'Lost my appetite immediately': Woman finds dead caterpillar inside economy rice from Bedok stall

Halfway through her meal, this woman thought she found a fortuitous piece of 'long bean'. 

Taking to TikTok on Wednesday (April 19), Yong Zi Wei shared that she bought a packet of 'cai fan' or economy rice – two vegetables and one meat – from a coffee shop along Bedok North Street 3.

The extra 'ingredient' in her $3.40 dinner? It was a dead caterpillar all shrivelled up. 

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In the comments, several netizens joked that the insect in Yong's 'cai fan' was a "natural source of protein".

Speaking to AsiaOne on Friday (April 21), three days after the ordeal, Yong said she was not amused with the 'extra protein' in her meal.

"It's not the worst meal [I've had]. But it really made me lose my appetite immediately," the 24-year-old said. "I'll flip through all my food before I eat from now onwards." 

"I've yet to inform [the stall] that my food had extra protein. But I don't dare to complain... Later they say it's just a caterpillar." 

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There have been recent incidents of people finding creepy crawlies in their food.

In January, a woman got a rude shock after finding a baby cockroach in her packet of bak kwa.

A TikTok video showed Justina discovering the insect while polishing off the snack.

"Second half of the bak kwa piece had some crunchy bits, and I thought [it was] the char, but now I think they could be the cockroach's legs," she theorised.

And in the same month, a woman who goes by the name of Selena Neo on Facebook shared how her boyfriend found a caterpillar in his $10.50 fish soup.

When he brought the dish back to the stall worker at Taman Jurong Food Centre, the latter allegedly remarked "eat until like that then return it".

In the Facebook post, the annoyed woman said she was unclear with what he meant, saying "before we start eating, we are suppose to dig around and try to find for mysterious ingredients?"

chingshijie@asiaone.com