Whenever I eat with metal silverware in restaurants, I’ll wipe and inspect it. I’ve drawn some criticism over this but I stand by it.

This all started because I was eating at a place and about halfway through the meal, I realized that there was a piece of stuff stuck to my fork. With some effort, I managed to scratch off the stuff but I was left with a burning question: “Was that my food or some prior customer’s?”

I leaned toward the “prior customer” answer since the stuff was attached so well that it was probably baked on by the dishwasher.

When I arrived at that answer, I may have thrown up a little in my mouth.

Anyway, I’m still checking knives and forks for errant stuff.

In case you’re wondering, I’ve never had a reaction like Monty Python’s Dirty Fork sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9VLwV48OHs