Saturday: short(er)board, decent-sized waves, crowded as all get out
Sunday: Doc 9'0", waist-high waves, remembering that I knew how to turn a longboard
So, Saturday night I went to have spicy Korean stew. And I mean SPICY. Like bacteria disintegrating spicy. The first time my Korean friends took me to this place, tears came rushing out of my eyes and gushing out of my nose as I had a naso-vascular reaction to the heat. Sweat poured off my brow. IT WAS GREAT! (Feeling it on the other end the next morning was not... too much information?)
Since then, though, I developed a red tide allergy this year which pretty much wiped out my sense of taste and smell. Not all taste, but the stuff I like best -- salty, savory, smoky. Recently, this has expanded to include my inability to taste some spicy food. I recently tried Killer Shrimp and their moderately spicy broth... absolutely nothin'. After telling my friend this info, Saturday night's excursion to K-town was thought-up in part as an experiment to see what would happen to me. Happy to say my nose was running and I was sweating. I don't think it was actually as spicy as the first time, but I'm glad to know I haven't completely lost the spicy buds.
Wine, however, has completely gone out of the picture. I opened a bottle on Friday and couldn't smell a thing. It just tasted like warm water with tannins. I had no idea if it was a good bottle or a bad bottle of wine. My guy came over and he took a glass. Immediately he said, "This is GOOD." Yeah, whatever, buddy. Drink up.
I'm not completely sure what to do. I like surfing and I like eating. Hard for me to give up one for the other. Right now, I'm being all Vulcan and being fascinated by what I can and can't taste... brunch at Joe's on Abbot Kinney last week was a really bad call on my part because I couldn't taste much of the pretty food on my plate. I fed the boy my food in addition to his own brunch and made him tell me what he was tasting in order to live vicariously. After one particularly loud moan of pleasure on his part, I warned him not to fake it.
In that meal, though, I could taste the fresh tomatoes smothered in a shrimp sauce. The acidity and sweetness of the tomatoes were actually bright on my tongue. I'm intrigued by this whole mechanism of what I can and can't taste and how foods might taste different to me, but this is gonna get old pretty quickly.
What's a foodie surfer to do?
3 comments:
Hey G - I have been suffering red tide allergy symptoms as well. I got some Flonase and that stuff has worked wonders. I literally got sneezing fits after our session on Sunday...but two pumps of Flonase and I've been fine since. But pre-Flonase we got some cupcakes on Sunday and I was so bummed that all I could do was admire how pretty they were...they all tasted like cardboard which B then sweared to me they were very yummy...bastard...
I think you should go see a doc...
Tried a doctor. She just told me it was allergies and gave me some samples to alleviate the symptoms. She said the not-smelling was because of the congestion. I might try a specialist at some point in the future.
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