<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>April 12, 2009
COMMENT
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Four wrong steps to food poisoning
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Abdul Rahman Basrun
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->The Indian rojak stall in Geylang is famous for 'threatening' or tickling the taste buds, but recently it threatened lives. Two people have died from eating it.
Officials say hundreds of victims have been hospitalised. That does not include people like me who went to private clinics.
Yes, I was among the victims.
On the morning of Thursday, April 2, I asked my wife out for breakfast. McDonald's was too far away, so after taking the children to school, I took her to the Geylang Serai Temporary Market.
That was the first wrong step I made.
Many stalls were open but my wife chose the Indian rojak stall. Just two days earlier, I had bought Indian rojak from Marine Parade and taken it home. But she was not satisfied. She wanted something which 'threatens' (mengancam) the taste buds. I said okay.
That was the second wrong step.
The Rojak Geylang Serai stall was manned with the usual faces. My wife chose flour-coated prawns, lungs, liver and cuttlefish.
Only $3, she said. Cheap! Could they have counted wrongly? Or maybe we got an early morning discount. In any case, the items we chose were not refried but served cold. That was not the first time this had happened.
I took a bite. They tasted like they always did. The gravy tasted okay too. Maybe the food had been fried at dawn. We tucked in. We shared a plate. How romantic. That was the third wrong step.
My wife wanted more gravy. I went to the stall to ask for another half bowl.
That was the fourth wrong step.
We went home after that.
The symptoms came that evening. Diarrhoea, nausea. My wife was the first to make frequent visits to the bathroom. I followed suit. We discussed this. The cause was obvious: the Indian rojak. That was the only thing we did not share with our children that day, and they were fine.
But I remained calm. For me, it is normal with Indian food. In fact, from time to time, I have deliberately used it as a laxative. The problem was, my stomach started to experience flatulence and I knew that this time, it was not the usual diarrhoea. We lost count of the number of times we visited the bathroom.
My wife started to vomit. Pain was twisting her stomach. Initially, I tried to bear with it but in the end, I too succumbed and vomited.
After suffering for more than two hours, she pleaded to go to the hospital. I agreed. My brother-in-law took her to East Shore Hospital, which is the nearest hospital to our home. I did not go with her because I had no energy left and had to look after our children.
My wife was examined and warded by 1am. She said the doctor gave her a double-dose injection to reduce her spasms.
On Friday, I woke up at dawn and forced myself to drive my children to school although I felt half- dead. Fortunately, nothing untoward happened.
I then visited my wife in hospital. She was still on a drip but her condition had started to stabilise. I asked the doctor to allow her to be discharged.
I went to my company's clinic at noon and was given a medical certificate and told to go home. I collapsed on the sofa and woke up only in the late afternoon.
On Saturday, my wife and I were still feeling weak. I remember Berita Harian journalists calling to ask how I was. Even at that time, the news linking my food poisoning to the Indian rojak wasn't clear. My colleagues asked if I knew how many more victims there were. I told them I didn't know.
Not long after that, East Shore Hospital called my wife and said over 70 cases had been detected. We were stunned. We thought we were the only ones.
On Sunday, the story broke in Berita Harian and The New Paper.
I felt okay and stopped taking the medication. But not long after, my stomach was churning again. Only then did I realise that the bacteria were not the normal kind. This was not the first time I had food poisoning but usually, I would be well again after a day or two.
Almost a week after the incident, my wife and I have not completely recovered.
A lot of theories have arisen about the food poisoning. Before the authorities narrowed it down to the Vibro parahaemolyticus bacteria, most likely due to cross-contamination of rojak and raw seafood ingredients harbouring the bacteria, all kinds of wild stories emerged - rats had fallen into the gravy, the old gravy was mixed with a new batch, the onions used were not fresh, there was sabotage.
I leave it to the experts to conclude what happened.
What's important is that stallholders learn a lesson - not only do companies have toxic assets, so too do food stalls. One mistake can destroy a business' credibility which has been built up over years.
So, will I be eating Indian rojak again?
I certainly will, one day. It is still among my favourite foods. But if possible, I want the stallowner to eat it in front of me first.
The writer is an executive journalist with Berita Harian. A version of this column appeared in the newspaper last Thursday. He and his wife have since recovered fully.
COMMENT
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Four wrong steps to food poisoning
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Abdul Rahman Basrun
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->The Indian rojak stall in Geylang is famous for 'threatening' or tickling the taste buds, but recently it threatened lives. Two people have died from eating it.
Officials say hundreds of victims have been hospitalised. That does not include people like me who went to private clinics.
Yes, I was among the victims.
On the morning of Thursday, April 2, I asked my wife out for breakfast. McDonald's was too far away, so after taking the children to school, I took her to the Geylang Serai Temporary Market.
That was the first wrong step I made.
Many stalls were open but my wife chose the Indian rojak stall. Just two days earlier, I had bought Indian rojak from Marine Parade and taken it home. But she was not satisfied. She wanted something which 'threatens' (mengancam) the taste buds. I said okay.
That was the second wrong step.
The Rojak Geylang Serai stall was manned with the usual faces. My wife chose flour-coated prawns, lungs, liver and cuttlefish.
Only $3, she said. Cheap! Could they have counted wrongly? Or maybe we got an early morning discount. In any case, the items we chose were not refried but served cold. That was not the first time this had happened.
I took a bite. They tasted like they always did. The gravy tasted okay too. Maybe the food had been fried at dawn. We tucked in. We shared a plate. How romantic. That was the third wrong step.
My wife wanted more gravy. I went to the stall to ask for another half bowl.
That was the fourth wrong step.
We went home after that.
The symptoms came that evening. Diarrhoea, nausea. My wife was the first to make frequent visits to the bathroom. I followed suit. We discussed this. The cause was obvious: the Indian rojak. That was the only thing we did not share with our children that day, and they were fine.
But I remained calm. For me, it is normal with Indian food. In fact, from time to time, I have deliberately used it as a laxative. The problem was, my stomach started to experience flatulence and I knew that this time, it was not the usual diarrhoea. We lost count of the number of times we visited the bathroom.
My wife started to vomit. Pain was twisting her stomach. Initially, I tried to bear with it but in the end, I too succumbed and vomited.
After suffering for more than two hours, she pleaded to go to the hospital. I agreed. My brother-in-law took her to East Shore Hospital, which is the nearest hospital to our home. I did not go with her because I had no energy left and had to look after our children.
My wife was examined and warded by 1am. She said the doctor gave her a double-dose injection to reduce her spasms.
On Friday, I woke up at dawn and forced myself to drive my children to school although I felt half- dead. Fortunately, nothing untoward happened.
I then visited my wife in hospital. She was still on a drip but her condition had started to stabilise. I asked the doctor to allow her to be discharged.
I went to my company's clinic at noon and was given a medical certificate and told to go home. I collapsed on the sofa and woke up only in the late afternoon.
On Saturday, my wife and I were still feeling weak. I remember Berita Harian journalists calling to ask how I was. Even at that time, the news linking my food poisoning to the Indian rojak wasn't clear. My colleagues asked if I knew how many more victims there were. I told them I didn't know.
Not long after that, East Shore Hospital called my wife and said over 70 cases had been detected. We were stunned. We thought we were the only ones.
On Sunday, the story broke in Berita Harian and The New Paper.
I felt okay and stopped taking the medication. But not long after, my stomach was churning again. Only then did I realise that the bacteria were not the normal kind. This was not the first time I had food poisoning but usually, I would be well again after a day or two.
Almost a week after the incident, my wife and I have not completely recovered.
A lot of theories have arisen about the food poisoning. Before the authorities narrowed it down to the Vibro parahaemolyticus bacteria, most likely due to cross-contamination of rojak and raw seafood ingredients harbouring the bacteria, all kinds of wild stories emerged - rats had fallen into the gravy, the old gravy was mixed with a new batch, the onions used were not fresh, there was sabotage.
I leave it to the experts to conclude what happened.
What's important is that stallholders learn a lesson - not only do companies have toxic assets, so too do food stalls. One mistake can destroy a business' credibility which has been built up over years.
So, will I be eating Indian rojak again?
I certainly will, one day. It is still among my favourite foods. But if possible, I want the stallowner to eat it in front of me first.
The writer is an executive journalist with Berita Harian. A version of this column appeared in the newspaper last Thursday. He and his wife have since recovered fully.
