Saturday, November 22, 2008

Food Safety is for Suckers...



It's probably just a given, but food service workers are at a higher risk of contracting (not just spreading) a foodborne illness. While the average civilian works with a relatively small amount of raw food, chicken for instance, I find myself sticking my hands in leaky 40lb. boxes of raw chicken almost daily.

I wash my hands obsessively while at work, and God only knows how many pairs of latex gloves I use in a week, but sometimes... Well, as Dennis Miller once said: He's a slack-jawed lil' fuckin' rat, and all rat's have gotta suck the pipe Baby...

Thursday, my number was up. It started with the wrenching stomach pain, then went on to dizziness and profuse sweating, leading up to bodily excretions SO profound and disgusting that decorum prohibits listing them here.

Yeah, it was bad. Thankfully a day in bed and Kerrie's attentiveness got me back to a state of up-and-running. I was able to start eating again around 1:00 yesterday afternoon, and by around 8:00 last night I had enough energy to take a shower without collapsing from standing too long. I slept pretty soundly last night despite an overactive kitty tear-assing around the apartment, and today all I've really had to contend with is a dull headache.

But here we are, trying to figure out what went wrong, and what I'll do next. I'm pretty sure my own overambitious culinary prowess is to blame. I made Pasta with Vodka Sauce a few nights ago, and had the leftovers for lunch on Thursday around 12:30. I was really hungry and nibbled on a few pieces of the cold pasta before I got to the microwave. I shouldn't have, but I did. There was a slightly off flavor. Metallic, kinda... But once I had the pasta screaming hot, that "off" flavor was gone and I thought nothing of it. Well, I sure-as-hell was thinking about it Friday morning at 2:35 when so many bad things were coming out of so many open holes.

Yeah, did I mention it was bad?

Thankfully I'm on the mend, and I'm even stable enough to make dinner myself. And what does everyone get when they're sick? Chicken soup baby. Glorious chicken soup...

I have, since my last chicken soup post, evolved the recipe a bit to expand the flavor a tad. Nonetheless, comfort food is comfort food, and sometimes that's just what bitter low-rent chef needs.



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now you see that your problem was you tried to serve yourself leftovers the Cosmos way...

BGslum said...

You know, after so much time you would think that I'd "get it" by now. But here we are...

Anonymous said...

do you really know why you got sick? i pooped on your toothbrush.

BGslum said...

Ugh. Again?