Friday 5

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Bad Food

1. What was the last meal that caused you to be ill?

I can't remember getting sick from food for awhile, but part of that is intentional amnesia I think. ;-) The best bad food story I have is about a week after moving into our current house almost 5 years ago, I had a piece of apple pie at bedtime. I had not put the pie in the fridge, figuring "Baker's Square, probably has a billion preservatives, no fridge needed..." Well, a few hours after sending down the pie, my stomach hit the reject button and back it came. I knew it was the pie because as soon as I unloaded it, I felt 90% better; when I'm sick-sick, I continue to feel lousy.
Otherwise, I seem to have a more-or-less cast iron intestinal system.
[Karma being what it is, I will now come down with a two-week upper & lower GI infection....]

2. Are there any places you never dine anymore because of a bad experience hours after the meal?

Er, no. There are some places I won't dine because their food/service is execrable. There have been a few places that I was a little concerned about cleanliness. I don't remember getting sick anyplace though. At least, not in a local place. There was a vacation meal that made everyone sick, but since we were only there for the time it took to eat....

3. What’s your prescription for dealing with a food-caused illness?

Get whatever is causing the problem out of you as soon as possible, drink LOTS of water (lower GI), eat toast and tea or flat 7Up (upper GI). Sleep as much as possible.

4. When friends tell you about coming down with food-caused illnesses, do you avoid the places they name, or do you figure it’s a dice-roll wherever you go?

I probably would avoid it, but I do consider it to be somewhat of a dice roll.

5. After numerous citations, a very, very popular restaurant that you’re quite fond of is shut down by the health department until it can get everything up to code. When the health department gives the restaurant the o.k. to reopen, do you go?

I would go immediately after it reopens since that's likely to be the cleanest it'll be! ;-) After that, I'm not sure I'd go back at all. On the other hand, it depends on what the cites were for, and that sort of info is somewhat hard to find out.