Man Found A Whole Cockroach in Tom Yam Soup by Holland Village Restaurant

With the influx of mass food poisoning cases in Singapore recently, you can bet that F&B establishments all over Singapore are now working doubly hard to ensure that there isn’t any hygiene lapses: something that should have been done long, long ago.

And you’d have thought that you’ll not be reading any news about yet another mass food poisoning case as 2018 comes to an end.

Well, you’re right: with mere days away from 2019, it’s highly unlikely that another mass food poisoning case occur.

Instead, you just have a case of a cockroach in a tom yam soup.

No biggie—

Wait.

OMG. Let’s sensationalize it, should we?

Cockroach Decided to Have a Swim

On Christmas Day, a man decided to buy a bowl of tom yam soup for takeaway and have it in a bar across the street.

I don’t know what’s the correlation between alcohol and tom yam soup, but anyways.

When he was happily drinking the soup, he noticed something unusual in it: something black and small.

His first thought?

Herbs.

But in my many years of existence in this world known as planet Earth, I don’t remember tom yam soup having any herbs. In fact, I don’t remember having any black thingy in tom yam soup, unless you’re one who likes to put grapes into your soup.

He looked closer and…

…it was a baby cockroach.

Also, he added that the cockroach looked cooked—well, at least that ruled out any food poisoning #justsaying

But the mere thought disgust him (and anyone who’s reading this, too), so he went to wash his mouth immediately.

The dude and his friends then went back to the restaurant, and the manager offered them a refund. They’ve since lodged a report with the health authorities.

Restaurant’s Reply

Lest you’re wondering what restaurant it is, here’s it: It’s aptly called #WTF (which stands for Wine, Tapas and Friends) and is owned by popular F&B group IndoChine Group.

The general manager of IndoChine Group has this to say: “We have since checked with our chef and he has mentioned that there is no way the cockroach would get into the soup as we set quite a high level of food hygiene standard at all our outlets…The food was taken away to be consumed at another outlet, we cannot assume the cockroach came from our kitchen, but rest assured we always take these matters very seriously.”

Well.

Eating Cockroaches

In order hit my word count, I’ve to find something to write, and of course I’d love to talk about the benefits of eating cockroaches.

One fact is that consuming cockroaches, despite the outrageous thought, is apparently healthy, and it’s not just the extra protein: there are antibiotic properties in the brain of cockroaches that can help fight infections.

But that’s if the cockroaches are clean and cooked.

If not, the cockroaches might carry bacteria that can contaminate your food and cause food poisoning—after all, just think of where that Xiao Qiang might have been before it takes a swim in the tom yam soup.

So, no: if you see a cockroach in your soup, discard it immediately.