Passing the bok bok bok: Etobicoke restaurant accidentally serves chicken head

Passing the bok bok bok: Etobicoke restaurant accidentally serves chicken head

(Image: Filip Maljković)

This is one of those stories that wouldn’t have made the news at Dundas and Spadina, but because it happened to a visitor from Ottawa at a restaurant in Etobicoke, the Sun is there. Apparently, a guest of our city got a surprise when she ordered a box of wings from a local shop:

Among the mound of wings there was allegedly a deep-fried chicken’s head—its eyes staring up at Karen Cook.

“It was absolutely disgusting,” Cook, 44, said Monday…. adding she hasn’t been able to eat wings since.

Cook tossed the wings but she saved the chicken head and brought it, beak and all, back to the restaurant the next day.

Cook returned the head to the restaurant and requested a full refund, which, reportedly, was given. Cook, undeterred, went up the food chain to the distributor and began heckling them, promising to call public health officials.

The problem is that this isn’t a public health issue. Under Ontario law, you can sell any part of a chicken, provided it’s cooked properly (any guest at a Chinese wedding banquet can attest to the safety of eating food around a chicken’s former head). Sure, the restaurant probably shouldn’t have sold her a box of wings with a head in it, but calling fowl to the media and public health officials is a bit of an overreaction.

Then again, maybe we don’t understand the pecking order for a story like this. How many calls did Cook have to make before the Sun finally bit into the story?

• Chicken head found in order of wings [Toronto Sun]