What's been your worst experience at a restaurant?
Lucky Chances-- a poker room in Colma. The food there is generally pretty mediocre, though ordering breakfast food or Filipino food is usually a safe bet. I used to play a ton of poker there, so I routinely had meals at the poker table. When I was playing professionally, just asking for the usual was generally sufficient.
One night, I made the terrible mistake of ordering sweet & sour pork. I don't know what came over me, as this isn't a dish I would normally eat, but for some reason it sounded good. After all, hundreds of Asians ate there every day... how bad could it be?
I missed the next two days of work, because all of my time was being spent curled up in bed wishing I would die, or running to the bathroom. When I recovered my sense of humor, the phrase bidirectionally explosive was the best description I could come up with, though it was wholly inadequate. As much as I wanted one, there's no safeword on food poisoning.
After that, my office mate could make me cringe and start feeling sick just by saying the words sweet and sour pork. He found this much funnier than I did.
Maybe two years later, I was having dinner there with a friend after a poker tournament. Having learned my lesson well, I ordered the Filipino breakfast-- scrambled eggs, longanissa, and garlic fried rice. If the Filipino food is safe and breakfast food is safe, Filipino breakfast should be the belt & suspenders solution, right? It's actually a rather tasty combination, although it's not really high on anyone's list of health foods.
Three hours later, I felt like someone was jabbing a knife between my ribs. Repeatedly. And a dull, rusty knife at that. I called a cab and had them deliver me to the nearest emergency room, cringing and moaning every time we went over a bump. I was in so much pain that IV Toradol did nothing... I wasn't able to breathe comfortably until they shot me up with morphine. And that was the beginning of the end for my gall bladder.
It's really only coincidence that the two events happened after eating at the same place, but I still try to avoid eating there.
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