I’m feeling a little under the weather. Actually, I feel like I’ve been sucker-punched in the solar plexus and just run a marathon. I’d chalk it up to the 24 hour flu but, as we all know, there’s no such thing as what most write off as the 24 hour flu is actually food poisoning. As to what caused it – hard to say:
1. Suspect One: A bad oyster
Hey, Narelle, remember when you joked about all those oysters Akemi was getting me to eat and how I joked back that she was doing so in the hopes that I would eventually land the tainted one?
2) Suspect Two: Funky sushi
The first piece of toro imparted a very subtle flavor of spoilage. I skipped the second.
3) Suspect Three: 15 mini doughnuts
Rather than wait for my Monday lunch with Denise, I decided to jump the gun and taste the mini doughnuts at that new burger place on 4th. I got two orders and ended up finishing my ten and Akemi’s five. I suppose it could have been worse. If the blueberry pie had been served with actual ice cream instead of the ill-advised mascarpone cheese that, unfortunately, tasted very much like cheese, it could have gone a whole lot worse.
4) Suspect Four: Those damn leftovers
Pan-fried chicken cutlets with shallots, sweet red and jalapeno peppers, and morel mushrooms in a Metaxa cream reduction. “Cream” being the operative word – especially after sitting in the fridge for a couple of days.
5) That damn salad I made
NOT PICTURED
It’s always the one you least suspect – however, the last time I contracted food poisoning, I narrowed down the cause to the fresh sprouts I had with my sunchoke soup. Boy, wouldn’t this be ironic?
6) The Breakfast Bennies
In his book Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain advises diners to skip the mussels, avoid ordering fish on a Monday, and never ever order the Hollandaise sauce. I chose to to follow his advice as regards the latter at breakfast yesterday. Serves me right?
7) Night Market!
- Ivon joined us for our second foray. Clearly, the man loves his skewers.
- Akemi and her big pork bun.
- Who’s number one?
- Hurricane Potato with ketchup. The breakfast of champions.
To be fair, I was feeling unwell heading into the night market so it probably didn’t cause the problem. On the other hand, it couldn’t have helped.
The blame for my present condition no doubt lies with one of the above. Then again, like the passengers in Murder on the Orient Express, they could have all conspired against me.
Anyway, following a fitful night’s sleep, I woke up to find Akemi had made me breakfast…
I’m on the mend. And good thing too. I have plans to check out a kobe foie gras burger tomorrow at lunch.
Heads up! Steve Eramo recently conducted an interview with Robert Picardo (SGA’s Richard Woolsey and soon to be SGU guest star) in which Bob discusses one of my favorite Atlantis episodes, Remnants. Check it out here:
Sorry you weren’t feeling well, but glad you’re on the mend now. I always go through all the possible culprits myself when I get food poisoning.
Hope you have a good night.
You should be able to figure out what caused it by the time frame between eating it and becoming ill – unless you ate that all within a short time frame, in which case, you wouldn’t need a pathogen to become ill from that much food.
Sounds like, thankfully, you had a mild case of it. Glad to hear that you’re on the mend. The food always looks great and I would love to have your culinary adventures, but I don’t know where you put all that food… I think that I would be feeling unwell quite often. Enjoy it because you can, but be careful that it doesn’t catch up with you. In the meantime, bring it all on – I enjoy reading all about the food and people in your life!
Looking forward to seeing Picardo and Hewlett… (as you know) 🙂
I got my money one the oysters or the sushi. Hopefully its the sushi though. I know Akemi would feel bad if it was one of the oysters she encouraged you to eat. 😉
Thanks so much,
Major D. Davis
My sincere sympathies! Did the rice soup and green tea help? My usual go-to in such cases is Vernors Ginger Ale. I suppose any good ginger ale would help, but Vernors was what my mom gave me back in my childhood when I wasn’t feeling well and to this day there’s something comforting about the stuff.
In fact, I’m having a bit now. Not sure if I ate something that disagreed with me, or I’m just having symptoms from a somewhat stressful week.
Thanks for posting the link to that interview. The scene that Robert Picardo mentions in Broken Ties where Woolsey puts on his suit to relax was a favorite of mine, and marked the point where I began really liking the Woolsey character.
Is that ‘homemade’ rice soup? It’s not Campbells, the green chunks are way to big for that. Ask Akemi what she puts in her rice soup.
Hope you’re feeling better, Joe.
Elminster
I’d say the oysters!! Did you ever read about Hester Blumenthal’s unfortunate oyster incident??
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article6829149.ece
He notes this as his career low.. the oysters looked and smelled marvellous … but they were contaminated.
All is ok now.. thank God.
I love those night food markets.. wish we had one here in Perth. I enjoyed going to one in Chatswood, Sydney.. yum!!!
Ah, Remnants. One of my favourite episodes as well!
Also the name of most of my fantasy sports teams -coincidence as I’ve used the name for 14 years!
Geez, I hope the E. coli runs its course quickly. Feel better soon!
well, that addressed any questions I had about what you’ve been eating lately. Given your expansive range of food tastes, I would shudder to try and decide which substance mght have done you in. Unless you hear reports of dozens of people going to Hospital with similiar symptoms, and you see the name of one of the eateries on the television. Glad to see it’s not slowing you down. After all. it’s Sunday evening now, and you still have writing to do tomorrow.
Thanks for the post, pics, and Picardo, and I hope you bounce back quickly.
Joe, how do you eat so much and still maintain your weight???How many doughnuts? Mini or not. It’s no wonder your solar plexus hurts. But it looks like Akemi has things under control for ya. If she tried to poison you, she wouldn’t be trying to make you feel better.
I had a really good question, but for the life of me I can’t remember what the heck it was. It’s a white blonde moment. (white blonde = grey=senior moment).
Tried new migraine medication today, Treximet – wow it worked. Took away the pain and my memory.
ok reading backwards, “Peanut Butter and Jelly”- cute and very creative, didn’t have time to write huh? Cool, idea post videos of Jelly, those were soooooooooooooo cute.
Hi Joe,
Do you suppose not one, but ALL of the above contributed to your gastronomical downfall? Mind the tummy and feel better.
Smiles, Julie
(dare I venture, first comment today?)
Was I being terribly mean because I laughed when you said you had food poisoning?
The culprit, in my opinion, would be the salad, what were you thinking? Wayyyy too healthy, and your body isn’t used to it… and I must defend the sugar. You can’t get sick from doughnuts, even 15 of ‘em (they’re small)…. So take them off the list… Just.Not.Possible. *grins*
I would really like to try that funky potato spiral… and most of the other stuff as well…*sigh*
I’m going to eat now (again). THANKS!!
Have a good one!!
Kymm
Boy, you must be sick! You are very subdued with your blog title. What happened to the attention grabbing, exclamation filled blog titles? You could have used:
“Staphylococcus! Botuism! E-coli! Salmonella! Wills and Trusts!”
What’s making you sick? I vote for all of the above, excluding, of course, the foods that usually don’t cause illness or death (just fatness) – mini doughnuts and corn dogs.
Akemi is a wise woman: tea and rice are excellent for upset tummies.
And whatever you ate 18 to 24 hours prior to you problem is the most likely culprit, though spoiled rice (bacillus cereus) can attack in 6 to 8 hours.
I hope you feel better soon, though I can’t help mentioning that a foie gras kobe burger sounds like a bad idea considering your delicate condition.
Awwww….sorry to hear you’re feeling a bit under the weather. 🙁 Serves you right for not sending me that chocolately thingy! 😀
If it makes you feel any better, Mr. Das had a touch of ‘something’ last weekend. He wasn’t sure if it was the quick turkey sandwich he grabbed at the local WaWa late Friday night, or the stuffed French toast for breakfast at the dinner Saturday morning. We know it had to be one of those two things because Saturday morning he started with pains and tummy rumblings, even though it didn’t hit him fully until Sunday afternoon. Took a while to incubate, I suppose. Or, maybe he just had an intestinal bug…but it kept him in bed Sunday night and all day Monday.
Here, Joe…something to cheer you up. We went to a family backyard BBQ tonight, and spent some time with Mishu, a 17-year old lady pug. 🙂
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/dasNdanger/mishu.jpg
Warms your heart, doesn’t it?
Feel better, Joe. Sleep well.
das
Diner. A restaurant.
Dinner. A meal.
I meant diner, not dinner.
😛
(I’ve been messing up a lot lately…sorry)
das
i’m not sure if any one of those things has made you sick, my money is on all of them.
Gotta agree with archersangel.. you do eat some weird arsed stuff.
If you ever came down under I bet you’d be at those food festivals lined up in the ‘witchetty grub soup”, “honey ant’ and crocodile kebab aisles…
😉
JOE! Did you *know*, that “PEPTO-BISMOL” is *Ancient* for:
“ALL of the ABOVE!! *PICK* ONE!!”
hi, joe,
why did you choose a blog instead of a live journal? i’m asking, b/c i’m seriously considering joining one of them, and i’m leaning towards blog.
i’d choose a wordpress blog, so: why did you chose it instead of live journal, and what are the perks of a wordpress blog?
Ahhh the Richmond Nite Market! Glad U suggested that place! Got to check it out a week ago this past Friday. Loved the Hurricane potato fries! I got Sour Cream flavoring on mine!
http://twitpic.com/28qwyf
Also tried these veggie roles though I don’t know if I fancied them as much as I thought I would. But they were still alright.
http://twitpic.com/28qyfe
Absolutely loved the market! Never got to see sooo much food in one place! I was definately in my happy place with all that food!
After hearing that some SGA cast will appear on SGU, any chances of some SG1 cast making any appearances also in S2 SGU?
Do the SGU cast like recieving fan mail?
Did I miss that Akemi is staying with you again? What happened to her travels? So you are seeing Denise again so that means she is back from NY wasn’t it? Busy boy.
I hope you feel better soon.
Sorry to hear about the poisoning Joe. I’d put my money on either the oysters or the sushi. Mini doghnuts are too innocent to be the culprit!
Someone mentioned “Broken Ties”. That too was a pivitol SGA episode for me in that was when I began to like Woolsey too! Before that I was not sold on him being on Atlantis. But that episode and beyond, I began to actually warm up to him on the show.
So it will be exciting to see what happens in S2 of SGU with the knowledge of some SGA cast making appearances! 🙂
Sorry to hear it, Joe, but if all of this was eaten in past 24–48 hours, I can see why. When I was first diagnosed food-sensitive, I learned too much of a good thing is a bad thing.
Jealous of those Bennies. I have mine eggless now, ask for extra meat and add tomato slices.
yeah Robert Picardo is only limited by the script, I wish he can be a mainstay for SGU, and you dont have to label it as Atlantis crossover since he was only on Atlantis for a year.
and Joe, I bet every one of your dreams has food in them. What do you think of inception btw?
While I’m a firm believer in the jinx, it may have been that you were playing a game of Russian Oyster Roulette with the number you’ve been consuming of late. But looking at the candidates, they all seem a little shifty.
Let’s examine the suspects.
That hollandaise is definitely hiding something under it’s creamy layer. I wouldn’t trust it.
Leftovers never get along. For all you know they’ve been involved in some kind of civil war in the fridge with the dictator of the sweet red peppers deciding that no pepper should live if they have to live under the rule of the jalapeño peppers. You are yet another casualty of their never ending feud.
Mascarpone cheese always smells past its used by date. So while the sheer quantity of doughnuts consumed may appear the obvious candidate, anything that smells like old milk when it’s in its pre-used by date state must remain a suspect.
The sushi would look far more suspicious if it still had the fish head attached. Nothing like your food staring at you to realise they will make you suffer for their death.
Although, sometimes a system can simply crack it and make you feel bad until you eat a piece of celery or a bowl of steamed vegetables, so I think Akemi’s on the mark with her Get Better food. Let your system have some time out. Besides, you don’t want to get foodie fatigue as you prepare for Japan.
Hope you start to feel better.
oh and fans have been speculating about an MGM trailer, is that true? because if there was one then it wouldve been shown at comic-con.
Ha, Joe: didn’t I ask a few days ago how you could still be alive following the amount you eat? Evidently **not** the stomach and intestines of steel. That would be a cool superpower though…
With all that food you’ve had in the past few days, it’s possible it’s just too much rich food? But you tend to eat well, while I have Frosted Flakes for a snack. Those doughnuts looked so good. Probably the sushi.
Watched the trailer for season two and loved it. New people. Hmmmm. I wonder what is going to happen. Can’t wait until the premiere.
Ah, me…not first then *sigh*
I had another thought – I recall you mentioning Ivon’s propensity for illness on trips, and you did go to the Night Market with him, and several of us did warn you about the possibility of an anti-karmic effect…just saying…
I ran into some nasty food poisoning saturday night/sunday morning. After a few litres of water and about 12 hours of sleep I feel better but am still contemplating going to work in a couple hours.
You have food poisoning Joe? Hope you get better soon. Last time I had I just drank water, its a great way to clear your system.
It does however have a side effect if you feel like throwing up, it makes you throw up. As I discovered lol
Seems like a few weeks ago (or months, who knows) I read something in the news about people in the U.S. getting E. coli from sprouts. I don’t recall for sure which type was identified as most likely to be contaminated. They mentioned both bean and alfalfa sprouts. One of those was being looked at very carefully, and a sizeable bacteria load was found in a large number of samples. But as you said, could be like Murder on the Orient Express – long list of candidates . . . and some of them may have evolved to learn how to work together.
The worst place and time to have a little trouble from eggs benny is on a crosstown bus in Manhattan in winter. (Okay, maybe the Bloody Mary didn’t help.) – The diesel fumes . . . gahhhhh . . . and if you’re just hanging on to an overhead strap, of course you get jolted by every damn move in the worst stop-and-go traffic I’ve ever had to deal with. The real kicker: *Whoa*, is hollandaise sauce ever rich. I could sort of picture it congealing into little yellow blobs in my blood vessels. Lovely thought.
If Ivon actually ate all that stuff, it would seem like he’s close to being ready to go to Tokyo, you think? – Just noticed that last pic of him is a bit Gero-esque – unless my contacts are sliding around on my eyeballs again . . .
Given your remark – maybe joking, but I can’t always tell – about the Kobe foie gras burger tomorrow, I think I’ll offer a conditional sentiment of hoping you continue to mend: Slowly enough to keep you on sensible food like green tea and rice soup for a bit longer yet. *w*
coucou Joseph!!
Mince pour l’intoxication alimentaire, difficile de trouver le coupable car il y’a beaucoup d’accusés..;mais c’est vrai que ça ne doit pas être agréable. comme sensarion.
Je vous souhaite un bon rétablissement.
Gros bisou:)
Anais
@ Debra – Akemi’s presence in Vancouver was a well-kept secret until what we will call The Pink Apron Incident. 😉
@ Elminster – The green in the soup is probably seaweed – or maybe green onion (scallion). I am curious about the base – is it miso, or chicken, or dashi broth??
Know what?? Toasted whole grain bread with herbs and sundried tomatoes, topped with melted pepper jack cheese and fig preserves, is pretty damn good for breakfast. 🙂
Hope you’re feeling better today, Joe. If you play your cards right, you could get another day of pampering and meals in bed…maybe even a foot massage…if you’re that sort of man. Are you that sort of man, Joe??
das
Oh, sorry Mr. M. for your recent gastric upset. Ditto on everything Narelle said 😀 . On the bright side, there are a bunch of super models that pay money to through what you did. Too bad you didn’t get samples to go along with those nice food pics!
I hope you are completely recovered and minus a pound or two.
Not a fan of most seafood, least of all oysters. I’m guessing its one of those things you have to grow up with? Though I will admit I haven’t had a chance to try them, but given my luck; that one would be the tainted on of the group.
How far is Jelly expected to progress past her current level of success? Is there a bench mark for this procedure?
Good ol’ Robert Picardo, one of my favorite actors. Any chance you will stag him during filming of season two for a Q&A?
@das I’m thinking green onions for the green bits, though some could be green peppers. And I think I can see an egg in there too. And, of course, Joe, standing, to take the picture reflected in the spoon. So much for breaky in bed…
Elminster
Truly sorry for your gastrointestinal woes. I hope you feel better soon! Since Akemi did not get sick, my money’s on a bad oyster. I love ’em, but only fried or in chowder.
@ Elminster – Ha! I didn’t think to blow the piccie up big! Yup – green onion…and you may be right, a little egg. And Joe, standing there, taking a picture. Good thing he wasn’t naked this time… 😉
das
Hey, Joey – LOOK!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/dasNdanger/seabooger.jpg
😀
Have a good day, sir!
das
Hi Mr M.
Well, I started Masked…..guess which story I started with?
Downfall!
**Maeve Binchy** chortle!
Really enjoyed the story, well paced, lively, moving and full of action. Will have a full critque come book of the month time. But suffice it to say, I really really enjoyed it.
Well done Mr M!
As Lou says in his intro for your story, let’s hope that this is the beginning of more such literary outings!
S’n’T
I agree with all who pointed to the peppers as the culprit. And the hollandaise sauce has brought me low before; I can’t eat raw egg without getting the mother of all belly aches.
Akemi is right on the money; rice, broth and gree tea are the best treatments.
Is Akemi going to Tokyo with you and Col. Von Bartok? I worry for you two without her. Akemi can keep you guys from eating airport sushi and nibbling the wrong bits of blow fish.
BTW was the pretty brunette with Ivon, or was she just his number 1 fan?
Where are my manners? (I’ve already rummaged through my Mae West “inhibitions trunk” – no sign of ’em . . . ) Thank you to camera-shy Akemi and to not-so-camera-shy Ivon *g* (like Carl, he ought to get an ACTRA card), for posing with both yummy-looking and interesting-looking food so viewers can take in a bit of the experience vicariously. And of course to you for your camera work and the cool cameo appearance.
Doing better today?
Oh, CARP. Knee surgery needed. More as details develop.
Had comfort food, going to go curl up and feel sorry for a bit. Back later.
Would it be possible to have a weekly/daily “fun fact” or “pro-tip” regarding the world of stargate?
I always love learning something new about the world of stargate.
Hope you feel better Joe …..the culprit was most likely a bad OYSTER!!!….you guys never stop eating…Good Times…
Super cute photos…the food looks spectacular…you guys are having awesome weather, just warmed me right up….Hey Ivon – I’m still LOL’ing at your tweet – I’m such a dork sometimes. It was a compliment.
Cheers, Chev
was it rice soup or congee?
@ ilikecakes – Good question. When I make congee it usually isn’t that watery (watery, but not that watery), but that’s probably because I usually ‘eyeball’ the rice, and end up adding more than I should.
das