Wow, I love Pad Thai. I didn't realize someone could have that bad a reaction to it. Hope you feel better soon.

Thank you for the well wishes. I'm finally feeling almost normal. I'll be giving pad thai a wide berth of respect from now on. *shudder* If we have Thai while in New Jersey this year, I'll happily give you my portion.

You poor thing! And this is why seafood should be made illegal :P

You're going to start a beef Pad Thai crusade, aren't ya?

Every time I pass a churrascaria I think of you (or see a cow...). ;)

Good plan ;) I personally don't see why Thai dishes have to have fish sauce in them. I'm highly opposed to that sort of thing!

Most especially unadvertised seafood. *nods*

Oh my gosh!! *hug* feel better soon, sweetie!

I has SUCH a great time meeting you and your family. I have a feeling, though, that Megan and I were probably over the top LOL. We must habve come off as foul-mouthed lunatics.

Ummmm... yeah, we are. ;)

Thanks! I'm feeling almost normal again.

I had a fabulous time meeting you and Megan. If you were foul-mouthed lunatics, you were my kind of foul-mouthed lunatics. ;-) I had a great time and I'd happily do it again, though next time I think I'll opt for a different dish.

It wasn't the Mo Mong dish that made you ill, was it? :(

Sadly, yes it was. At dinner, I ate mostly my spring roll and only had a couple bites of the pad thai. With 20/20 hindsight, I realize the headache that night and the bloodshot eyes the next morning was more than just usual Houston allergies and the fact that I'm soooo not a morning person.

If it had to happen, I'm glad I primed my immune system for the onslaught of cold leftovers laced with fishy extracts because my reaction was fairly swift (a half hour?) and kept me from eating even more of it. I have a hard time imagining it but I know it could have been worse.

*hugs*

Feel better!

Thank you, hun. I do and now I'm a little bit wiser.

In case you ever want to make your own Thai food at home, Matt Cohen turned me onto a vegetarian "fish" sauce product when I visited him in Austin. I don't remember what it's called or where he got it, but I'm sure I could find out.

Matt is the source of all knowledge, isn't he? Thanks for the offer. Part of the reason I didn't know to be specific about presence of fish sauce is because Thai is something I order rather than cook; I didn't know to be wary.

I wouldn't ever deliberately habituate myself to the flavor/smell of fish. There's a survival aspect to it: I need to be able to detect fish and avoid it. I narrowly escaped being hospitalized for consuming maybe 1/3 of an order from a commercial restaurant. I'm not clear on exactly how much fish that represents, but I am already disconcerted that I couldn't detect it. I'm guessing this means I can't afford to indulge in chilled Thai ever again. For the first time ever, I'm not pleased to have outgrown my childhood reaction to even the smell of seafood.

Sorry you're still feeling poorly, hon. Hope the boys are all taking good care of you.

Poor you. You had to listen to me fret as I got sick and then bitch as I was sick. :) Thank you for using one of my crappy icons to cheer me up. Mmmmmm. He can cheer me up any time.

The dog-boys were mostly excluded because I was in too much pain to tolerate their politics and games for most of it. Happily, I have Joe who is bucking for sainthood. He took very good care of me, as always, and had to deal with tough questions of when to listen to me and when to make me do what I have to in order to survive. It's a damned thankless job and I am beyond lucky.

<<<< Feel better >>>> vibes

Helena

Thank you! I'm ambulatory again and well enough to be back at work, which is both wonderful and awful.