Is it a thing in Thailand (or China) to tamper with unliked customer's restaurant food?

[Jingthing]

What's the cultural situation in Thailand (or China if you know it) when there is  a conflict between a customer and a restaurant and the customer comes back because the food is so damn good?

 

In the U.S. there is an "urban myth" that waiters and kitchen staff will do all kinds of nasty things to the food for very trivial reasons. Being a beyatch, not tipping 25 percent, or sometimes just because they hate their lives and it's good sport.

 

What about in Thailand (and China)?

 

"I'm asking for a friend" who had a conflict with the Chinese owner of Chinese restaurant in Thailand that actually cost the restaurant money. Not just a comped dish or two, I'm talking actually serious money. Without going into any more detail because it's not OK to name and shame, the "friend" was 100 percent in the right, and the restaurant was 100 percent in the wrong.

 

But the "friend" says he needs to go back. So in this culture (with the Chinese element added) what are the chances the food served will be "deliberately contaminated?"

 

P.S. -- do not waste your energy trying to demand more details about the incident and how it cost the restaurant money. Ain't gonna happen. 

[CharlieH]

I think it's fair to say that such tales exist everywhere. Whether it actually happens in my opinion is pretty much luck of the draw.

 

Let's be honest it could be done and you probably might never know it happened unless it was something particularly nasty that emerged awhile later.

 

Suspecting is one thing, proving it is entirely another.

[Jingthing]

Yeah but in U.S. culture people talk about it openly. It's definitely a thing on people's minds. Not sure if that's the case here (or in China). 

[darksidedog]

4 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Yeah but in U.S. culture people talk about it openly. It's definitely a thing on people's minds. Not sure if that's the case here (or in China). 

Trust me! I lived in China for nearly three years and I should have received compensation for pretty much everything they served up to me for the whole duration. And I hadn't even pissed them off! Wouldn't dream of going back to somewhere that I had!

[Jingthing]

Just now, darksidedog said:

Trust me! I lived in China for nearly three years and I should have received compensation for pretty much everything they served up to me for the whole duration. And I hadn't even pissed them off. Wouldn't dream of going back to somewhere that I had.

The conflict wasn't about bad food. Their food is excellent. The question here is if "messing" with restaurant food is culturally normal here (and in China) for when there is bad blood with a customer. There are other things they could do. Such as giving really bad and slow service. But that's not gross in the same way.

[CharlieH]

I too have spent time in China and never heard such a story there, but I obviously wasn't a local and if they were talking such tales I wouldn't have known or understood it anyway. ????.

 

[scorecard]

Jeez, this has got to be a troll post. no need to ask silly such questions, surely the answer is obvious it can happen / happens in any country, and no matter how many times you try to rephrase your silly question. (Are you drunk?)

 

Perhaps you could make your move to Colombia and then to China and give a fully detailed report on this subject after 5 years of research. 

 

 

 

Edited June 24, 2019 by scorecard

[Jingthing]

2 minutes ago, scorecard said:

Jeez, this has got to be a troll post. no need to ask such questions, surely the answer is obvious it happens in any country, and no matter how many times you try to rephrase your silly question.

 

, 

 

It's a real situation. I don't see how that translates into a troll post. I agree the answer is obvious in the U.S. You don't go back. But different cultures have different norms. 

[Andrew Dwyer]

Yeah but in U.S. culture people talk about it openly. It's definitely a thing on people's minds. Not sure if that's the case here (or in China). 

In the uk also !!

Usually related to Indian restaurants who have the honour of serving many late night revellers, usually loaded up with alcohol and craving a “ curry “.

In my youth it was common after the pubs shut ( 10.30 pm !! ) to head for the nearest nightclub if only because you could drink until 2am, next stop was “ an Indian “.
With many drunken youths desperately seeking a “ Ruby Murray “ the Indian/Pakistani waiters had to suffer abuse, fights and occasionally someone face down in their Lamb Bhuna.

There were strong rumours that spitting, urinating and even masturbating in the food , of course these were all rumours ( along with cats and dogs being found in the freezers of said establishments during a health raid !!

I don’t believe that anyone was ever charged with any offence of the above nature but after seeing firsthand the drunken abuse these waiters ( and taxi drivers ) had to suffer i am pretty sure that some retribution ( rotten meat or veg etc ) was taken against the abusers.


Now, whether this happens here is hard to say, for sure waiters in the more lively bars/restaurants in Pattaya for example have occasionally to deal with some obnoxious customers.

Personally I think the answer is no, actually tampering with someones food would not give an monetary benefit, now tampering with the bill...............[emoji848]

[Jingthing]

I've never worked in a restaurant but I did use to know a kitchen staff person in the U.S. at one of my family's favorite restaurants. One of those places that had been serving for 100 years. He told me that he regularly farted onto people's pies just for fun, nothing personal to the customers. It was more about hating the bosses. Hopefully he was just one isolated perv. 

[Traubert]

Here's your China hand. Me.

 

With Chinese food, you dont order individually, you order for the table. In a noodle shop, sure, you order a bowl of noodles, but it's rare to eat individually in a restaurant. Therefore if your imaginary friend was to be messed about in any way by the staff, they would have to mess all his companions about as well. Not worth losing more customers if the food is worth a second or further visits, plus they have their pride, food is a quasi-religious experience to the Chinese.

 

The worst he could expect is that they pad the bill a bit by serving a dish that wasn't ordered and is under 'please enquire about availability' and is unpriced on the menu. The table will love it and he's left holding the bill. He'll be shamed into paying for it.

 

For those who dismiss Chinese food in China, you simply didn't know where to go or what to order and how to instruct the cooks on how to prepare it. There are over 100 different regional cuisines and they are all as different as chalk and cheese.

[scorecard]

Agree, I spent many months every year for 12 years in several cities in China, had fabulous food everywhere and as already mentioned lots of different regional approaches to food with fabulous flavours etc., whether in cheap small places or 5 star venues. 

 

Many times I stayed on the executive floor of the New World Imperial hotel in Shanghai, in the early evening you could watch several young talented chefs preparing dishes not often seen on menus, usually enough for perhaps 5 or 6 guests who were enjoying a free beer or wine after work, then they would prepare another delight, after 4 or 5 dishes there was voting and the winning young chef got a prize of a bottle of wine, plus wonderful dim sum delights all labelled by region and more. Wonderful food.

 

And we often went to a couple of restaurants which specialized in the real Peking Duck 'event', almost a piece of theatre, and if in a private room we had young waiters sitting with us to wrap the delicacies, prepare the next item and put in front of each quest as we went through the event. Great memories. 

 

On the Bund we often took clients to a Chinese German restaurant which had blended both cuisines into gastronomic delights. And we drank German beer. 

 

Edited June 24, 2019 by scorecard

[JimmyTheMook]

 

[Puchaiyank]

Fast food restaurants in the US have a bad reputation brought on by teens employees claiming to have added disgusting material to their foods...I personally believe their claims of wrong doing...

 

How much worse might other food handlers in other countries be?

[mania]

I'm sure there is likely some spite all over the world in the restaurants

 

I knew waitresses in the US claimed visine in coffee was a good payback

 

 

As for Thailand....sheesh workers openly pick their noses even in restaurants so safe to assume

whether your nice or not your taking part in some extras ????

Edited June 25, 2019 by mania

[Berkshire]

10 hours ago, Jingthing said:

It's a real situation. I don't see how that translates into a troll post. I agree the answer is obvious in the U.S. You don't go back. But different cultures have different norms. 

JT, I'm not familiar with any Thai "cultural practice" in this regard.  It very much depends on the individual and how upset they were.  Unless the owner cooks the food himself or has ordered all of his staff to mess with the food (highly doubtful in a professional setting), nothing will happen.  If you're talking serious money and loss of face, your friend should be more worried about other retaliatory measures beyond just some spit or rat dung in his food.  Probably best for him to avoid the place for awhile. 

[Jingthing]

Unfortunately unless the actual details of the situation can be revealed (and they can't as they would identify the restaurant) it's really difficult for anyone to make an informed judgement. I will say IF the restaurant tampered with the food and there was strong evidence that they did, it would potentially hurt the restaurant a second time. So it might be smart to avoid anything with lots of sauce, ha ha. So if they were rational and wanted to protect their self interest, they wouldn't do it for that reason. But it's not reasonable to always expect rationality. Anyway, the "friend" will likely avoid visiting the place for at least two or three months or perhaps permanently. Perhaps any intense emotions will have boiled over by the passage of time. 

Edited June 26, 2019 by Jingthing

[Curt1591]

Wherever you are, it is never a good idea to piss off people that handle your food. 

[Jingthing]

Just now, Curt1591 said:

Wherever you are, it is never a good idea to piss off people that handle your food. 

Agreed. But this was a situation where the restaurant was completely at fault.

[potless]

On 6/24/2019 at 10:27 PM, Andrew Dwyer said:

There were strong rumours that spitting, urinating and even masturbating in the food , of course these were all rumours ( along with cats and dogs being found in the freezers of said establishments during a health raid !!

Not rumours. Many years back the story was in the national press. Uk restaurant raided and food contained semen from more than one source. {or maybe sauce} Dont have the massala. To the OP, dont go back there.

[Curt1591]

16 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Agreed. But this was a situation where the restaurant was completely at fault.

It doesn't matter who's right and who's wrong. DON'T PISS OFF PEOPLE WHO HANDLE YOUR FOOD!

 

There is an old saying. It pertains to marriage, but it is applicable here: 

"Do you want to be right? Or, do you want to be happy?"
 

[Jingthing]

54 minutes ago, Curt1591 said:

It doesn't matter who's right and who's wrong. DON'T PISS OFF PEOPLE WHO HANDLE YOUR FOOD!

 

There is an old saying. It pertains to marriage, but it is applicable here: 

"Do you want to be right? Or, do you want to be happy?"
 

Yeah the "friend" clearly gets that. But it happened, and their food is so good. 

[manchega]

people don't need to not like a customer

 

I found a place serving these spring rolls, something close to the vietnamese ones, lots of salad, sauce and a bit of meat as a light meal.

 

One day I discovered hair, not just a bit but a little clump of it

 

I asked around and some friends told me old people cut their hair and put it in food for luck - superstituous reasons.

 

needless to say I never went back and ignore the friendly shopkeepers now as I have no way of expressing myself other than vomiting in their general direction

[BritManToo]

On 6/25/2019 at 12:32 AM, scorecard said:

gree, I spent many months every year for 12 years in several cities in China, had fabulous food everywhere and as already mentioned lots of different regional approaches to food with fabulous flavours etc., whether in cheap small places or 5 star venues. 

Stayed in rural China, couldn't even find a restaurant.

Ended up eating what I could find in the one and only supermarket, lived on biscuits and fruit juice.

 

Spent a few days in the big city, no other foreigners, food was totally inedible.

Worst food in the world.

Edited July 2, 2019 by BritManToo

[suzannegoh]

Did you cost them an amount of money that would be enough for them to spit on your burger but not enough for them to have five guys beat you up?

[rwill]

I would think they may just refuse to do business with him anymore.

[Andyfez]

Loss of face in Asia is a more visible thing. Secretly spitting in his food and sniggering about has no honour, and isn't done.

However they could always make it too spicy or whatever just to make sure he doesn't come back.

Or more likely just tell him not to come back.

If he did something unpleasant to this shop why on earth would he want to go back???? That in the Asian eyes will be his loss of face .

[1FinickyOne]

I would guess it is maybe not common, but it certainly happens... and not in USA for not tipping 25% - - but for jerk customers... I met a fellow who considered himself quite a gourmet, nothing was ever properly prepared - he would send his meal back 3-4x with instructions for the chef as well... I can imagine he has had his share of undesirable personal ingredients sneezed upon his food on a regular basis.. 

[phkauf]

If you (or your "friend") had a conflict with a place of business - don't go back! It's pretty f'in simple.

From what many people tell me, the "messing" with food is mostly an urban myth perpetuated to scare people from complaining. Although there are many well publicized cases, especially in fast food, any mature responsible chef or owner would not let it happen. The bad publicity would put them out of business very quickly.

People's perception of "messing with" food can simply be the chef uses too much spice for someone's taste. 

[Dcheech]

On 6/25/2019 at 4:45 AM, Puchaiyank said:

Fast food restaurants in the US have a bad reputation brought on by teens employees claiming to have added disgusting material to their foods...I personally believe their claims of wrong doing...

 

How much worse might other food handlers in other countries be?

I know of two instances, granted one was in Nepal, Khatmandu, but the other in Nakhon Sawan. You could call it deliberate poisoning. The last being methanol alcohol. He was only saved because he had one drink. And did not finish that. The shop he got it from, the family, had a reputation from times past of this sort of thing. Moral of the story, when drunk buy that extra nightcap bottle from a 7/11 .   

 

Like you I would likely not believe this story, except he saved the pint bottle, and we examined it.