The Sniff Test

There was a commercial buffet restaurant in the Midwest where my family and I went sometimes.  On one occasion, at that particular restaurant, we went from one food island to the next and filled our plates from the large array of food selections.  We sat down in a booth.  One of the items I had selected was a slab of roast beef.  Lifting my fork with a bite of meat on it, I suddenly sniffed it.  It stank!  I went to the fellow serving it up and told him, but it didn’t do any good.  I should have asked for the manager.  Since that time I’ve always applied the sniff test before I eat meat served in a restaurant.   I also use it when I’m at home, after I‘ve opened a package of raw meat to be used for a meal and I smell it as it is cooking as well. 

A few years ago, my daughter and I were eating at a Durango restaurant where pizza and other foods were served.  I had gotten a hamburger.  I lifted the bun and sniffed the meat.  It was a little bit off as far as the smell went.  I sniffed it again to be sure and as I did so, the proprietor walked past and stopped by our table.  He asked, “Is everything okay?”  I looked up at him rather sheepishly and said, “Yes, everything is fine.”  The sandwich was what I would have called borderline as far as the smell went, so I ate it.  It tasted okay.  Daughter and I had a good chuckle after that.  That restaurant later went out of business.  

There was another restaurant that my mother and I went to a couple of years ago.  It has an outdoor patio.  We sat out there one summer day, eating our meal.  I looked through the space of the surrounding fence and saw a dead rat lying on the grass about twenty feet from the patio.  The patio has a wooden floor with a space underneath it, so you can imagine what I was thinking regarding as to where the rat may have come from.  I’d decided not to go there again, after all, there are some really nice eating places right here in Pagosa!