I'll have the rice. But could you ask chef to add a little extra foot?

August 27, 2006 7:14 AM

What was in my pilau rice, human skin?

I found this little treat in my pilau rice.



Not wanting to cause a fuss, I put it (and its friends) to one side. No one else on my table had anything similar in their food.

I'm not sure what it is but it has the look, feel, texture of human skin -- the thick stuff that foot pickers like to peel off.

I had a close look at it this morning. I couldn't make out any noticeable 'fingerprints' nor could I see anything like plant cells. It doesn't smell of anything other than the general aroma of the dish in which it was served. I am reluctant to taste it.

What is this thing? Is it the rind of some exotic fruit, or was I the target in a cruel game of humiliation.

posted by popcassady to Food & Drink (19 answers total)

blood-stained booger?
posted by matteo at 7:20 AM on August 27, 2006

Well, you are comfortably far away from my usual haunts here in London, but is there any chance you could post the name of the restaurant where you purchased said dish? (not really an answer, I realise, however I'd surely like to not eat at the same place...)
posted by Mutant at 7:35 AM on August 27, 2006

Umm, could it be the outer lining of a clove of garlic?

That would be very likely as the skin tends to get translucent as its cooked. The stains could be from mixing with the other ingredients in the rice (or dye [was the rice red/orange in colour?]). It's also very probable given that garlic is used as an ingredient in pilau rice.

Even if it isn't I wouldn't think its human skin. Skin peels cleanly and not in lacerated strands in my experience.

Actually, another probability that comes to mind is onion skin.
posted by gadha at 7:35 AM on August 27, 2006

I'd say onion, too.
posted by cmonkey at 7:37 AM on August 27, 2006

I'm not sure where the shape and texture come from. But that color — the yellow with red flecks that matteo is reacting to — is perfectly explainable.

When you cook with saffron, you're supposed to crush up the threads first, so that you get a uniform yellow-orange color in the finished dish. If you don't crush up the threads first, you see exactly those colors — a paler yellow in most of the dish, and bright red-orange flecks where a piece of saffron sat directly on your food.
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:40 AM on August 27, 2006

Response by poster: It's definitely not onion skin, garlic skin, nor a booger.

It has the same texture and thickness as the callousy skin found on the pads of your feet.

If I were to eat it, I'd probably find it quite chewy.
posted by popcassady at 7:41 AM on August 27, 2006

It could be a rice hull, too. Could you list some of the ingredients in the dish, as best you remember them?
posted by Mr. Gunn at 7:42 AM on August 27, 2006

More likely, it's a piece of cheese rind or hard cheese shaving. Cheese is added right before the dish is served, so if you had a more dried out bit near the rind that got added to your dish, it would have that exact texture and probably look like that, too.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 7:47 AM on August 27, 2006

Response by poster: It was pretty much your standard pilau rice. Nebulawindphone was right in saying it was a paler dish. It was hard to tell under the blue lights, but the rice didn't have the yellow colouring that pilau rice usually has.

I should have included a scale reference. It's at least a couple of centimetres long and a few millimetres thick at its thickest.
posted by popcassady at 7:49 AM on August 27, 2006

A couple centimeters? Well, that axes my guesses. Nebulawindphone sounds like he's on to something.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 8:09 AM on August 27, 2006

I feel confident that it's a leathery layer of onion-- one of those half-thick, partially dried ones that isn't quite onion paper but also isn't crisp and nice like onion that we like to eat.

If you've chopped even a few onions, you've seen one. Often the layer is half normal, half leathery (and flat on the leathery side). That's all it is. Some hurried restaurant worker didn't trim the onion properly. Rest easy and keep eating.
posted by Mayor Curley at 8:09 AM on August 27, 2006

Definitely looks oniony. Perhaps a spring onion/scallion.
posted by Joh at 11:00 AM on August 27, 2006

Were there any golden raisins in the pillau?
posted by Addlepated at 1:03 PM on August 27, 2006

I was about to say the same thing Mayor Curley did. It's not onion skin, but the layer just underneath. Cook it with saffron and oil, and you might get something that looks like the picture above. It's really hard to say with that small thumbnail though. Store it somewhere and bring it at a mefi meetup, I'm sure it'd make a great icebreaker!

Or heck, ask the restaurant where you got it what it looks like to them.
posted by splice at 1:24 PM on August 27, 2006

Could it have been some poultry skin that got mixed in by accident? Any food preparer losing that much dermis would have noticed it, I imagine. (But if you really are that curious, take it to your local health inspectors for evaluation. If there's a remote chance that the restaurant's standards are that lax, they should be aware.)

And don't call me "human skin"!
posted by rob511 at 1:48 PM on August 27, 2006

Chicken skin has a very different texture from human skin, though, and especially from callused human skin. It's much thinner and less tough.
posted by nebulawindphone at 4:22 PM on August 27, 2006

Best answer: Could be mace, which is sometimes used in pilau.
posted by prolific at 4:26 PM on August 27, 2006

Having separated many a chicken in my day, I think that looks like the tendon end of a piece of chicken. Especially around the foot-end of a chicken leg, the tendons are connected by a very thin, separate bit of muscle from the rest of the meat. Check out the Asian restaurant cut at the bottom of this page- I think you will see the larger whole of your small piece on the second row from the bottom, first piece on the right.
posted by headspace at 6:03 PM on August 27, 2006

Response by poster: It's definately not chicken. I thought it might have been onion but I've ruled that out too.

I think, out of all likelihood if it's anything other than foot skin, it's probably mace. The pictures on the site prolific linked to look very similar.

I'll look out for some next time I go shopping. I swear, paranoia will be the end of me.
posted by popcassady at 6:31 PM on August 27, 2006