Tuesday 30 May 2017

There are bad guys and good guys in everyone


It's the barbecue season, and I am still suffering from my first one on Friday.

The kids wanted a barbie and there was a fire-pit with grill set up in the garden of the A-frame house in Wales. I was tasked with building the charcoal fire, then at the last minute I left the kids to cook the chicken - or not cook it.

I cut into mine and found it to be underdone, but I still ate a couple of mouthfuls. Then alarm bells went off inside my head and I rejected most of it. Next day I and the lad's mother had stomach pains. Mother's went by the morning, but I still have mine - not bad enough to stop me from working but a constant niggling reminder.

I looked up food poisoning on the net (NHS site, as always) and read that people over 65 are far more susceptible to Salmonella bacteria than the young, so much so that it can be fatal for some. 'Be careful at barbecues' was the NHS advice.

So all those little good guys are having a battle with all those little bad guys inside me, and I am quietly egging them on. I find it so much easier to think in Trumpisms, especially when the battle is being fought out of sight inside my gut.

17 comments:

  1. Chicken and BBQ's should be kept well apart. Lamb, steak, burgers, and sausages, are all OK, but chicken with bones; no.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All meats are fine so long as they are cooked. Undercooked sausages are just as bad as chicken.

      Delete
  2. This is when the Rachel and Peter over-cooking of everything comes into its own.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Black on the outside and pink on the inside doesn't count. Black all the way through is ok.

      Delete
  3. I walked through blocks of greasy smoke-filled air provided by a neighborhood street fair on Sunday afternoon. Never once tempted to buy a snack. I actually tried to stay far enough away from the smoke not to take any of it home with me.

    Hope you feel better soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am almost well now. I still have a strong constitution.

      Delete
  4. My husband loves bbq chicken. He also insists on being the bbq chef -- as long as it's charcoal he is cooking with and not, sodom and gomorrah, a gas one. Chicken must be cooked with lots of patience, of which he has none, and time. He is not a patient man as bbq chef so much of the time the fowl must be cooked for longer -- and longer. Eventually with apologies for the burnt bits, dinner is served! Hope you feel better soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The trick is to either cook it properly, or pre-cook it in an oven then scorch it over charcoal. I, personally, have no primeval hankering to use raw flame if I am right next to a good stove. Open fires are a last resort as far as I am concerned and need an experienced hand to use them.

      Delete
  5. I know that it's probably frowned upon by bar b q enthusiasts, but I always cook the chicken in the oven first and then throw it on the barbie .... all the other meat is fine. How are you feeling now Tom ? XXXX

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly. The other method is to just not use an open fire, outdoors. People are such silly romantics. Why not just take your cooked food outside if you are living within reach of a stove? Yes, I knew it would take a few days to go away, and it has almost gone. The good guys won - this time.

      Delete
  6. When my husband grills something, I always tell him: "Make sure that it's good and dead."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sound advice. He can leave the horns on, but it still must be dead.

      Delete
  7. We always cook the chicken in the oven and serve it with the rest of the bbq'd stuff.
    One attack of food poisoning years ago put me off bbq'd chicken for good. It's no joke.
    A colleague got salmonella poisoning after eating a hotel meal and was so ill that he was in hospital for two weeks, off work for months, diabetic afterwards, the complications of which he died from at age fifty five.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right. You have made my mind up. I will not eat bbc'd chicken unless I have cooked it myself - to perfection.

      Delete