Food Poisening Anywone?

[EdWort]

So yesterday SWMBO decides to try the new restaurant where my daughter got a job waitressing this summer, so I'm game. "Meet us there at 5:45 PM", she said.

I show up at 5:40 and head to the bar and on tap, they have Bud, & Budlight. Plus Widmer Hefe, W08, Top Drop, and Broken Halo. That will work for me. Anyway, I'm enjoying a Broken Halo, and then the place starts to fill up, so I order a second one and grab a table for 5.

The family shows up and we all order. It's the last table in the back of the restaurant near the kitchen, so the cook, wait staff, & manager come out to greet the family of one of their newest employees. Nice folks.

We order and the food comes. Not bad. My daughter's Grilled Salmon salad looked great. I asked to cut in the middle and see if it's done. As Chef Ramse would say, "It's f*&cking raw, you donkey!". She sends it back and they fix the problem. Overall, it was a pretty OK dining experience.

So now my son want's to watch a movie, so we walk over the Cinema (This is the Galleria in Bee Cave, Texas's biggest Outdoor Mall), and we stop at the outdoor amphitheater where there is live music every Thursday. Nice tunes, then off to the movie. We watch Hancock, which was pretty good.

During the movie, I'm beginning to feel uncomfortable, but I manage. We head home last night and I head to bed around 10 PM feeling like I'm full of gas and about to pop.

The cramps kick in and then around 1:30 AM, the signs of it's going to blow show up, so I bow to the porcelain throne. Ah, much better, life is good after I wash the cold sweat off my face and any splatters. I head back to bed to try to get some sleep. 1 hour later, same story and this continues every hour on the half hour till 5:30 this morning.

I get up at 6:30 cause I have my roofing neighbor coming over so we can finish the roof of the brewhaus today, but now it's coming out the other end (whatever is left in my system).

My neighbor comes over and looks at me and says, You look like Sh!t. I said thanks, excuse me for a minute, you reminded me of something I have to do.

I have no energy, feel like sh!t, so we called if off for today. I then grabbed a bottle of water, added a little bit of powdered gatoraid and have been able to keep it down after napping till 10:30 this morning.

I'm going back to bed now, so no brewhaus pics today.

Fu#%king Coleslaw!!!!!!

 

[the_bird]

Ugh, yeah. Sure sounds like food poisoning. Good news is that it should, uh... "pass" within the day. Pisser!

 

[Buford]

I've had salmonella before, and it's hell for three days, with the rest of the week being just crap.

On the grilled salmon - hell, I'd rather have it raw. Raw salmon as used in sushi/sashimi is tasty, the cooked stuff is just nasty. I can't eat cooked salmon without drowning it in ketchup to cover up the taste.

 

[Nurmey]

Sorry to hear about your gastric distress. I could make a few puns at your expense but since it ruined your holiday weekend, I don't have the heart. I will say that I think you may be blaming the coleslaw unjustly. Anything you've eaten in the past 4 days could have been the culprit but I doubt that will make you feel any better. Drink lots of fluids, keep your electrolytes well supplied, and get better soon.

 

[k1v1116]

This happened to me a few years ago after drinking a peach snapple, it was the worst I have ever felt in my life and the very smell of snapple makes me nauseous. I hope this hasnt ruined any food for you.

 

[Beerrific]

Drink lots of fluids, keep your electrolytes well supplied, and get better soon.

+1 And get the stuff with lots of sugar if you aren't eating anything.

Yeah, something a lot of my family don't understand and I am sure some restaurants don't either: if it has mayonnaise in it, it needs to be refrigerated!

 

[menschmaschine]

Ed, that sucks. I've been there myself with the same type of illness... and having worked in public health for a number of years, I know a little too much about foodborne illness. Your symptoms sound like foodborne intoxication from Staphylococcus aureus.

Here's how it works and it's probably too much information:

A fair percentage of people carry this bacterium on their skin. What typically happens in the restaurant setting is that a food prep. person probably has a cut on their hand or chewed-up fingernails. By not washing their hands and properly covering the wound, they contaminate, say, some cabbage while cutting it. Then after they mix that up into coleslaw, they let it out at more than 42dF in some way... like a broken bain marie or just plain letting it sit out for more than 4 hours. Meanwhile the bacteria are having a blast and producing waste, which is toxic to humans. Then you eat the coleslaw and 4-6 hours later your body is saying, "oh no, we've got to clean house!"... then you're unswallowing everything in your entire intestinal tract. The toxin runs through your system and you feel like sh!t for a day or two along with the obligatory follow-up diahrrea.

This kind of thing really pisses me off. Wash your hands people!... and don't let food stay out of temp! This happened to me while vacationing in Montreal. So I called the local health department and reported the restaurant in my mediocre (at best) French (the health official refused to condescend to speaking English for some reason).

I highly recommend reporting this to your health department. It is highly likely that you weren't the only one to get sick. The restaurant will get a nice little visit from them next week that may help prevent this (or worse things) from happening again. Hope you feel better soon!... don't worry, it will pass.

 

[Arneba28]

Yeah, something a lot of my family don't understand and I am sure some restaurants don't either: if it has mayonnaise in it, it needs to be refrigerated!

We must share a family member. My grandma swears that everything needs to be left on the counter for 4-10 hours to cool down before it goes into the fridge.

 

[EdWort]

Well, I'm on my third pint of diluted gatoraid since this morning and so far it has stayed down, but now the other end is at it again.

I'm feeling better after a couple hours sleep without having to get up and visit the throne. Sheesh I hate this stuff. It's almost 2 PM and no beer yet.

 

[eschatz]

Brutal. I've had that before and it's no fun. It made me sceptical of resturants for a little while. Rest it up Ed.

 

[McKBrew]

That's crappy. It's the 4th of July, I wouldn't want the "fireworks" to be coming out of my body. Get well Ed!

 

[EdWort]

I'm up and around. On the fouth bottle of diluted gatoraid and I'm managed to consume almost a whole pack of Saltines over the course of the day. So far, so good.

SWMBO is dragging me to a party. whoo hoo (note my deflated enthusiasm). I'm crampy & my joints ache. I wonder if this is what it is like when Aunt Flo visits every month.

 

[Bobby_M]

I've had salmonilla poisoning once. Holy hell, it's easily the worst thing that ever happened to me. I'm pretty sure I puked out the lining of my stomach for 3 days straight and I couldn't get back to work for nearly 2 weeks.

 

[RichBrewer]

Man! Sorry to hear that Ed. I hope you are feeling better tonight.

 

[stever]

"Meet us there at 5:45 PM", she said.

I show up at 5:40 and head to the bar and on tap, I'm enjoying a Broken Halo, and then the place starts to fill up, so I order a second one and grab a table for 5.

You are on your second beer less than 5 minutes after you show? Whew.. I thought I was the only one that finds that first beer goes down really, really fast.

Sorry about your food poisoning, that sucks.

 

[jds]

Sorry to hear about it, Ed.
SWMBO's upstairs suffering from her own case of foodborne blech right now. I can't think what it might have been, because we went to a family picnic yesterday, and SWMBO, the little one, and myself ate mostly the same stuff. I've narrowed it down to a couple of pasta salads, or maybe the milkshake (strawberry cream frapp) she had from *$ on the way up.

Poor thing, she was up and down all night. Mostly up.

 

[Tenchiro]

Salmonella poisoning takes a lot longer than a couple of hours to affect people usually, think of the bacteria building up in your body like yeast would in a fermentor. Basically it has to build up a large enough population to really get you that bad. Although it sure sounds like food poisoning, but probably something you had way earlier in the day or even the day before. Sometimes it can take a few days to build up.

Also raw salmon, like tuna is safe to eat.

 

[EdWort]

I'm alive this morning. Much better. Whew! The whole weekend won't be a waste.

 

[david_42]

Sounds good! I haven't had a bout since I ate some bad crabcakes in Guam (about 30 years ago).

I'm suffering from a severe allergic reaction to all of the fireworks last night. I flat do not believe what people can buy here and how few people get injured. The town fireworks were over at the high school & I suspect there was more tonnage set off by the spectators than the official show. One guy must have gotten some professional aerials, but he wasn't using a mortar and they kept running along the ground.

 

[the_bird]

Reminds me of something Chad said in his book (the one on knives). Words to the effect of "There ain't no such thing as a 24-hour flu! You've probably gotten food poisoning more often than you realized!"






Incidentally, I'm really disappointed that Chad never mentioned Star San when talking about food prep safety

 

[EdWort]

Incidentally, I'm really disappointed that Chad never mentioned Star San when talking about food prep safety

Yeah, I use Starsan to prep my stainless sink or cutting board. At BBQ cookoffs, I keep a spray bottle handy for it too. Good stuff, Starsan.

 

[CodeRage]

Good to see you are feeling better Ed. Food poisoning sucks! I had a bout of it 2 months ago and it was no fun. Bad seafood had me out of work for 2 weeks one time. I was afraid to fart for a month!

 

[Orfy]

Glad to hear you've come through the other end.

If people don't have the skill and experience to cook properly they should use a probe thermometer.

If I'm catering for public then I use one to cover liability.

 

[EdWort]

Drinking a Paulener Hefe right now. I figure I'll toss some good German Yeast back in my system to stir things up a bit. So far, so good.

Thanks for the good vibes!

 

[PeteOz77]

Now that you are feeling better, I'll give you my favourite euphamism for the squirts.

"I could have sh!t through a screen door and never hit a wire."

 

[niquejim]

Drinking a Paulener Hefe right now. I figure I'll toss some good German Yeast back in my system to stir things up a bit. So far, so good.

Thanks for the good vibes!

At least I know it wasn't one of my beers. I've been drinking them for weeks

 

[Dr Vorlauf]

I had food poisoning about 10 years ago, I feel your pain! I find that now if I keep my Blood Alcohol Content ( BAC ) above 0.10 it keeps my system sanitized as a vodka filled airlock.:cross:

 

[TxBrew]

I got poised after eating a Chili's last year.

A friend of mine told me that someone working for the catering company at his wedding Rehearsal diner didn't wash their hands with feces on it so everyone got sick after the Rehearsal. I asked him how in the hell he knew it was feces and he said someone bagged their poo for the health services to analyze because they were going to sue and try to get them fined/shut down. Came back as something caused by feces.

 

[eriktlupus]

We must share a family member. My grandma swears that everything needs to be left on the counter for 4-10 hours to cool down before it goes into the fridge.

this is from the era when fridges didn't work very well and the thermal load from a warm meal could cause the whole system to warm up over safe temps.

 

[skier!]

Most likely it is the salmon and someone in the kitchen played around with it. I know people who used to work at restaurants and when someone sends something back it's very possible they will screw with it. Throw it on the floor, toilet, etc. Other possibilities I am not going to mention at the risk of making you sicker.

Sorry.

**Edit** Your daughter had the salmon but FYI be careful when you send something back at a restaurant

 

[CodeRage]

Most likely it is the salmon and someone in the kitchen played around with it. I know people who used to work at restaurants and when someone sends something back it's very possible they will screw with it. Throw it on the floor, toilet, etc. Other possibilities I am not going to mention at the risk of making you sicker.

Sorry.

**Edit** Your daughter had the salmon but FYI be careful when you send something back at a restaurant

Never happened at any restaurant I cooked at.
It is tempting on multiple returns on the same plate because some one doesnt understand what they are asking for. Like medium is going to be pink and fairly warm on the inside. After the 3rd return it is a piece of shoe leather and then they are happy.

At least once a week a jewish or islamic person would send back a BLT with strict instructions to remake the whole thing without Bacon.

 

[EdWort]

At least once a week a jewish or islamic person would send back a BLT with strict instructions to remake the whole thing without Bacon.

Duh, they shoulda ordered an LT.

Off to roofing this morning! Whoo Hoo!

 

[PeteOz77]

At least once a week a jewish or islamic person would send back a BLT with strict instructions to remake the whole thing without Bacon.

Two options:

Send it back out with DOUBLE BACON,


Send it back out with no bacon, but two slices of bread that you have WIPED YOUR ARSE WITH, tomatoes that you KICKED AROUND THE BATHROOM FLOOR, and Lettuce that you and everyone in the kichen SPIT ON. I won't mention the Mayo.. just use your imagination


If they order a BLT, they get either the BLT or the "Special BLT"

 

[monty73741]

Never happened at any restaurant I cooked at.
It is tempting on multiple returns on the same plate because some one doesnt understand what they are asking for. Like medium is going to be pink and fairly warm on the inside. After the 3rd return it is a piece of shoe leather and then they are happy.

At least once a week a jewish or islamic person would send back a BLT with strict instructions to remake the whole thing without Bacon.

I used to be a chef & i started in fast food & went to fine dining & i never saw people mess with peoples food. I;m not saying it doesnt happen but I think i must have worked with people with more class then to mess with food. I mean we would complain when someone sent back a mid well steak & say it was too rare LOL. I say your food posioning sucks & just call the manager. The chef needs to know about this & deal with his staff. I had a smiliar experience with an out door bar & drinking water from there soda gun system. I was the DD & they didnt have bottled water. I drank water all night but i woke up with a head ache the next day. I figured since it was an out door bar & the summer air help bacteria grow on the tip of the gun. I email the bar & they thank me even put me on the guest list a few weeks later.

I do say the biggest pet peeve of my self in resturants & life is people that dont wash their hands or wear gloves all the time. people that wear gloves dont wash their hands, because they are putting on gloves. so they sweat in gloves & just form bacteria

 

[menschmaschine]

Here's two good ones from my health inspector days:

Shigella: this is the main reason self-closing doors are required on restrooms in restaurants. It minimizes fly (insects) traffic in and out of the restroom. Fly goes in, feeds on feces in the toilet, flies to the kitchen for dessert, and mechanically transmits the Shigella bacterium onto food (from the fly's legs, etc.). Some poor customer gets sick.

This one isn't so much an illness concern... it's more aesthetic. Go to a restaurant/bar that has the quick-poor caps on all of the liquor. Vermouth is the most popular. Take a bottle of vermouth with one of these caps on it (essentially open to the air) and hold the bottle up while shining a flashlight underneath it. You'll see lot's of dead fruit flies floating near the bottom of the bottle. That would be one "dirty" martini! ("Waiter, there's a fly in my soup!") I found these in virtually every bottle of vermouth that had the quick-poor caps. Sugary, fruit-flavored liquors were another fruit-fly favorite, but because of the higher alcohol content, not as popular as vermouth.

Glad you're feeling better, Ed.

 

[HenryHill]

I've had a really rough 6 weeks; not puking, but cramps and... ya know. Not constant, but most of the days of the week. So I start examining everything it can be. And Google dysentery...

I understand cross contamination and prepare and cook things safely. I am confident this is not the cause.

I sanitize everything I can think of. I clean and sanitize the beer lines. We had gotten two new kittens around the same time, so the kittens go into the sink to get washed. STILL, it isn't going away.

THEN, I see our older cat drinking out of the toilet-for no good reason, just because it's there, and she can, as there is always fresh water out.

The big cat cleans the kittens, being maternal, even though they aren't her kittens. Kittens come around for attention-BINGO, problem solved. Toilet seat cover stays down now.

 

[jfrizzell]

Add me to the list of recent victims. My wife and I went to an international food fair at the local park on Saturday for lunch. I had a gyro from a Greek place. Tasted great going down, no so great coming back up 8 hours later. Coming out the other end 3 hours later wasn't great either.

 

[NJTomatoguy]

I got told when i got out of college that I was going to join the family and be a plumber.
I worked for my uncle for a while, but moved(escaped) about 40 miles away.
Got hired by a commercial plumber, who did mostly service work for restaurants and other institutions.

I cook at home.
It takes a lot to get me to go to dinner at a restaurant.

I had an Italian rest. that insisted on giving me food- a tip- out the window at 65 mph.

I am a mortgage banker. I cook a lot. I don't like restaurants.
I went to a JULY4 party, looked at the food, and proceeded to drink heavily.
6 Sam Adams Summer
2 Yuengling
1 Coors Light

Do you want some Sushi? F NO, it's been out in the sun for a couple hours!

I had a salad from the fridge, a piece of cake, and went home.
I them cooked a real dinner