BURN BABY, BURN

Not Burnt

What is the probability of anyone of us consuming food that has been slightly burned that it's almost inedible?

This insanity happened to me twice last week. On Tuesday evening, I finally remembered to go down to the Ramadan food sales in the canteen. The company has kindly subsidised a certain amount for food for all staff regardless if they were Muslims or not, or if they were fasting or not, and I thought I might as well check it out and get some Nyonya cakes (aka kuih) By the time I arrived, though, most of the Nyonya cakes had been sold out and I was left with a meagre selection. Since I was already there, I thought - what the hell and randomly picked up two pieces of seri muka.

Much later in the day, after dinner, as I bit into a piece of the seri muka, I was greeted with the pungent smell of something that had burned in the pot. The top layer had apparently been scooped up and saved from a batch that had probably been burned to boredom at the bottom .

The second incident happened on Saturday for breakfast, over a dish of Nasi Lemak. I couldn't ascertain what exactly was burned, but I suspected it was the rice. I ate as much as I possibly could (due to feeling bad wasting food seeing that some people elsewhere might be starving), but had to quit halfway when I couldn't take it anymore.

What bothers me the most is the fact that these two food items were sold to consumers with the sellers most probably aware of their burned or almost burned status, although they most probably weren't tasted due to the food being cooked whilst they were fasting. Did they know the food was slightly inedible, or were they counting on the fact that the food would only be consumed later when they have closed their shops and were counting on people being too not bothered to complaint? Is it even remotely ethical for these business people to proceed and sell burned food to unsuspecting customers?

I guess I'll be staying away from food from both places for awhile now :(

On a lighter, happier note... I saw this website when looking for images for burnt food and thought I'd share it. Some of the comments on the display are just too hilarious.