The Beginning
It all started back in August 2007. My friend decided to celebrate his birthday at a Chinese restaurant called Twins Seafood Restaurant located at 240 Alton Towers Circle Toronto, ON M1V 4P1 (It no longer exists and was replaced by a new restaurant).
We ordered a set menu which consisted of pork, beef, chicken, lobster and other things that I cannot identify/remember. It was 5 years ago and I did not keep detailed records back then. We had a great time, enjoyed the food and all was well. A few days passed and suddenly, I started getting diarrhea, then fever, then more DIARRHEA and more DIARRHEA. This whole food poisoning lasted for 1 full week. I'm a Hong Konger and I like a good bargain. Sure the Chinese food was cheap, but I did not pay them to give me the full package: a week long diarrhea experience of a lifetime.
Warning Graphic Description: To describe my experience for those curious or never experienced food poisoning before, you get diarrhea, lots of it. I'm certain that most of us have gotten diarrhea one point in time before, but imagine going to the washroom every 10 mins (literally) for 1 whole week. Some of you might think, "How much poo can my intestine hold?". The truth is, only what you ate (I'm not a doctor, so don't quote me on this, just using common sense - maybe future Dr. K Lee, Dr. C Suen, Dr. K Chen can comment on this). When you are sick, you don't have an appetite for food. I barely ate the whole week. So sometimes, I sit in my washroom and only nibbles come out. Your body is pretty much dehydrated by then because all of the minerals/nutrients in your body are flushed out. Also, you poo so much that your anus starts to hurt and will bleed. Also, you don't have time to enjoy reading a book or watching movies on your smartphone/tablet (those devices did not existed to the mass market back in 2007). You just want to go in and out ASAP and cuddle in bed again until 10 mins later. (Editor's note: My stomach is feeling queezy as I am writing this. My stomach was forever scarred by this experience and was impaired) (End of desription)
The Aftermath
Our party size was about 12 people, at least half of us were struck down and put out of commission. It got so bad that I visited my doctor. She took my stool sample as part of normal food poisoning protocol in Toronto. The sample was sent to the health department in the City of Toronto. The Health Inspectors would then visit those restaurants to re-inspect them.DineSafe
For those not in the City of Toronto area, we have a program where Health Inspectors would perform one to three inspections per year depending on the risk of the restaurant establishment. The program is called DineSafe. There are 3 types of signs: PASS, CONDITIONAL and CLOSED that must be displayed at visible and obvious places (usually at the entrance). For more information, visit this link: http://www.toronto.ca/health/dinesafe/overview.htm.I just learned this by visiting the link above: "Produce copies of the Toronto Public Health Food Safety Inspection Reports relating to the currently posted disclosure notice for your establishment, when requested by any person" I will probably ask for it the next time I visit a sketchy place.
In any case, the following sign was issued to that restaurant (a print screen was taken, it no longer exists on the website as the restaurant is closed - all of the prior inspections results are available on the DineSafe website for any restaurants):
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| Under Severity, S stands for Severe and M for Minor Source: http://www.toronto.ca/health/dinesafe/#inspectionResult |
The Legacy
Since that experience at Twins Seafood restaurant, my stomach was severely damaged. I have started a quest to shut down restaurants that gives me food poisoning. This blog will document my experience at these restaurants. I am not too focused on reviewing the food, it's about the experience after that, the washroom. If your restaurant gives me diarrhea, it will be added to my growing banned list. I am willing to sacrifice my glass stomach for the greater good of humanity.For all the restaurant owners, don't blame me if you have an inspection, just speak to my stomach and you will from "hear" from it.
I retrofitted my washroom to accommodate my wants. Read the captions. Click on images to enlarge.
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| Luckily, my room has direct access to the washroom. |
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| Courtesy of NCIX, the CPU magazine takes my mind away from my food poisoning experience. |
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| Need help solving this. Good thing I bought a lifetime supply of these. |
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| PlayBook's real use: coaster for my cup; Need the Lysol to clean up the splash damage; Lysol to wipe my hands after using the Lysol; headset used for gaming from my toilet or listening to music. |
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| Life saver. Take this if you have extra diarrhea. |
Here is the theme song for my blog:
Some quick facts on poo:
ReplyDelete50% of the fecal weight is bacteria, so even if youre not eating, you can still poo.
Within a day, the small bowel produces 7-8 L of secretions, but usually over 90% of the that volume is reabsorbed. When you have food poisoning, the bacteria produce toxins to increase the secretions even more... so much that you wont be able to reabsorb all of it, resulting a watery mess known as diarrhea.
Also, when you have these episodes, do other people eating with you experience the same thing? This episode sounds like food poisoning, but if you're finding that it happens frequently without other people in your party being affected, I'd want to know more in case there are other possible diagnoses.
It usually happens only to me. For Grand Electric, only I was affected. What else could have caused my diarrhea?
ReplyDelete