I'm BA-ACK!!!!!!

[Jenise]

And none the worse for wear, in spite of the 41 hour trip home, or make that 76 in which only 24 hours included an overnight hotel stay and opportunity for sleep. I can't believe I did that.

First trip abroad out of the last five in which I DIDN'T catch anything, although I did have a serious bout of mushroom poisoning which would have landed me in an ER if I hadn't been in such a remote place at the time. My track record is so bad my asthma/pulmonologist told me I should never go abroad again, it could kill me. I sent her a post card.

Notable experiences:

Ate at #7 on the current list of the world's top 50 restaurants, Asadore Extabarri in Spain's Basque region. Only got through the first 7 of the 12 courses due to said mushrooms, which were course #6.

Pintxos crawling in San Sebastian.

Michelin 1 star in San Sebastian, and also the best Txakolina of my life, a rich and still version which I didn't even know existed. Hunted all over San Sebasian for a bottle to bring home but couldn't locate it.

Loved, loved, LOVED Rioja.

From our 24 hour layover in London I brought home 1 bottle of single malt (from the British isle of Jura, a 21 year old I think it is, from the only distillery on this island that only has one school and a pop of about 50.) Also from other regions: two bottles of St. Emilion, 1 Palo Cortado, 1 Manzanilla, and five higher end Riojas.

Food souvenirs: a lot of Saffron, two separate purchases in Barcelona and Dubai. In spite of my attention to same, didn't have paella even once while there. Ate foie gras almost every day, including as a sushi ingredient in Barcelona.

Hated the coffee, everywhere. I'm right now drinking the first coffee I've had in three weeks that actually tastes truly delicious to me.

Emirates airlines. Truly fit for a king--especially if you depart from and get the whole treatment in Business or First at Dubai itself. I've never experienced that kind of luxury on an airline before, and that's both in the air and the amazing ground experience at Dubai, nothing anywhere close anywhere else. The toilets on the plane were maple burl. Valandraud--Valandraud!!!!--with your breakfast? Sure, help yourself.

[Robin Garr]

Welcome back, Jenise! Rioja really is amazing, isn't it? We had a great time there a few years back. Glad the 'shrooms didn't kill you!

Thankfully it was a small portion, about six cut bites of mushroom--enough to actually kill me as a piece the size of my baby fingernail is toxic enough to trigger a full meltdown. On the menu it was described as 'Boletus'--I didn't realize that meant porcini.

Welcome back.

Rioja is super - the scenery, the wineries and especially the wines.

Agree with you re Emirates

Welcome home, Jenise.

Vacation eating is always an adventure. Do you normally avoid mushrooms altogether?

On our recent trip to Rome everything went well. But I recall a trip to the Loire: We drove into Montlouis, famous for its chenin blanc wine (you dare not call it Vouvray!) and... its chevre. I bought all three styles of chevre from the cheese shop in the middle of town and nom nom nom. Next morning, I was green at the gills and queasy, moving slowly, if at all. No breakfast, no lunch, and I was not recovered enough to eat dinner, either. Better the next day.

[Jenise]

Jeff, welcome back from Rome. And Mike F will just be back from Italy also, and David B from British Columbia. Should be some great travel stories!

But no I don't avoid mushrooms, I love them! I have no issue with any mushroom, or any food, except porcinis. They are totally (and potentially fatally) toxic to me. A piece the size of a fingernail will cause an acute onset, within minutes, of: complete nausea, body temp drop to 90-92 F, violent vomiting and diarrhea, skin-on-fire itching, delirium. At this dinner I ate about six nickel sized pieces. They'd been grilled on an open wood fire so were cooked but only partially so as the shtick of this place is that the grilling is deliberately low temperature and partially raw (they warn you in regards to the seafood which you may not be used to eating that way) so they were presumably somewhat denatured but clearly not nearly enough.

This was the fourth time I've been poisoned by them. First two times involved a tiny finger-nail sized sample of dried ones, about two years apart. Didn't know what to blame for the first instance until the second time happened. Then a few years later at a rented villa in Italy with friends, we bought some beautiful fresh tortellini at a village shop. Don't remember what they called them but 'mushroom' wasn't in the name, let alone porcini. Got violently ill in all the above ways after a few bites. Didn't realize the tortellini were at fault until a few days later when we marinated a few of the leftovers in a vinaigrette and loaded them onto toothpicks with cherry toms as an appetizer. Ate just one to test the seasoning, and down I went again.

I own dry porcini mushrooms and love them braised for two hours with chopped tomatoes and chicken. But after this? Think I'll just give them to a friend.

We drove into Montlouis, famous for its chenin blanc wine (you dare not call it Vouvray!)

Different appellations, different sides of the river...

My abiding memory of Mont Louis was on a wine trip when we walked up to the top of his vineyards with a owner/winemaker and without warning the heavens opened. We thought it'd be a brief shower but it got heavier and heavier. We huddled under trees at the side of a dirt track at the side of the vineyards. Soon small stones were being washed down the track by the deluge. The winemaker ran back to the winery to get a van and took us out in several journeys but we were all soaking wet by then...

Nice wines. We went by coach so came home laden with Loire wines, including plenty of Vouvray cremant.

They are totally (and potentially fatally) toxic to me.

Wow. If I were you, I would not have those mushrooms in my house. And that is an allergy that needs to be advertised... I'll often use dried mushrooms to boost the flavor of soups and stews.

[Jenise]

Thing is, is it really an allergy? Remember Bucko? He was on this board back when episode #2 happened and I described it here. He did some digging around and confirmed it was a known but very rare "allergy". Wondering out loud here but when someone dies after eating a Death Cap, is an allergy at fault? Where's the line between allergic reaction and poisoned by something toxic?

Thing is, is it really an allergy? Remember Bucko? He was on this board back when episode #2 happened and I described it here. He did some digging around and confirmed it was a known but very rare "allergy". Wondering out loud here but when someone dies after eating a Death Cap, is an allergy at fault? Where's the line between allergic reaction and poisoned by something toxic?

I am confident that porcini are not generally described as poisonous. You have an allergy. (For those of a Henny Youngman disposition, this is not the same as being allergic to having bullets pass through my body.)

Death caps, on the other hand, contain myriad poisons: [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_phalloides#Biochemistry
[/url]

For the doctors in the house, I recognize that the term 'poison' is vague, as almost anything is poisonous if taken in the right quantity. But I am using it in its common sense... something that, taken even in very small quantity, will kill most people.

[Jenise]

Call it by whatever name, but the effect on me is not allergic--that's what happens when I'm around dogs, or the hot and hairy feeling in my throat when I eat honeydew melon. This is poison. Porcini mushrooms, safe for most, are completely toxic to me. Intense and acute onset, multiple systems involved, other bad effects, and it only takes a piece the size of your little fingernail. A total and rather violent systemic shutdown, pretty close to the reactions to two of the poisonous mushrooms in that Wikipedia article.

[Jenise]

So Jeff, you win. Had to take Bob to the doc yesterday and mentioned this topic. The doc said it's definitely a food allergy. Everybody's allergic to Death Caps, and I'm in the tiny minority that's allergic to porcini. Her eyes got pretty big when I answered her questions about my reactions in this instance--then suggested I never eat any mushrooms again EVER, including "grocery store mushrooms. If you reacted like that, no mushroom's as benign as you think." Wish I hadn't asked.

I'm sorry, too, though better safe than....


Jeff