Worms @ No Extra Charge

Last week we went to a restaurant in Lima to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday.

No jokes, please!

The restaurant in question, which shall remain nameless in order to protect the guilty party, is a 5-star restaurant with a fine reputation in the city. We've eaten there before, many times in fact, & have always enjoyed the experience.

But not last week.

As my brother-in-law, Christian, dug into a salad that he had ordered as an appetizer, he suddenly noticed that part of the salad was moving.

That's never a good sign.

It turns out there were worms in his salad. Little worms, no longer than an eyelash. But worms nonetheless, & he sure hadn't ordered them as a side dish.

Since we didn't want to cause a big commotion, nor did we want to cause a whole lot of problems or embarrassment for the restaurant, we discretely called the waiter over and silently pointed out the worms in the salad.

Needless to say, he looked very surprised, apologized, & then quickly took the plate away.

We then took turns guessing what we'd receive in restitution for the worms in the salad. Normally in Peru, free plates & big discounts are almost unheard of. If we'd been in the USA, I bet the entire meal - for the entire table! - would've been free.

But not in Peru.

The waiter returned a few minutes later, still looking very embarrassed.

"Mil disculpas (1,000 pardons)," he said to us. "I've talked to the manager, & of course she will not charge you for that plate."

Well, isn't that big of her!

But he wasn't done yet.

"As well," he continued, as another waiter handed him a tray, "the restaurant also wants to give you this at no extra charge."

And then he handed us each a glass of water.

So, in return for a salad full of worms, we got the price of the salad discounted & free water!

Yahoo!

I could only laugh uproariously @ the absurdity of it all. As I said before, in the USA the worms in the salad probably would've meant free meals for everyone @ the table. But in Peru ... free water!

I'm surprised the restaurant didn't charge us extra for the worms!