Stall forgets to clean clams, diner gets mouthful of mud in 'cai fan'

An innocuous meal of cai fan, or economy rice, turned into a stomach-churning experience for a man who was served a bunch of clams chock full of mud in his meal.

The netizen, who goes by Ah Du, posted a TikTok video documenting his experience on Aug 18, which he described as "super disgusting". 

Ah Du said he visited the cai fan stall located at Block 346 Bukit Batok Street 34 where he ordered a plate of rice, which included a portion of clams. 

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He opened some of the clams on his plate and found that they were filled with mud. 

"It's so difficult to even have a proper meal, super disgusting," Ah Du wrote in his video, in Mandarin. 

He told Shin Min Daily News that he didn't ask for a refund from the stall assistant.

"I was prepared [for this to happen] before eating. It's impossible to have 100 per cent good clams. I was just curious about what was inside," he added.

When a reporter from Shin Min Daily News visited the stall last Saturday (Aug 27), a stall assistant who declined to be named admitted that the incident was due to their negligence. 

"We usually soak the clams in salt water first, then boil them. After that, we'll pick out the unopened clams individually. Typically, the unopened clams are the ones that are filled with mud," he explained. 

He added that other customers who previously encountered similar issues with closed clams would usually tell the stall employees and ask for a replacement dish. 

"If the customer wants a refund we'll give it to them, but [Ah Du] didn't inform us about it at that time. We've been in operation for about eight or nine years, it's the first time that someone has complained about us online.

"We feel very apologetic, but we hope that the customer can come to us directly next time so that we can resolve the matter quickly." 

The stall assistant also added that since the incident, a supervisor has been sent to the stall to conduct regular checks. 

In a second TikTok video uploaded on Monday (Aug 29), Ah Du clarified that he did not mean to complain, but simply wanted to raise awareness. 

"To the stall, I can only apologise, I shared this video in the hopes that both [the staff and customers] will be careful, because these ingredients are meant to be consumed, it might lead to the loss of lives," he wrote in the video's caption. 

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"As a F&B stall it's not just about earning money, it's also about ensuring the safety and hygiene of the ingredients, you can't be negligent. It'll be too late if someone loses their life." 

Back in June, a man was left flabbergasted when he found a used cigarette butt in his roasted duck rice. 

Immanuel told AsiaOne then that he ordered his meal via GrabFood from Hua Zai HK Style Roasted Delight at 827 Tampines Street 81. 

While he was tucking into his meal, he realised there was a "cigarette taste" in his food. After spitting the food out, he found the offending item lodged between the rice and the meat. 

When AsiaOne visited the stall, the stall assistant said he was unaware of such an incident, and asked that we contact his boss for more information. 

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claudiatan@asiaone.com