What would you have done?

January20

heretolearn wrote: »

I went to a small birthday party last week, 8 of us, and there was a birthday cake. A lady I don't know very well cut and served the cake as we all all sat round a table.

She put her fingers literally all over the cake to serve it. Literally grabbed each slice right in her hand and dumped it on a plate, and kept pushing the cake round all the time with her fingers. Not in a delicate 'I'm trying not to touch it excuse fingers' way, but really all over it. She clearly saw nothing wrong with handling everyone elses' food like this. OK, not the best way to serve, I found it a bit off-putting, but I'd assume she had clean hands.

Trouble is, she of course got crumbs and icing on her fingers doing this. so she was licking her fingers clean in between cutting and then serving (by touching it all over) each slice.

I watched. I wanted to say no to the cake. I don't know this lady well enough to want to eat her spit. But I wimped out, and ate my slice of cake rather than make a scene (I had no excuse not to eat a bit of cake!) but felt sick at the thought.

What would you have done?

No-one else seemed to notice or mind, unless they were all being polite like me.

Bearing in mind that this lady likes to take charge - it was someone else's birthday recently and she did exactly the same thing. she won't even let people cut their own birthday cakes, just grabs it and starts serving it...

OMG! This is one of the things I hate most in the world! People serving food with their fingers. You see it all the time in cookery programmes on the TV. It's disgusting. I only want to ask: what was cutlery invented for? It makes me want to be sick at the thought, so the licking of fingers on top... just as bad as people who taste a dish they are cooking and then put the spoon back in to stir it. Disgusting!

What would I have done. I would have accepted the cake because in those circumstances it's usually to much hassle to try and say no, but then I couldn't have brought myself to eat it.

jeanniebeanie_2

I would have tried to turn it around by getting a knife/cake slice myself and saying " oh dear you are getting cake all over your hands, let me do it!"

vegasvisitor

Sounds pretty disgusting. If I cut cake in company I try to pick it up with a napkin so that I'm not touching the cake. I would never lick my fingers though in between, that is horrible.

This reminded me of someone in my work doing that. Yuk.

Only acceptable to pick up the cake with fingers if you're doing it in the kitchen after washing your hands! There are serving spoons and slices etc though so not really necessary to get hands dirty at home.

onlyroz

I doubt I would have noticed. Mmmmmmm cake...

shellsuit

I probably would have said "I'll pass thanks!" when offered a piece and if I was asked why, I'd just say because it's had your/her mitts all over it.

The funny thing is, how this woman thought it was acceptable to do that and didn't think anything of it, especially in front of people she didn't know!

paddy's_mum

I'd be more than happy to eat this contaminated cake. Why not? After all, it is an identical scenario to someone sneezing over my pizza as they bring it to the table; or the hairdresser using the same grubby comb and brush on my head as she used on the spotty, scabby druggie she just dealt with; or the nurse using the same unwashed scalpel to remove my little verrucca as she used on that old man's diabetic ulcer; and I'm happy for my surgeon and his team to come into the operating theatre in their gardening clothes ...

I'm afraid that I would not have been able to refrain from commenting. How else is this thick-skinned woman going to get the message - and don't try to tell me that she has never been taught/heard/read the most basic hygiene lessons.

It's a lot less embarrassing to quietly point out what she has done that you find so unpalatable than it is to rush retching from the table ...!

DUKE

I wouldn't under any circumstances have eaten the cake. Although I may have (depending on my mood) either told her jokingly about licking her fingers & mauling the cake .... Or I'd've politely said that I couldn't eat cake for whatever reason.

Threebabes

I think I wouldve had to pass, I wouldve just said Im full. x

patchwork_cat

I would have said,'No, thanks', but not why, too much confrontation. I do however have a slight OCD.

I always feel that people with OCD's should be made to oversee cleaning a hospital, we see things others don't.

I hate toddlers standing or sitting in trolleys that I will put my food in. I am well aware that a lot worse might have happened to it, but this is one I can observe.

I also HATE people licking their fingers to open plastic bags and turn book pages over, ugggh.

go_cat

There is no way on this earth i would have eaten that cake :eek:

I am worse since I did level 4 food safety and the hand to mouth contamination risk in situations like that is huge ...... imagine she had just had some sickness bug... it doesn't bear thinking about :eek:


Lets just hope she isn't working in a kitchen or food environment somewhere near you .........