A failed experiment.
Jul. 19th, 2003 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaProbably most of you know that I have oral allergy syndrome, a cross-reaction to pollen that means I'm allergic to most raw fruit. I can't eat anything with a core (apples, pears), anything with a pit (peaches, cherries), any compound berry (raspberries, blackberries), strawberries, or blueberries - unless they've been cooked.
I remember what all those fruits taste like. I didn't start developing fruit allergies until I was twelve, and some of the allergies didn't develop until even later. (I just lost blueberries last year.) I had plenty of time to develop an abiding love for strawberries with whipped cream, cold, sweet, deep purple plums, blackberries right off the bush.
I can eat cooked fruit, but I've always been careful about it. Canned pears, apples cooked to pieces in pie, frozen blackberries microwaved into soupiness and poured over ice cream. It's better than nothing, I guess, but I don't really get the fruit essence that way.
A couple of weeks ago,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
curiousangel brought home two pounds of strawberries from the farm stand. He sliced a few of them up for me so I could microwave them for ice cream topping, and they absolutely knocked my socks off. Sliced fresh strawberries microwaved for one minute taste an awful lot like raw strawberries - they still have all of the concentrated scent and flavor that's simply missing from frozen fruit. And a minute in the microwave was enough to denature the allergen. We've since repeated the strawberry experiment several times, always in small doses. With whipped cream. So happy.
Tonight I tried a plum. Plums and strawberries were my two favorite fruits as a child, but I lost plums very early in the development of my allergy - probably seventeen years ago, now - and I couldn't really remember what they tasted like. (You don't get a lot of cooked plums and plum-flavored things out there - or at least, not things that taste like the raw fruit.) I just remembered loving them. I cut the plum up into thin wedges, microwaved it for a minute, and sat down full of anticipation to eat it.
One sliver. Slightly sour, not particularly exciting. And then, a moment later, an itch ran along the floor of my mouth and under my tongue, leaving a burning feeling in its wake. I set the bowl of plum slices aside, went into the bathroom, choked down a revolting quantity of Children's Benadryl, drank a full glass of water, and waited for the reaction to subside. Damn.
I still feel the itch slightly, all along my jawline and neck and - strangely enough - on the top of my head and in my ears and on the palms of my hands. My tounge and the insides of my cheeks have a slightly unpleasant buzzing sort of feeling to them. I think I probably interrupted a hell of a reaction with that dose of Benadryl. Probably not a potentially fatal one, but certainly a miserable one. One small wedge of microwaved-one-minute plum.
So. Back to cooking fruit to death. No more experiments. Damn.
It's time to stop itching now.
I remember what all those fruits taste like. I didn't start developing fruit allergies until I was twelve, and some of the allergies didn't develop until even later. (I just lost blueberries last year.) I had plenty of time to develop an abiding love for strawberries with whipped cream, cold, sweet, deep purple plums, blackberries right off the bush.
I can eat cooked fruit, but I've always been careful about it. Canned pears, apples cooked to pieces in pie, frozen blackberries microwaved into soupiness and poured over ice cream. It's better than nothing, I guess, but I don't really get the fruit essence that way.
A couple of weeks ago,
curiousangel brought home two pounds of strawberries from the farm stand. He sliced a few of them up for me so I could microwave them for ice cream topping, and they absolutely knocked my socks off. Sliced fresh strawberries microwaved for one minute taste an awful lot like raw strawberries - they still have all of the concentrated scent and flavor that's simply missing from frozen fruit. And a minute in the microwave was enough to denature the allergen. We've since repeated the strawberry experiment several times, always in small doses. With whipped cream. So happy.Tonight I tried a plum. Plums and strawberries were my two favorite fruits as a child, but I lost plums very early in the development of my allergy - probably seventeen years ago, now - and I couldn't really remember what they tasted like. (You don't get a lot of cooked plums and plum-flavored things out there - or at least, not things that taste like the raw fruit.) I just remembered loving them. I cut the plum up into thin wedges, microwaved it for a minute, and sat down full of anticipation to eat it.
One sliver. Slightly sour, not particularly exciting. And then, a moment later, an itch ran along the floor of my mouth and under my tongue, leaving a burning feeling in its wake. I set the bowl of plum slices aside, went into the bathroom, choked down a revolting quantity of Children's Benadryl, drank a full glass of water, and waited for the reaction to subside. Damn.
I still feel the itch slightly, all along my jawline and neck and - strangely enough - on the top of my head and in my ears and on the palms of my hands. My tounge and the insides of my cheeks have a slightly unpleasant buzzing sort of feeling to them. I think I probably interrupted a hell of a reaction with that dose of Benadryl. Probably not a potentially fatal one, but certainly a miserable one. One small wedge of microwaved-one-minute plum.
So. Back to cooking fruit to death. No more experiments. Damn.
It's time to stop itching now.
