A "Pig" Mistake

My honey surprised me with a mini weekend getaway this past weekend for Valentine's Day since he is away on business today. We planned to drive up to Chicago (a short 2.5 hours away), grab some lunch, do some shopping, see a movie, and have dinner with my cousin and her husband. The trip started off great. We decided to grab lunch at The Purple Pig, where, as the name suggests, virtually everything on the menu has pork in it.

For those of you who know me well, you may be already saying "uh-oh" because you'd know that until last year, I hadn't eaten pork for nearly 20 years. In fact, I also hadn't eaten beef, lamb, or poultry for nearly 16 years. However, after I had Carter I decided my meat fast had lasted long enough and it was time to delve back into carnivorous territory. For the most part, I've eased myself back in, primarily sticking with poultry. But I have had a few steaks, lamb chops, veal, ground beef, and bacon. And my exploits have not come without sickness. I've had a few back reactions to burgers and bratwursts and a very rich braised beef shoulder. Unfortunately, none of those bad reactions can touch the agony that was The Purple Pig.

Don't get me wrong, the food at The Purple Pig was delicious. We had deep fried olives stuffed with chorizo, whipped feta and cucumber smear, mussels with pancetta, and milk braised pork shoulder with mashed potatoes. I washed that down with a glass of sparkling Rose and life was beautiful. We left there to do a little shopping at Nordstrom and then headed to the movies to see Underworld: Awakening 3D (which was awesome by the way). I was still feeling great. After the movie we decided to go grab a drink at a Restaurant/Lounge called Sable. They had a great drink selection and no doubt an in-house mixologist. I ordered a hot cocktail that had tequila, strawberry puree, honey, and bitters. The drink was tasty but within a few sips I felt the familiar rumblings in my stomach that would require a bathroom at some point. I tried to wait it out and hoped it would go away but it didn't. I turned to Jimmy and said "my stomach isn't feeling well and I'm gonna need to use the bathroom." To which he replied, "ok, go use the bathroom." To which I replied "No...I NEED TO USE THE BATHROOM!" To which he replied "you mean at the hotel?" "Yes," I said. We summoned for the check but I couldn't wait. I left Jimmy in the bar and made a mad dash to our hotel which luckily was only 2 blocks away. I made it to our room just in time to release the wrath. 20 minutes later Jimmy got there to check on me and I was still indisposed.

Although I felt temporary relief, little did I know that that would begin a night of throwing up every 30-60 minutes from 8:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. At one point, I decided to camp out outside the bathroom door to make the journey to the toilet shorter. I was so miserable and annoyed because I was still throwing up even when there was nothing to throw up but the water I was drinking to try to stay hydrated. We got on the road early Sunday morning so I could be at home in the bed. Thankfully, there was no upchuck behavior on the road and I crawled into bed for about 3 hours. I couldn't eat anything until Monday morning and even then my stomach wasn't quite right. As a matter of fact, I went to bed last night feeling nauseous and as I type this I'm still not 100 percent.

The moral of this disgusting story is that I'm officially ditching the swine once again. I don't remember any bouts like this when I didn't eat it so why mess with what has worked for so long. I'm still on the fence about beef and other red meats (I made some lamb chops last week that were finger-licking good) but Jimmy suggested I may want to try to stick to fish and poultry. The food saga continues.