Another reason why I don't like eating in the dark

Yesterday, Tina and I went to the Yahoo! Holiday Party at the San Mateo Convention Center. Like previous years, the Party took place in two of the convention center halls. This year the second hall had different food from the main hall which included sausages and mini-burgers. I made myself a little burger with a beef patty and shiitake mushroom. I took a couple bites, savoring the flavor of the mushroom with the light char of the beef - the surprisingly soft and tender beef. I took another bite and thought that the burger tasted really good but the texture was off - I like flesh that's soft, but it should also be firm and provide some resistance when chewed. This hamburger was just soft. I looked down and all I saw was a dim red burger in my hand.


Tina looked at it and said it looked pink to her. I agreed, but I also knew that my mouth was telling me it was the texture of raw ground meat. I turned on my flash and took another picture.

Yep, it was raw. I don't eat raw beef unless it's prepared at a decent quality restaurant or I've processed the beef myself from larger cuts. I certainly don't eat raw ground beef (especially ground because of the increased surface area and the much higher likelihood that contaminated meat will contaminate an entire batch) prepared in large quantities by a the catering staff of a convention center and then left on chafing dishes for who knows how long.

Tina suggested I tell someone, but I decided against it - who was I going to tell and how were they to decide which of the patties to keep and which to discard? Hmmm, now that I'm writing this, it seems like may be I should have taken the effort to find someone to inform about the raw beef.

If you're reading this, what do you think I should have done? (I just put the burger back on my paper plate and walked it over to the compost bin.)