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This article was published 11/5/2009 (4159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG - A baby rodent is not what one might expect to find in one's chicken mushroom stir-fry.

But that's what a Winnipeg couple says they found after they dug into their lunch from a Sizzling Wok outlet at a food court on the weekend.

The discovery is even making health inspectors queasy.

"I'm shocked and dismayed," Mike LeBlanc, manager of public health inspection programs, said Monday.

"This obviously is a very disturbing finding. It does not at all meet the threshold of what we even consider acceptable food practices."

Sizzling Wok has voluntarily closed the outlet for now. Officials with the St. Vital Centre shopping mall said they contacted the city health department and stressed the restaurant will not reopen until it is cleared by health inspectors.

"We are looking into the matter as you can understand," mall spokeswoman Cheryl Mazur said. "As soon as we were aware of the situation we had a huge concern."

LeBlanc said tests have yet to determine the exact nature of the mystery meat. "Just by looking at this, I can't determine whether or not it's a mouse, a baby mouse or a baby rat but it is obviously a baby rodent of some sort," LeBlanc said.

Investigators also aren't sure where the wee rodent came from -- whether it was the restaurant itself or a supplier.

-- The Canadian Press