Danger Food!!!

I know that I have in the past commented over and over about people becoming increasingly neurotic about the dangers of food, and I feel like it is about time I took a step back and told you that food can make you sick.

Why the sudden urge? Yesterday my family(dad,mom,and sister) and I went out to breakfast for my sisters first last day of highschool. It's just one of those silly things my mom feels makes the first day of school a little happier and makes her feel better about her baby being in 12th grade. Anyway we went down to this adorable little breakfast and lunch place in Topton. It's one of those places that only someone who lives in the town(or up the hill from the town as is our case) or someone who is driving through Topton(obviously lost, because you probably wouldn't be driving through Topton PA for any other reason) and simply starving would find. This place really has good food and it is one of my mom's favorite places to eat, so we schlepped into town at 8 am for breakfast.

Being the annoying group of people that we are it took a while for us to know what we wanted. We all ended up getting bagels and cream cheese(I know that sounds like it shouldn't take too long to decide about, but amazingly enough it did.) I got a french toast bagel(perhaps the yummiest thing ever) and plain cream cheese and a white chocolate milkshake, because contrary to most people's beliefs that milkshakes aren't for breakfast it just sounded like a good idea. Everyone else got what they got(I really don't remember) and my mom got a blueberry bagel with blueberry cream cheese.

We all ate, were happy, and left so I could get a shower for my haircut and so Mara could get started with school. By lunchtime my mom was complaining about not feeling well. She sometimes has a sensitive stomach so I assumed it was the earl grey tea she had with breakfast. The pains got worse and as I was leaving for work she was curled up on her bed in pain. She almost went to the emergency room the pain was so bad and the only thing she had that morning that the rest of us didn't have was the blueberry cream cheese. It would be unfair to say that the cream cheese was bad since it hasn't been tested since my mom's illness, but I have this funny hunch that the cream cheese was bad.

Food really can make you sick. I am always wary of discounted specials in restaurants involving fish. If the restaurant has fish on its menu daily or consistently has fish specials and you trust the integrity of the restaurant then go for it, but special (by special I mean not a daily or weekly special made to give returning customers something to look forward to, but a discounted menu item the waiter/waitress pushes as a "great deal" "fresh" from the kitchen) to me says something is being reused or about to go old. I have never worked in a kitchen like this, so I really don't know where I get the stereotype; but I have it and I am a big fan of the truth that there is hardly such a thing as truly good food cheap.

Old food, bad food, or improperly handled food is so very dangerous. In some cases people can die from food born illnesses. The shocking thing I remembered from my food safety was that cantaloupes are on the dangerous food list because they can carry salmonella(you know the reason you don't eat raw chicken). I can't say I know of one person who has contracted food poisoning who has ever forgotten the experience.

I love food. It really is quite possibly one of my favoritest things, but I guess like all favoritist things it deserves a healthy dose of r-e-s-p-e-c-t. I bet most of you are going to or are having a Labor Day picnic. Remember be careful of leaving any food out too long(not just the salads with mayo in them) and everyone will have happy memories of your picnic.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily