Bye bye bi-valves

It's official: no bi-valves ever again. After a lovely dinner with friends at one of our favorite places in Provincetown, the Mews, I spent a night akin to that of a college freshman hugging the porcelain goddess, as we used to say.

I experienced a similar fate about three years ago after a delicious cioppino and a couple glasses of red wine at the Alchemist in Jamaica Plain. What?! About a couple months before that, I was doing the same thing after a dinner of mussels. Last night, I had a delicious dish of grilled scallops with handmade papparadelle in a lemony wine sauce. But, boy oh boy, not so fun later. And now I know: I can never eat shell fish again. Not ever.

Turns out, according to the Cleveland Clinic website pages on food allergies, shellfish allergies are more common in adults. And, being a medical writer, I know that allergies can come on during adulthood. But I have always believed myself, I don't know, above such things. But alas...I am not. I am a foodie who now cannot eat a whole range of foods that I really enjoy.

My biggest fear now? Oysters. I LOVE oysters. If those, too, need to be off my list, it will be a very sad day for me! I ate oysters last summer at the new oyster bar at the Pig here in Ptown, and that was all fine. Sitting at the bar in the middle of the day enjoying a plate of 6 oysters with a spicy cocktail sauce and a squeeze of fresh lemon, washing it all down with a bloody Mary was a joyous hour or two spent indeed. While it will not be a crime for my waistline if I can never have a fried oyster po'boy again, my soul will be devastated. Let's hope that oysters do not enter the realm of the forbidden....we'll have to wait for summer to see. Until then, stick with meat!