The Case of the Live Maggots

October 8th, 2008. Published under conundrums. 2 Comments.

The Case of the Live Maggots — this would be the title of the book if super teenage amateur detective, Nancy Drew, were the one solving the mystery that happened at a Northern California Goldilocks branch.

I wonder how the bakeshop/restaurant chain is faring after their customers reported them to the Department of Health. They also appeared on TV, warning people about the food being served at the restaurnt.  That could be a big blow to their business.

A month ago Balitang America on TFC oh-so-gingerly reported(Goldilocks is a major advertiser) that a Filipino family and  their foreign guest had an upsetting experience when they had lunch at a Goldilocks branch in Northern Callifornia.  After having finished  their chicken adobo, they discovered, to their horror, that there were live maggots wriggling in the remaining sauce of the dish.  Using a cameraphone, they took a video of it as evidence and brought the matter to the attention of health authorities.  Thankfully, they only had mild nausea and vomitting. None of them was hospitalized for food poisoning.

I don’t like the food chain, for reasons that deserve to be discussed in a whole new post, but I agree with their representative when he said, “I can’t understand how there can be live maggots in our food.”

Maggots are fly larvae that grow in rotten meat.  What puzzles me is — why are the maggots alive?  If, for the sake of argument, Goldilocks used rotten and maggot-infested chicken for their adobo, wouldn’t the critters die in the heat of the cooking process?  I don’t  think they have the ability to withstand high temperatures. If there were maggots in the meat, then what the customers would see are dead ones.  They shouldn’t be slithering and having a good time all over the platter.  If the meat is so spoiled that there’d be worms growing in it, I’m sure there’d also be all kinds of sickness-causing bacteria in it, bacteria that could cause food poisoning. What baffles me is that how come the people  who ate it didn’t get sick at all?

Something doesn’t seem right here.  This case calls for the sleuthing skills of perpetual-eighteen-year-old, Nancy Drew.

“Role model? Definitely. Genius? Oh, yeah.

Goddess?Probably.”

I think that the administrators of Goldilocks would profit from reading the book above. Nancy Drew’s Guide to Life is written by Jennifer Worick, published by Running Press. The book is very tiny, about 2 3/4 by 3 1/2 inches, but it is packed with useful info taken from the first 56  mysteries that have been published.  In addition to sleuthing tips, they can  also consult it for advice on being a lady, the delicate art of etiquette, survival strategies, and dating. Who knows… they just might pick up a trick or two that might help them get to the bottom of this hullabaloo.