I eat out several times a week in Dublin and one thing that I've noticed that drives me bananas is the little containers of salt and pepper that some places put on the table.

You know the ones, sea salt and course ground pepper in little pots where you help yourself and sprinkle it all over your meal. They seem to be especially popular in all the hipster spots, but I find the practice absolutely disgusting.

Can you imagine where people's hands have been before they pop their fingers in there? Watch people closely using the salt, for example, and they'll take a large handful, grind it up between their fingers and then throw the excess back into the little pot.

This is in effect grinding bacteria into the salt, and because salt is rough and abrasive it is also pulling dirt from under your skin and fingernails. Once would be bad enough, but these little pots are on the table all day and in many cases just topped up nightly.

This means that if you arrive at the end of the evening you're potentially getting the combined dirt or germs from dozens of people. All nicely sprinkled over your food.

Add in the staff who fill them up, the chefs dipping their hands into the same salt bag and kids having a play with them at the table, and you have little germ bombs waiting to explode.

I never use these seasoning pots. When I'm out having a lovely boiled egg or some nice, crispy chips (both of which are vastly improved with salt) I don't want to piss the staff off by asking for salt, because they'll clearly tell me it is right in front of me and I don't want to seem like an eejit by explaining my feelings on the matter.

This isn't an unnecessary rant, it is just common sense. Lose the stupid little pots and bring back what has worked for decades... A simple salt shaker (or grinder if you can afford it) and a pepper mill.

Am I alone in this?

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