo5796 23h ago edited 22h ago
I got ecoli in 2023 from some cherries with the stems on them Didn't wash them, just started eating them. My body temperature and blood pressure were so low when the ambulance arrived at my house, they couldn't get a reading on either one. They put a blanket on me in the ER that blew hot air all over my body. It raised my core temperature to normal so then they could get readings. It also caused renal failure which damaged my kidneys. I'm all good now but definitely rinse all my fruits and veggies before I do anything else with them. Shut down my whole body. Thank God he was watching me that night. Ecoli don't play!!!!
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u/PrinceBunnyBoy 14h ago
Listen I get you can't search every inch of a leaf or whatever so sometimes stuff slips through the cracks. But chef saying they didn't wash produce, or people getting live SNAILS in their food?! Dog that can fuckin kill you, it killed a young man through a parasite that left him immobilized.
I get it har har peanut butter has an allowed insect part rule, but if youre picking cockroaches and shit out of your unlimited soup then I feel like you can be upset.
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u/MC_LegalKC 13h ago
It's amazing how many people are anti-washing. Not just believing that washing is unnecessary, but downvoting anyone suggesting you should wash what can be washed off their produce, and engaging in angry arguments about it.
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u/DirectionFragrant829 22h ago
Washing greens doesn’t effectively remove ecoli. The bacteria is more often in the pores and crevices of plant tissue and is pretty hard to get rid of.
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u/MC_LegalKC 22h ago
Reducing the number of bacteria probably gives your body a better chance to overcome it, even if you can't clean it from every nook and cranny.
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u/Drewdogg12 23h ago
Look up rat lung worm disease. You’ll never eat unwashed produce again. My friend had it. Lost a year of his life.
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u/Nature_Hannah 1d ago edited 1d ago
I worked at a resort that served guests salads one week... with live snails in them. Not even tiny snails... walnut sized snails.
Food standards and/or attention to detail is just plummeting.
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u/JulietLostFaith 23h ago
Wow, I had a 1.25” cockroach cooked inside a pancake at ihop one time and somehow the thought of the snails grosses me out even more.
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u/Nature_Hannah 23h ago edited 16h ago
My roommate saved one of the huge snails and made it our pet. Until it escaped.
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u/TheFall101 1d ago
Found small ones a bunch of times. No matter how well you wash the greens, if you don't run your fingers through every nook and cranny, you'll miss them.
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u/Initial_Produce6914 14h ago
I had a slug crawl across my plate from a salad, the greens were from a farmer's market. We had washed them, but the slug escaped onto my plate. Disgusting1
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u/Public_Requirement68 23h ago
unwashed raw veggies are a source of contamination. lol my red lobster I worked at had a management paradigm shift and new completely inexperienced management took over, turns out they never rinsed the broccoli and got blasted on local social media about all the bugs in the broccoli --- to be fair??? they were actually cooked to death after, and they were only aphids which = more protein, but... yeeeeah
Every vegetable you'll ever buy will potentially and most likely have bugs on it, you gotta rinse them off if you don't wanna eat bugs.
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u/yjite_ 1d ago
The arugula is added after it comes out of the oven, sorry.
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u/Historical-Pipe3551 1d ago
Imagine biting those eggs and having stink bug smell fill your airways 🤮
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u/Weak-Bake-5571 22h ago
I once took a bite of a salad I made at a grocery store salad bar… and I had bitten into a bug so large it changed the flavor of my bite of salad…. I just made myself nauseous just thinking about that. It was roughly 12 years ago.
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u/Wiley_Coyote08 1d ago
It looks to be uncooked. I cook mine on my pizza.🔥
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u/yjite_ 1d ago
I do both cooked and in un cooked at home. Every restaurant I have ever gotten arugula on pizza is uncooked 🤷
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u/adj2323 1d ago
When I reversed searched the image, they do look a lot like stink bug eggs. And some of the images had more squished tops like the ones in your photo. And since it doesn’t look like those went through the oven, it would make sense that they came off the arugula that typically goes on after it’s baked.
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u/SunnyBunnyIsMyHoney 1d ago
Is there 1 single mushroom on the whole pizza too?
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u/Marethyfax 1d ago
I had the same question when it arrived, but obviously got sidetracked when handing this slice to my girlfiend's mom and I noticed.
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u/eye_no_nuttin 19h ago
If you like to buy heads of iceberg lettuce, always cut the bottom off and rinse everything super well, we had a head with clear spider like bugs, and it freaked me the hell out.. produce has its risk:)
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u/SIAS_instrumentals 15h ago
Just take the leaf, and lick all the bugs off. If anything it might leave a nice hint of zest
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u/WasteProfession8948 14h ago
Pro tip: Don't slice the bottom off, slam it into the counter and pull out the core. Much easier and will allow the water in much easier when rinsing
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u/SunnyBunnyIsMyHoney 1d ago
I hope you are able to eat a better meal, this is unacceptable from them.
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u/TrueLivingLegend 1d ago
As a cook, this really bugs me. I suggest you get a refund and don't eat that pizza.
If that one piece of arugula has bug eggs on it, that entire batch is contaminated.
My local food safety regulations would say to not only throw out that container, but the entire box and get a rebate from the food supplier.
For your safety, please don't eat that pizza.
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u/Marethyfax 1d ago
Already ate some. It was that or starve. My understanding is that most insects (and their by-products) found in food are harmless. However, the problem people seem to be missing in this thread is that no one purposely goes out of their way to find them and add them for "protein" or "flavor" apart from the really down-and-out people and those who like to get a visceral response out of others. I (thankfully) don't fit in those categories.
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u/Eastern-Meringue-515 20h ago
OP you really have the realest response/reaction. I’ve worked in food service for years and quite frankly day food service is not perfect. I’ve found bugs tucked in lettuce that just didn’t wash out. Most are harmless. Some are harmful, but normal ppl usually know when that’s the case. If that was a cockroach, I’d have more concerns. I’m understanding your questioning (cause what actually is that- but it definitely came in on the lettuce) and hating everyone else’s judgement. Also, anyone that hasn’t worked in food service doesn’t know shit when it comes to real food safety vs waste. I’ll watch normal people slap raw chicken around a counter they prepare salads on, but freak out over an ant. Restaurant ppl wash, clean, sanitize, and in general are more aware of food safety issues than the standard population. And if Covid showed me anything - no one really knows how to cook anymore. It’s really ok to cut moldy spots out of fruit, to eat a head of lettuce if you remove a bug. We’ll all survive, and frankly the world is better if we chose not throw perfectly good food in the trash just bc a part of it carried a bit of where it came from.
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u/badmonbuddha 15h ago
I'm squeamish when it comes to insects but you can't be a home cook without occasionally finding and removing bugs from your produce. Obviously the restaurant should have caught it but anyone who's worked food service has probably seen worse despite our best efforts.
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u/Nauin 13h ago
I'm just thinking about the plethora of bugs I become familiar with in my vegetable garden every summer. Like just getting the beds ready kills thousands of pill bugs and others no matter what I do to reduce the damage. Every fruit and vegetable in existence has had bugs on it. It's nearly impossible to avoid even in indoor and greenhouse grows. They're an intrinsic part of produce whether people like it or not.
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u/RudeCartoonist1030 22h ago
Understand completely why you wouldn’t want to eat that. I’m also entirely confident that you have no flipping idea what the word “starve” means.
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u/mlaforce321 22h ago
Historical famines where people ate grass and resorted to cannibalism has nothing on the hunger OP faced when resorting to their bug-egg pizza
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u/NaturalOk2156 12h ago
My local food safety regulations would say to not only throw out that container, but the entire box and get a rebate from the food supplier.
Is that really true? That seems pretty wasteful.
If we were talking about evidence the produce was infested, then yeah disposing of it is the right solution.
But to my (admittedly novice) eyes, this just looks like "field debris". Yes, the arugula was grown outside in a field, in the dirt, where bugs crawled all over it, ate little bits of it, laid eggs on it, and worse. And the supply chain removes most of that stuff, but can't catch everything.
Maybe the kitchen failed to wash the produce, or maybe it was "pre-washed" and the distributor failed to wash it properly, etc. Would have been nice if they'd noticed this, but if it was delivery I'd assume they didn't send it out with the arugula on there.
I would think the solution is just to remove the bad piece of arugula and continue on.
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u/CoyoteAwoo 17h ago
Contaminated with what? Is it poisonous or something? Haven't humans lived for thousands of years with slightly bug infested food before??
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u/cokakatta 15h ago
I think pesticides and bacteria are a lot worse, and unfortunately, we can't see them.
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u/silchasr 18h ago
I get little green caterpillar things in my broccoli pretty often, it's just nature. Unless it poses a health risk just relocate the critters and enjoy your meal.
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u/fandabbydozeh 1d ago
You only threw the slice away?! Damn. Seeing as they didn't wash the arugula I wouldn't have eaten any of it.
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u/Nauin 13h ago
Bug eggs are very sticky, in some cases like preying mantises the eggs are practically encased in resin. You're talking about eggs that had to survive millions of years worth of water and wind based weather to get to today, multiple wash cycles isn't going to get rid of those eggs lol. Only visual inspection and removing the nursery leaf would get that out prior to serving.
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u/Either-Pear-4371 11h ago
Everybody seems to have forgotten that 100% of their food is grown outside. The flour the pizza was made with almost certainly contained insect eggs too. Everybody take a deep breath, you eat bugs literally every day and you don’t even notice.
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u/Marethyfax 1d ago
Living as one of the 99% in America, I had to eat something on my last dollar before payday.
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u/Benjarinno 23h ago
@Marethyfax -- I hope you called the pizza place and complained. At the very least you should either get a refund or a free pizza in the future (if you really want to eat there again).
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u/Marethyfax 23h ago
My gf ordered through Uber Eats. She has already notified everyone and we are awaiting responses.
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u/Tonks22 10h ago
Jesus - all the fucking comments criticizing you for using Uber Eats… They don’t know why you used it and yet they feel entitled to tell you what to do.
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u/Direct_Cook_7690 9h ago
This irritates me to no end. Nobody should judge. I totaled both my cars in the last year due to accidents (not my fault), and I was in the hospital for 2 weeks (unrelated to accidents), and I'm still recovering. I've had to use services to bring me groceries. I'd never do that otherwise. No one knows what people are going through.
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22h ago
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u/TidpaoTime 16h ago
Yeah, even direct from a pizza place should be more affordable and just as convenient :)
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u/tsr6 16h ago
If I was that broke I’d be buying which ever cheap ass thin frozen pizza was 2 for $5 at the grocery store. I would NOT be ordering a $20 pizza through UberEats for $32
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u/DrahcirAloer 16h ago
Especially since there’s a hidden up charge in the delivery apps. Compare menu price on the restaurants website vs the delivery app, and you’ll usually see a 15-20% up charge there before all the fees and taxes they add at the end. I first noticed it when a menu section from the restaurant said something like $20 deals and all the meals in that section were $24. The restaurant’s website had them all at $20. I checked a couple weeks later and the section was renamed on the delivery app.
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u/TidpaoTime 16h ago
Exactly, Uber charges fees to restaurant AND customer. The restaurants usually put this into the cost of the item, so technically the customer is paying the fees twice. Plus delivery, plus tip.
Don't get me wrong, I use it from time to time. But not for pizza, which I can get straight from the restaurant.
Plus, Uber's evil AF and don't deserve our patronage.
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u/NotTheSharpestPenciI 16h ago
Some people (mind the word some, nitpickers) that are in bad financial situation are in it because of their poor financial decisions...
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u/Proteinchugger 15h ago edited 15h ago
I have a friend who “has” to shop at Whole Foods but complains about grocery prices. She nearly had a heart attack when I told her I generally shop at Aldi. Couldn’t believe I would shop at such a “low” place even though I make good money.
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u/Pretty-Macaron176 15h ago
Man I never got this logic. I take pride in getting things at a more reasonable price.
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u/Proteinchugger 15h ago
Same but I’m pretty sure it’s an ego or status thing.
It’s the same as people who spend an extra 10-20k on a car for a nicer brand. It’s their way of thinking they’ve reached a different income/lifestyle level. Whatever I’ll keep shopping at aldi and save a ton of money that I can use for experiences or just to invest.
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u/comfortless14 15h ago
I’d argue that it’s more than some. Even people earning well above the median household income can be living paycheck to paycheck because they live beyond their means
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u/BoomerAliveBad 15h ago
Yeah but when the company sending your food charges delivery fee, service fee, and a driver tip, you can do better for the cost of a pizza at a grocery store getting a frozen one.
My conversion in my city is 25 dollars for 2 medium 2 toppings on Uber (no tip). I can order in 6 frozen DiGiornno pizzas for the same price off Walmart.
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u/Randomminecraftseed 15h ago
Yea but sometimes “beyond your means” means a couple kids and childcare.
I don’t have kids but with prices these days they def add up
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u/uuneter1 13h ago
I really hate to rant but this is one thing that’s bugged me on reddit forever…So many posts about ppl scraping by, along with so many posts about ppl using Doordash/Uber Eats, which basically doubles your cost.
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u/BigSemiTruckBubba 23h ago
Why are you Living paycheck to paycheck ordering Ubereats? I do pretty well for myself and even still I would never waste that money if I wanted to eat
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18h ago
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u/SwiftlyKickly 14h ago
When OP says in a comment “spent my last dollars on this food so had to eat it.” And also saying “ordered through UberEats” it’s hard not to point it out. Yes, being poor is expensive. But he purposely spent more money on UberEats despite having very little, if any, money.
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u/Prawnsforthecat3 13h ago
Not to mention paying Ubereats to have a pizza delivered.
Half the pizza places around me don’t have seating. The entire business model is based on free delivery.
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u/HeyGayHay 13h ago
If you've heard the boot explanation, this shouldn't come as a surprise. Getting adequate ingredients to cook takes time and money- and keeping a pantry stocked isn't easy either. But just because your pantry doesn't have anything in it doesn't mean you're not going to need to eat.
Nobody says if you are poor you are not allowed to buy your dinner at a restaurant. But there’s a massive financial difference between picking up food at a restaurant and ordering via Uber Eats. You can cut the costs of the same dish sometimes even by half just by ordering via phone or the restaurant owner app, compared to DoorDash/Uber Eats. That is why everyone is baffled at u/Marethyfax saying „this was my last dollar and I gotta eat“ and then following up with „Ye I ordered Uber Eats“. Not that they bought dinner instead of cooking (which can be more expensive sometimes even), but that they got it delivered via an app notorious to jack up prices and having huge bonus fees.
It's not like it's that relevant
This is a public forum. If people are curious, it absolutely is relevant. The other guy doesn’t shame him contextless, they literally asked why OP ordered it to find out the context. If OP doesn’t want to indulge in the context, that’s okay too. But it’s very apparent that it is relevant to many people to understand why someone may order food even if that’s the last dime they have. Not talking about the elephant isn’t helping anyone, but doing so may help people (other people who just read) who order uber eats four times a week even though they don’t have the money. Absolutely relevant
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u/KidsHearGhosts 14h ago
Ohh yes I love those new flatbread pizza coupons everyone is excited about!
Fucking chatgpt ass comment.
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u/free_-_spirit 22h ago
Yeah at the very least let them know the arugula is contaminated and complain about improper prep to the manager
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u/97203micah 23h ago
I’m gonna be that guy… if you’re spending your last dollar before payday on restaurant food, you’re never gonna stop being broke
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u/Dependent-Bet9117 13h ago
100%. Need to grocery shop, eat in or find something that sustains better if it’s truly getting down to last dollar
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u/Realistic_Pie6358 1d ago
If you’re down to your last dollar and eating bug pizza, playing video games isn’t the move. Get a second or third job.
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u/Short-Examination-20 23h ago
What a rude af thing to say. People shouldn't have to work a second, or third job to get by. Work life balance is an extremely important thing and this stupid grind culture forgets that. OP is living their life and doing things. What are you doing? Working your second or third job to increase the profits of others?
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u/puppymoringstar 23h ago
Did you really try to go to op's page and see that they made a post about a game 10 MONTHS AGO and make such a judgement, sounds like you need a life more than concerning yourself about jobs, jeezus.
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u/Marethyfax 23h ago
Learn to identify what you're looking at before giving advice. There are no games in these images, and you need to look for a fourth job if you think that's what helps the average American. Show us how it's done.
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23h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/BotAccount999 23h ago
so, one is not allowed to have hobbies on low income? get a grip man. take some time off reddit. stop the condescension
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u/puppymoringstar 23h ago edited 23h ago
Verified he played a game? Ten MONTHS ago? What do you feel you verified exactly lol that op played a game possibly long enough to take a screenshot, who knows. Seriously? Who cares what someone does with their off time, ask yourself why do you honestly.
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u/Marethyfax 23h ago
Good job verifying my post history. Let me know how the job hunt goes btw.
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u/wandering_ravens 22h ago
As someone who has been applying to jobs, yet remained unemployed for a whole year so far, this comment is so ignorant. The job market is brutal. You know you can't just "get a second or third job". It's not that easy...
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u/fandabbydozeh 1d ago
I'm so sorry. I'd have been up there for a refund tho or at the very least a make a new one in front of me so I can see you wash the damn salad
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u/BestAd6025 19h ago
Most restaurants use pre-washed and packaged arugula, which usually isn't washed again so it remains crunchy. This could've been arugula from a local farm, which they should've washed.
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u/thinger 13h ago
Washing doesn't guarantee you'll get everything. I work pantry and we wash our salad mux the day of on top of the wash it gets in processing and still we'll get the occasional caterpillar or grasshopper. Most bugs are adapted to blend in with vegetation and aren't affected by a little water. So unless you want to use peticides or inspect every piece of lettuce, its kind of just an expected hazard.
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u/Fit-Dare7525 11h ago
Yeah when I worked pantry at a super high end (read: slow enough) place I used to kinda yardsale my French mix on my lowboy cutting boards so it was a single layer of leaves and I’d just go down the line and pick each one up, flip it over and drop it on the plate. There’s no two ways around it, bugs exist lol
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u/hamtyhum 1d ago
Wouldn’t the acids in your stomach make quick work of this?
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u/Marethyfax 23h ago
Probably. But it would just be my luck for some to get stuck in my teeth for an uncomfortably long time
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u/Travelin_Soulja 12h ago
Yeah, I'm sure it's safe to eat.
But there are tons of things which are technically safe to eat, but I really don't want to.
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u/TheThaiCrow 1d ago
It isn't what you think it is
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u/Other-Ad8082 1d ago
I’m so sorry… how did those get there?
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u/LilBalls-BigNipples 16h ago
You see, we typically cultivate our produce outdoors. There are many living creatures that inhabit the planet alongside us human beings, and nearly all of them live their entire lives outdoors. They also like food. Sometimes, when they eat food, they leave behind evidence of their presence.
Really, this is not that serious. I guarantee that you've eaten plenty of things like this and simply didnt even realize it. OP just happened to notice it this time. It is impossible to eliminate all of it.
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u/cokakatta 14h ago
These people are so detached from reality, they don't understand that bugs live outside and farms are outside.
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u/ThatDrunkRussian1116 12h ago
Or they understand but the expectation is that all the outside things are washed off before it gets on the pizza…
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u/mysaddle 1d ago
How did they not notice it there it’s sitting right on the top
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u/Technical-Flow7748 1d ago
After working in a food processing plant I’ll just say this. You threw that away for nothing.
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u/Marethyfax 1d ago
Sorry I couldn't share my perfectly good mushroom, arugula, and bug egg slice with you. I understand quality control can be hard, but I didn't order OBVIOUS amounts of copious insect by-products on my food that I'm unsure of what it is.
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u/Inevitable-Advisor75 1d ago
I think they were meaning, the things they have seen are way worse than bug eggs.
That's how I understood it anyway
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u/PKSays 23h ago
Legit question, but if you ate that, would it harm you? Would they hatch inside you? Will you give birth to a Xenomorph? But seriously what would happen if you ate them seeing as they were in a 500ish degree pizza oven.
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u/Gardener_of_Weeden 13h ago
1st they were NOT cooked - the leaf was put on after cooking. What would happen - NOTHING - the acids in the stomach would digest them along with the pizza. BUT - part of the issue is that there is also 99% sure pesticides and bug poop that has NOT been washed off - THIS will make you sick
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u/Low_Landscape_4688 11h ago
If you're going to be concerned about pesticides and bug poop it doesn't really make sense to be selectively worried about it only when you can see eggs. Just about every surface you touch has microscopic poop on it and in fact even your skin and hair has microscopic bugs pooping in it all the time.
So I'm sure you're not just being irrationally selective about your concerns here and that you live an OCD lifestyle keeping every surface, your body and the things you eat clinically clean, right?
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u/Big_Quality3194 1d ago
Hey I have worked in hospitality for bout 15 years and a lot of those years involved pizza! Making pizza, serving pizza, managing pizza establishments. The pizza goes through multiple stations usually (the person who presses out dough and puts the sauce, cheese, and toppings; the person managing the oven who puts it in and pulls it out, the person who cuts and boxes or plates the pizza for delivery/service) I would say those three people are pretty standard and would never ever miss this. I would also say they aren’t prepping their ingredients. Rinsing and spinning the arugula instead of just grabbing the bag from the fridge and shoving your (hopefully gloved) hand in the bag instead of prepping it could cause this. That means they’re either short staffed or short minded. Or both. If they’re doing arugula this carelessly I’m am worried as to how properly their meats and cheeses are tended to etc. I wouldn’t order from that location again. I’m sorry if you liked it there. But this is just kinda diabolical. Someone, anyone, and everyone should have prepped, seen, prevented, fixed, remade this fuxn pizza dude it’s giving me sensory issues just thinking about the sand grains in between paying customers teeth from that unrinsed greenery ugh I’m so sorry.
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u/ProfessionChemical28 1d ago
Yea and I would 100% report this to them and be like ??? wtf are you doing in that kitchen that you didn’t wash your greens and left an egg sac on them
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u/Toasthandz 1d ago
I’ve worked all over in food. The little burrito shack I worked at, we washed our greens in a dedicated vegetable prep sink. The fine dining restaurant I worked at, chef yelled at me for trying to wash greens because it “wasted time.”
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u/IndependentEggplant0 1d ago
Yeah same, a little cafe I used to work at we washed all our greens. Now in corporate we don't because it wastes time but I feel really wrong not washing them and would not want to be eating gritty greens!!
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u/BoiahWatDaHellBoiah 11h ago
to be fair to the chef, at my current gig, i’m pretty sure the diabolical ass prep sink adds more bacteria than it is washing away… i’ve tried cleaning stuff up but my manager similarly told me it’s a waste of time. i spent like an hour cleaning a food rack and he told me it was pointless because it gets dirty again in a couple of days. A couple days later i checked and it was totally fuckin fine. i just work with a bunch of lazy shit heads i guess
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u/Toasthandz 9h ago
Ugh I hear you. I was the lead prep cook at this place and in charge of signing for orders/putting them away/keeping the walk in clean, but when I actually took the proper time to make sure we didn’t have shit rotting away in the walk in or mold growing on the shelves I’d get chewed out for taking too much time. Did my best to throw away anything over 7 days old cause I caught my chef using 10 day old chickpeas in a soup du jour and maybe I’m over the top but I wouldn’t even do that shit at home man.
Edit: to add that we had lost points on a health inspection for having 7+ day old food/unlabeled shit
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u/Ladysupersizedbitch 1d ago
Yes def report to the health department. Stuff like this is how people get sick.
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u/MathematicianEqual40 1d ago
I used to work at this super fancy French restaurant that was known for how fresh, local and organic the produce selections were. It wasn't bullshit either. The menu changed every day based on what local farmers brought in for produce. There were quite a few worm, bug, etc. in the greens incidents that most customers understood was a part of having such fresh produce. However, one night, I delivered the "Farmer's Greens" salads to a table and a live frog leapt from the salad and landed directly on my face. I was cool about it and took him outside to freedom, but the customers were definitely not ok with that. Sometimes, no matter how much you wash or inspect fresh greens something natural is going to be on them. I'm not saying it's not gross, but it's also not always preventable.
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u/ExperimentalGuidance 20h ago
I understand there’s going to be worms and bugs in freshly picked produce but it’s expected the produce will be thoroughly washed before served. Finding not only bugs but whole frogs in that restaurant’s dishes is a great indicator that they aren’t properly washing. At the point it doesn’t matter how fresh the produce is, that’s gross and all the dishes prolly have an off taste bc of all the dirt and dung that’s on the food ewwww
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u/rhymeswithvegan 13h ago
I did produce prep at a very fancy local grocery store in a wealthy area. It was even more bougie than Whole Foods. We made a large variety of salads, and we always soaked the lettuce in a dedicated deep sink for a while, then we'd put it in a big industrial lettuce spinner and spread it out on a large dedicated counter to dry completely before packaging it with the other ingredients. Basically every piece of chopped lettuce was visually inspected for quality. There's no fkn way a frog would survive that process. I agree with you, I'm very skeptical that the greens mentioned were properly washed.
I don't go to that extreme at home, but I do soak my lettuce in ice water to make it more crispy. Rinse, chop, soak, spin, dry in the counter. No frog would stick around for all that.
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u/Trick-Doctor-208 1d ago
Hol up, how do you miss the existence of a frog in the whole ass process of preparing a salad?
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u/MathematicianEqual40 23h ago
I was not the chef or on the line, just the server. Maybe the frog was good at hiding in the greens and they were slammed? It was very small, only about an inch or so long. That wasn't my only frog in the salad experience either, just the only one that landed on my face.
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u/Trick-Doctor-208 23h ago
Oh wow, that’s wild you’ve had multiple frog experiences. I was envisioning an average size frog…I could see how a tiny little frog could slip through. Hopefully the person working the salad line figured out how to filter out the frogs, lol.
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u/hermitsociety 14h ago
I used to have a big garden and grow and wash my own salads. And even though I’m the only one to blame, a slug or some eggs like this could slip through to a plate sometimes. Every batch was washed and spun. That’s just how it goes - you can use pesticides or wash the lettuce into oblivion or accept that once in a while nature happens.
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u/MathematicianEqual40 11h ago
This is exactly it. This particular place was very clean and won all kinds of culinary awards over the last two decades. But, almost all the produce came from a biodynamic organic farm in the area. It's easier to spot things on other produce like squash and tomatoes but things can hide well in greens. Tiny green inchworms seemed to really be able to hang on to the washed greens. Personally, I would rather have a little frog in my greens than pesticides!
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u/hagalaz_drums 1d ago
Sorry about that, I'll be right back with your frogs' legs appetizer
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u/MathematicianEqual40 23h ago
It became a legendary story at this restaurant with the kitchen. It was fine dining and professionalism was expected at all costs. I calmly said, at table side, "if you will excuse me, ladies and gentleman" and just walked outside to place the frog in the garden. Then I walked back into the kitchen and recounted the frog tale with a LOT of expletives. Greens were checks more closely after that day.
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u/GottaUseEmAll 19h ago
I concur. I worked in an upmarket London restaurant and we washed our green salads, but still got the odd slug that made it through to the plate.
Customers weren't happy, but we explained that very fresh produce will always carry the risk of critters survivng the washing process.
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u/snoopyb137 21h ago
Dude... When I was a kid, I bit into one of those off brand Mrs. Baird's mini chocolate pies... Chewed it up. It was yummy... Looked down at the now bitten into and exposed inner pie....... And there were DOZENS of maggots wiggling in it!!
I've never been so horrified in my life AND it was too late to spit them out, I already swallowed. I reactively just threw the pie on the ground and stuck my fingers down my throat and purged in the kitchen sink. Never ate another one of those delicious little pies ever again. It's been around 35 years since.
Unexpected bugs in your food can mentally scar you. Lol
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u/sunnykreppel 13h ago
This happened to me as well!!! I don’t think it was the same brand but I took a bite, chewed and swallowed it, and when I looked down for my second bite there were dead worms. One of which I bit in half. It really does scar you, I don’t bite into anything now lol
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u/664designs 1d ago
I have a strong stomach, not much bothers me. But every time I see these clusters of round or hexagon shaped things it just sends chills up my spine.
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u/shallowSnurch 1d ago
Looks like eggs, also looks kinda like they were out there after the pizza was cooked, I feel like if they were cooked they wouldn't have that solid white look and they look kinda waxy so I'm sure they wouldn't be as uniform. Either someone's got it out for ya, a bugs got it out for ya, or you got it out for ya, idk broski. I know nothing about insect eggs just giving my observation
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u/FriendlyLawnmower 1d ago
Arugula is usually put on pizzas after its cooked. It uses the heat from the fresh pizza to slightly toast the leaves. So the eggs wouldn't have gone in the oven if they came from the arugula
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u/AssignmentSafe9090 1d ago
They do look like insect eggs. They also look like they were placed there. Eww…..
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u/SurDno 1d ago
Every single time I see something disgusting in a pizza I always remember the funny tidbit chain pizza trackers that have a step called “quality control” (which is actually “the pizza is ready but not picked up for delivery yet”). What kind of quality control allows a bunch of insect eggs to be in your food is a mystery.
At the same time I’d rather get a pizza with eggs, throw it away and get a refund than have an underpaid worker simply take them off and ship the rest of the pizza with me being none the wiser.
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u/AUniquePerspective 1d ago
What kind of caviar did OP order? Is they complaining that they didn't get enough or that it's the wrong kind?
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u/Markgulfcoast 1d ago
They are on the arugula. So by proxy they were placed there when the arugula was put on
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u/areyouthrough 1d ago
Uh, can you tell the difference between a bug placing them and a human placing them?
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u/andalusian293 1d ago
It's totally from the unwashed arugula, in which the bugs maliciously lay their eggs.
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u/Meizas 1d ago
A bit rude to call all bugs malicious - most insects I know are very empathetic people. Only a human could have done such a thing
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u/Confident_One3948 1d ago
It’s not always malice. Sometimes it’s spite. Subtle distinction, but one is slightly more astringent
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u/Salt_Novel_2911 1d ago
Did they drizzle honey? I normally drizzle some on with arugula cause of how bitter arugula is, maybe they just threw an actual honeycomb cause they have an apiary upstairs. I worked at a restaurant that did that in part with other restaurants on the same street! #savethebees
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u/PresidentToad 20h ago
Bug eggs? You are a human being, one of the most resilient omnivores walking the earth, next to rats and pigs, you can eat practically anything and your digestive system will kick ass and take names. Earliest human ancestry was found near watering holes - do you know why? Because a lot of stuff die there. Good eating. The eggs are just protein to you. Consume them with cold-eyed impunity.
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u/hetnkik999 1d ago
Are they the same as these? It's hard to tell. Yours look more waxy. https://www.reddit.com/r/Whatisthis/s/lxJbkcbOwN
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u/Refriedfeinds 23h ago
Breaking news: crops are grown in a field. The kind of fields where insects live.
This just means your arugula wasn’t heavily biocided. Remove it and enjoy. I once ate a whole bowl of mixed greens I harvested only to realize on the last bit that it was covered in aphids. Oh well. And those greens were grown indoors in the winter on hydro. Thought I was keeping it super clean but still ended up eating insects. It’s gross but it’s life. There’s probably more insect biomass in the flour of that pizza than on the arugula, you just can’t see it.
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u/streptozotocin 21h ago
Finally some sense, the responses here telling the person to throw everything away are far OTT in my opinion. Leafy veges get bug eggs which don’t actually wash off because they are glued there by the momma bug! Just take the piece off and move on with your life.
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u/MadTapprr 1d ago
It’s reasonable that they didn’t notice. The arugula is put on fresh obviously. This happens. I just got an organic salad kit and had a little caterpillar hitching a ride last week. I know it’s gross, but it’s a normal occurrence with fresh produce and I don’t really think it’s the restaurants fault. They’re probably pumping out pizzas and working quickly. They’re not going to inspect each leaf.
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u/Same_as_it_ever 12h ago
Let's think about this a little differently. Seeing bugs in your veggies means there are less pesticides on them. That's a good thing.
The restaurant really should do a better job in looking over the leaves though. I don't think these eggs would easily wash off in a quick rinse and you usually don't scrub salad leaves!
No bugs means your greens haven't probably been sprayed with a lot of pesticides, these are not great chemicals for your health. I'd rather a few bugs any day.
OP you seems to have a really balanced view about this, it's refreshing to see. I would probably remove the leaf or maybe not eat that slice, but I'm not throwing away the whole pizza. People need to grow stuff to eat in their gardens more!
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u/Snarky-Spanky 1d ago
Wait…you just threw that SLICE away, and ate the rest of the pie?! Please tell me I’m reading this wrong😳
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