After a small bout this weekend, I want to hear what your horrible food poisoning stories are! Embarrassing? Thrilling? Was it a kitchen ignoring safety protocols or did you trust something that was a little iffy out of the fridge? Let me hear it! I’ll post my own below.
Kicking us off. My worst story was on the day of my wedding. The night before I was drunk with friends in town, and they had never had real seafood before. So I ordered a huge platter of everything. Including, you guessed it, oysters. Now oysters are delicious, and they are usually fine if prepared well. Unfortuately we had just been through a large heatwave, and most of the oysters had spoiled, but no one knew yet. So I slurped a good 4 or 5 of them. Next day was the wedding. I really began to notice right before the ceremony. My (now wife) sent in the best man thinking I had cold feet. He came in, we chatted, he asked if I was alright. I… explained everything and he did what any good best man would do, and laughed. I was able to rally and attend my own wedding, but didn’t enjoy too much of the food the day after.
Turns out - it was Vibrio. I spent the next few days within 30 feet of a toilet at any given time. We weren’t on our honeymoon yet thankfully, but our first few days of marriage were definitely interesting.
My husband and in-laws were taken down by oysters too. Last New Year’s they shucked and ate two trays full between the three of them, and the following day were hugging toilets. We were visiting them in London and had to reschedule our flight home.
LPT: don’t eat oysters the day before your own wedding. or anyone else’s wedding. or ever
Furiously taking notes
Oysters got me too. I went to the ER thinking my appendix was bursting because the stomach cramps were so painful.
I still like the slippy little bastards, but I’m very cautious about where and when I order them now.
Yeah, now I only go to the fancy oyster restaurants. It’s a rarity now because those places are expensive, but I’ve never gotten food poisoning from the places that specialize in them
It doesn’t matter how fancy the place is. Oysters are filter feeders and clean up the water ways of anything and everything. All it takes is a boat to flush its toilet somewhere near the oyster field and the whole lot will be contaminated.
I guess it’s the best indicator because they pick out their own oysters vs just picking any oysters. There’s always a risk, but at least they’re picking and choosing theirs, at least my local place does