It's always a little unsettling when a familiar or favorite food turns out to contain some inedible element, or at least inedible in your book. It's like having a cute family movie suddenly turn into a blood-curdling horror flick. It completely snuffs out the warm and fuzzy feeling that's kindling inside you and leaves you in this cold, dark place from where you emerge, shaken and disturbed. I know I felt that way about a decade ago back in California, the day I pulled back the plastic seal on a big container of Mountain High yogurt and picked up a spoon to delve into the creamy white stuff. Except that....it was neither creamy nor white! The top of the yogurt tub was covered with a layer of grayish-green mold! My dairy fix had been taken over by fungi from the dark side.
B. probably had a similar feeling when he ordered the one vegetarian dish on the menu in a restaurant in Brussels during a trip there a few years ago. It was gazpacho soup and it arrived at the table, steaming and smelling reasonably good. It wasn't the best soup he had ever had but at least it had recognizable ingredients. Or so he thought until he got to the end and saw, coiled up at the bottom, what he swears was a bundle of worms! It adds a whole new dimension to the dilemma of whether you wrap noodle-like food around your fork or chop it up before you eat it.
And I know Ramji (our neighborhood cook) had another such Stephen King moment the other day when he cut open the packet of Vijay Malai Paneer that I had left thawing on the countertop. He sharpened one of the knives in the knife block and lowered it into the white slab of cheese only to feel it crunch into something. What he saw next made his hair stand on end. Go ahead and supply the ending here. You can use the photo for inspiration if you like.
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