Who knew one little shrimp could cause so much damage
Saturday night I made a soup with a dashi and miso broth. Dashi is made by simmering water with a piece of kombu seaweed, then turning off the heat and adding bonito flakes (fish) and letting it sit until the flakes all fall to the bottom. Then you strain it, which I did into a pot of sautéed mushrooms, carrots, bok choy, ginger and shrimp.
An hour after I ate it, I was hanging over the toilet, turning myself inside out. I now have a disturbing looking rash all over my lower face and neck. Tiny red dots that may be broken capillaries? I have no idea. It’s not pretty, though.
I’m assuming it was a shrimp because nobody else got sick.
Such a shame, it took me almost two hours to make this soup and it looked, smelled and tasted so healthy and yum. Going down, at least.
"In summer we live out of doors, and have only impulses and feelings, which are all for action, and must wait commonly for the stillness and longer nights of autumn and winter before any thought will subside; we are sensible that behind the rustling leaves, and the stacks of grain, and the bare clusters of the grape, there is the field of a wholly new life, which no man has lived; that even this earth was made for more mysterious and nobler inhabitants than men and women. In the hues of October sunsets, we see the portals to other mansions than those which we occupy."
~Henry David Thoreau
January 7th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Oh that sucks, because it looks awesome. Have you ever had shellfish reactions before? Sort of related, I poked my finger the other day with a frozen shrimp shell and it hurt like an (expletive deleted) for days! Oh and good for you making your own dashi!
January 7th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Bummer! Food like that should bring smiles only. That sucks.
January 7th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Good gravy, like you haven’t been sick enough. I hope you are better soon.
January 7th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Okay, that sounds delicious. Except the throwing up part. I’m going to try to make this.
I have the same reaction when I eat pecans. The holidays are torture because f***ing everything is made out of pecans at the holidays.
January 7th, 2008 at 11:51 am
That’s how my FIL’s shellfish allergy came on. He thought he got a bad shrimp (or clam or whatever) until the next time he had shellfish and ended up sick again.
Be careful!
January 7th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Damn! Well, it looks delicious.
January 7th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
It’s time the universe stopped harassing your body.
January 7th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Ew. I hope you’re better now!
Crab has always, always been my favorite “guys night out” meal. They leave, and I sit down with a crab, a loaf of sourdough, and a bottle of wine. And then one night, I got sick as a dog. Surely it was a fluke? Must try again. Um, yeah. Crab is no longer a part of that routine.
January 7th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Oh, no, not again!!!!! I am allergic to shellfish–not fun since it is soooooooo good. Try benadryl. If it all gets better it may be an allergy.
January 7th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
So sorry to hear that, your meal looks wonderful. I thought I’d pass along that my on and off reaction to shellfish (of the sort you described) turned out to be my gallbladder. I am seeing the surgeon soon to plan to have the problem ELIMINATED! All my best, feel well and Happy New Year.
January 8th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
It sounds like a nasty food allergy. I had the same thing with calamari and it wasn’t pretty. Be careful around shell fish/mollusks. My allergist told me with a reaction like that, the next time you eat the same type of shell fish you could have an anaphylactic reaction. Feel better!