On the way back from seeing Vienna Teng perform at C. Donatiello winery in Healdsberg, Bill and I stopped to have dinner with Mandy, Elliot, and Aaron at a Mexican restaurant in West Portal. Halfway through dinner, we got to the bottom of one of the small baskets of chips, and I noticed something dark beneath one of the chips. I discovered a single rat turd.

The waitress came over, and I pointed out the turd to her. She removed the basket quickly and told us story about the chips being cooked on something where they also warm tortillas and cook chicken. “It’s chicken,” she said.

Now, I’m no chef, but I know what chicken looks like. More importantly, I know what chicken doesn’t look like. Specifically, chicken doesn’t look like rat turd. The poop piece was 100% a canonical rat turd — tapered ends and slight bend. And even if it was chicken (it wasn’t), we had two vegetarians with us at the table. It turns out that vegetarians don’t want chicken in their chips.