DawnPapuga.com — Reality 101

It’s Friday, and that means another installment of the Friday Five!  Since we kicked this off last week we’ve added a few more folks wanting to join the fun.  There’s plenty of room in the pool, kids, dive right in!  Well, look before diving and remember that there’s no lifeguard on duty here.  Off we go!*

Friday Five for July 18th:  Bad Food

1.  What was the last meal that caused you to be ill?

I bought deli made Broccoli Au Gratin from a supermarket a few weeks back, and I’m relatively certain it caused my last bout of food poisoning.

2.  Are there any places you never dine anymore because of a bad experience hours after the meal?

Not that I can think of.  I’ve had bad experiences with wait staff, with other customers, and with parking lot availability, but I haven’t had many occasions where I’ve contracted food poisoning from a restaurant. 

3.  What’s your prescription for dealing with a food-caused illness?

A conveniently placed bucket, clear path to the bathroom, mint ginger ale, and either Pedialyte or Gatorade.  If you can keep Pepto down then good for you.  I also tend to turn off my phone and curl up in a ball. 

4.  When friends tell you about coming down with food-caused illnesses, do you avoid the places they name, or do you figure it’s a dice-roll wherever you go?

It depends on the friend, really.  If someone with a touchy stomach tells me about getting sick I might not take any pains to avoid the place.  If they contracted botchulism, that’s a different story.  But if it was just a mild case of food poisoning, and it was only one friend, I would probably still give the place a chance.  If it was a number of friends passing on this info over an extended period of time, I would probably avoid that restaurant.

5.  After numerous citations, a very, very popular restaurant that you’re quite fond of is shut down by the health department until it can get everything up to code. When the health department gives the restaurant the o.k. to reopen, do you go?

Ha… well… yes.  First thing that comes to mind with this question is the Chi-Chi’s incident.  I miss their Seafood Nachos like you wouldn’t believe!  And if they reopened anywhere within 3 hours of me, I’d likely make the hike for a Margarita, Seafood Nachos, and Fried Ice-Cream.

Who Else is Friday 5-ing?  (You know you want to join us…)

*As always, the Friday 5 questions were taken from Friday5.org.  If you join the fun, be sure to let me know so I can add you to the link list!  And don’t forget to send those questions in that you’re itching for us to answer!  Don’t worry, we’ll gladly pimp your blog for the effort. 

Everyone who has been through college has some kind of memory associated with food.  There are certain foods that, even today, I find myself balking at because I ate them to excess while in undergrad.  Sometimes it was out of convenience, other times it was out of necessity.  What foods do you associate with your college years?

1.  Ramen Noodles.  I’m pretty much over these little sodium-filled packs of “soup.”  Every once in a blue moon I find myself craving them… until I make them and remember exactly why I don’t eat them anymore.

2.  Mac and Cheese.  I could eat Mac and Cheese every day with no problem.  When I got bored, I’d add some flair:  Tuna and ketchup (Yes, I am aware that most people think that’s gross), chicken and broccoli, and even beef tips.  I can still eat Mac and Cheese on the rare occasion that it’s served somewhere (OMG the Sixth Penn Kitchen has the most addictive “home made” Mac and Cheese I’ve ever tasted!!), but I’m not likely to make it.

3.  Soup.  I still eat a lot of soup, but I practically survived college eating soup and drinking coffee.  Though it has been my favorite for as long as I can remember, I haven’t had Broccoli and cheese soup since I flipped my tassel.

4.  Pizza.  Some people never lose their love for the pizza.  I can now take it or leave it.  Unless we’re talking about Campiti’s… in that case I’ll have two larges to go in the brown paper bag, thank you.

There’s too much molly-coddling of children these days.  I didn’t get to decide what it was I would eat on a daily basis as a kid.  My parents cooked dinner and we ate.  If it was something new, and we balked, the deal was that we try and eat it, and if we didn’t like it after that meal, we didn’t have to eat it next time. That rarely happened.

For me it happened with the following foods, which you won’t catch me eating unless the world is ending, I’ve already eaten every leafy thing in sight, or I’m about to die of malnutrition (in which case you’ll still have to hold me down and force feed me):

1. Liver.  Just… ew.  Ew. Ew. Ew.  No, no thank you.  There is no way you can cook this to make it even remotely appealing.
2. Salmon.  I know salmon is all the rage these days, but even the smell of it makes me gag.  Cooked, raw, or swirled into a frothy pate, it’s still awful.
3. Anchovies.  The only way I voluntarily eat anchovies is in Caesar dressing and I can only eat it then because I forget that those little bastards are in there.  They’re gross.
4. Added update:  Sardines.  Not only do they stink to high heaven, but they’re all claustrophobic in those cans.  No, no thank you!

I’m pretty sure those are the only ones, but I’m sure others will crop up.  If they do I’ll add them, but for now, you won’t see me piling any of these in my shopping cart.  If you do, it’s clearly an impostor.