Cooking thread

Not exactly on topic, but a food related anecdote.....It happened to me.

I guess you non-Brits have self service checkouts in some stores, where you scan the bar-codes and move your own items to the weight sensing bagging area, with one supervisor monitoring a dozen or so positions in case needed to age verify stuff or remove security tags etc??? Common in the UK.

Well, there I was, with all the ingredients to my vegetarian Moussaka. happily scanning and bagging my goods.
It came to the aubergines, which, of course have to be weighed and bagged. No problem: I selected 'fresh fruit and veg', Selected aubergines (egg plant) and popped them on the scale. . . . .

RED FLASHING LIGHT!!!!!
"Excess quantity purchased!: Please wait for a member of staff"

Sod that. I took off one of the three aubergines. hit the re-weigh option and tried again.

Phew! No problem: Two aubergines weighed and bagged and one set aside.

So, then I tried to add and weigh the third aubergine on its own.
RED FLASHING LIGHT!!!!!
"Excess quantity purchased!: Please wait for a member of staff"

WTF? What am I an Aubergine terrorist? Was I buying the critical mass of aubergines with which to build an aubergine fission device?
Or maybe they suspected I was too young to by this intoxicating comestible?

So, With a guilty expression on my face like someone trying to buy a gross of condoms, I waited.
Promptly, the aubergine police store assistant arrived. She looked at me, looked at the aubergines, mentally counted them up and briefly surveyed my other items, and then scanned in her supervisor card, tapped in a code and pressed 'authorise'.

Thank **** they were my last items.

I hurriedly paid, and with receipt firmly in hand and all vegetables discreetly concealed, I made my getaway. Drove straight home, closed the curtains and proceeded with my illicit craft. I'd got away with it!

Only with a bit of googling, later, did I figure out why I was restricted to two aubergines:-

Believe it or not, there are some cunning, thieving toe-rags in this world that use loose vegetables to steal valuable food. They take something like a couple of kilo of [insert expensive stuff] which they then don't scan through, but instead select 'loose vegetables: aubergines' and weigh f through at aubergine prices. ( or other fresh un-coded foodstuff) The stores let them get away with it up to approximately the weight of two aubergines.

*Note to NSA: Ignore the trigger words, guys.
**Note to site owner: Sorry about the NSA raid. I hope nobody got shot.

Quote: OnceDear

Selected aubergines (egg plant)

I seriously doubt giving them a French name makes them any less inedible :)

Quote: Nareed

I seriously doubt giving them a French name makes them any less inedible :)

They're nice to hold though, in a pervy sort of way :o)
Or is that just me, saying the unspeakable.
Well, I don't disagree. I usually substitute mostly with potato in my moussaka

Eggplant is supposed to have some great phytochemicals but ever since I ordered it in a NYC Pakistani restaurant lo these many eons ago, I've avoided it. Blood sugar be damned. I won't eat the stuff.

As for machine checkouts everyone here in the USA seems to want to install those things and force customers to deal with beeping computers.

I'll go to human cashiers. They are weird also but usually do not beep constantly.

Just another way to deny someone a job. I never self checkout anywhere.

Quote: pew

Just another way to deny someone a job. I never self checkout anywhere.

Hmmmm One for a tricky philosophical discussion: Should we encourage or discourage, by our actions and choices, employment for employment's sake? Where do we draw the line? Only by food that has been harvested by hand? Only eat food in restaurants and never self-feed?

Quote: OnceDear

Only by food that has been harvested by hand? Only eat food in restaurants and never self-feed?

If you stop sinning, Jesus loses his job. :)

Quote: Nareed

If you stop sinning, Jesus loses his job. :)

Hmmmm another thought then, Should I devote more time to loose women to help support them, Or should I do the right thing, save money, and self service and see them out of a job.
I hate moral dilemmas like this :o)

Science of Baking Class. Online.

http://www.instructables.com/class/Science-of-Baking/

Quote: OnceDear

Hmmmm another thought then, Should I devote more time to loose women to help support them, Or should I do the right thing, save money, and self service and see them out of a job.
I hate moral dilemmas like this :o)

I enjoy your moral dilemmas but most people seem not to like such things pointed out.