Fallen out of love with raw veges

I scream the loudest scream yesterday when preparing dinner. In that instant by the sink, I almost felt faint. Cause of my panic attack? Worms. Fucking many fat, long, vile looking brownish red worm alive and crawling out of my watercress when i was washing them in hot water. it was f*&king disgusting.

I have seen my share of worm in all sort of vege. mainly the fat caterpillars of the white sluggish creepy crawlies hidden in between the clusters of my brocoli. Its disgusting but hey, at least i know when i chop them off, they are GONE. These watercress worms are another matter completely.

First of all, I have never EVER seen worms in all the water cress I have bought in singapore nor HK. NEVER. So I flip when i saw it out of those "fresh" bunches from coles dropping like dead flies in the first bunch. Oh course i freak and scream. Initially i thought they were leeches! You should have seen those bastards. They look fat, and long and kinda transparent layer wrapping them and the thing has that brownnish red colur. They look kinda like earthworm i think. I'm sure you got the visual image.

So I rinse and rinse and more kept dropping out, coz the fat ones dropped first, then the small ones. Just when I thought they were clean, I drench them in hot water and more fell. I was exasperated. Should I throw them or keep them? These is my only dinner and i hate to walk out again in the damn cold.

Mum always said watercress are "dirty" and must wash thoroughly to rid of all the worms and parasite. You know when you are young, you prob think mum exaggerates too much, afterall, never in my life have i ever seen one in watercress. So in that desperate moment, i tried to remember what my mum said and in all possibility i think that made sense, i soak the damn watercress in HOT HOT water *kill those bastards* and in case they cling onto the crevices, i added tons of salt and vinegar. I definitely saw things falling off. Did that twice and wash the vege stalk by stalk. and repeat the process twice. Before i drop them in the soup stock, I cook them again seperately and dump garlic into the water and again repeated twice,

I know i sound absolutely anal, but alien bodies wasnt part of my dinner plan. if you have seen those disgusting things, you would be just as para-anal.

I google more about the worms and apparently liver flukes grows mainly to watercress grown in contaminated water, i'm not sure if that is what it is. So much for australian freshness. And people do get infected if they eat wild uncooked watercress.

So the next time you are having that "fresh raw" salad, my advice to you is to always double check your content for extra flavour. Otherwise, wash and bring your own vege, else, order the cook ones if paranoid.