BANGKOK POST (Thailand) 18 June 06 Beware of frogs at 30,000 feet (Roger Crutchley)
You may have seen the story recently of a woman in the Netherlands who was enjoying her meal in a fast-food restaurant in the Hague when a frog suddenly jumped out of her salad halfway through the repast. The lady's response was to "scream the place upside down", which probably livened the place up a bit.
It seems frogs have a penchant for salads. A couple of years ago a London housewife sat down to enjoy a salad she had bought at the local supermarket. "I opened it up and there were two big eyes staring back at me," said the housewife, who was reportedly "hopping mad". Later she admitted she thought the frog was "rather sweet" and reminded her of Kermit.
In another incident, an airline passenger on a flight from Melbourne to Wellington had a bit of a fright when she opened her in-flight meal to be greeted by a frog sitting on her cucumber, happily tucking into the lettuce. An airline official admitted it "did cause a bit of consternation" amongst the passengers and the lettuce supplier was promptly changed.
Crutch can't recall having a frog in his salad but there was a rather unnerving occasion on a flight from Bangkok to London via Bombay. After taking off from India I opened up a bread roll served by the airline and it was crawling with red ants. The air hostess didn't seem to regard it as unusual at all. I was just thankful I had opened it up before taking a bite.
Soup of the day
In tropical climes creatures do have a tendency of turning up where they are not wanted. I was in a small Bangkok restaurant some years ago when a British lady tourist discovered a cockroach in her meat pie. She naturally let out bit of a squawk at seeing this thing lying on its back amongst the gravy and carrots. When confronted with this by the distraught lady, the English proprietor was suitably apologetic, explaining it had never happened before (well, not that week anyway). He consoled her with a reassuring "at least it's dead", a nice touch I thought.
A Post colleague had a similar experience while on holiday in Sri Lanka many years ago. In an old, but distinguished hotel, he found himself in the classic "waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup?" situation. No, the waiter didn't reply "the breast stroke, sir" although he must have been sorely tempted. Instead he came up, inspected the soup, picked up a spoon, fished the fly out and politely announced "It's gone now , sir" and wandered off, mission accomplished.
But perhaps the most spectacular gastronomic incident happened to a friend in Bangkok who was at a restaurant when a jing-jok plunged into his "soup of the day". The little lizard had apparently fallen off the ceiling. It didn't appear to like the taste of tomato soup as it hauled itself out of the soup dish and scurried away leaving a trail of tomato in its wake.
Beware of frogs at 30,000 feet