Friday, June 4, 2010

Day 3.145: Me, milk and the Mountain Man...


When I was about 13 I started to get migraines. They were serious stop-me-in-my-tracks headaches I felt like a hole had been drilled in my forehead, or maybe that I wished one would be. I would be debilitated, have to lie down then usually, I would throw-up, fall asleep for a couple of hours and then start to feel better.

This was the symptom that finally led to my diagnosis with a cow's milk allergy. Previous manifestations had been eczema and asthma neither of which had been serious enough to lead to a diagnosis. Anyway, I gave up cow's milk and its products and have been almost entirely migraine free for the last twenty-five years. I'm not obsessive about avoiding dairy, but if I have a little I'll get classic mild allergy symptoms - itchy eyes and a runny nose and I'll be more careful.

Today, I bought, ate and enjoyed a cheeseburger.**

Thanks to a tip-off from somewhere (sorry and thank you whoever you were), I persuaded my colleagues to head for lunch today to Spill'n The Beans in Troy - a characterful coffee shop with a surprising range of food. The menu is here. We were there however for one thing only (except for the one vegetarian in our party - he can leave a comment about his experience if he wishes!) - the MMMB (Mountain Man Mega Burger). The burgers are great and three-fifths of today's burger-eaters were tempted by their interesting pre-selected flavour combinations. For me, however it was about the build-your-own and the presence of the option of goat-cheese.

So, I had a cheeseburger, but anticipate no ill-effects. It was very tasty and I'd recommend this little place to anyone - not just my fellow cow's cheese avoiders!



* The picture is from Day 3.086 on the Skyline Drive - I'm rather pleased with it, not sure why I passed it by at the time.

** This was not the first one I've eaten in 25 years - but probably was the first one I've bought.

5 comments:

  1. Looks good! Almost worth a trip ourselves...

    What the definition of a 'European' sandwich? Particularly as distinct from Panini?

    A

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  2. Based on my experiences (of being a 'European' in the US that is) I would say, one that doesn't include cheese unless required by name, one in which the fillings include less than a pound of meat, one in which the fillings make up less than 70% of the thickness of the sandwich, ...

    But based on the menu - it appears to be the presence of deviant ingredients - camembert, horseradish, French baguette (as opposed to a Freedom sub). The other sandwich is made on a croissant - but so are the breakfast sandwiches in Dunkin' Donuts, so I think this one must qualify on the no-cheese rule.

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  3. Spill'n the Beans has a few choices for lacto-vegetarians, including the special (sun-dried tomato) quiche of the day on a very good mixed-green salad. The mediterranean ambience was generally agreeable, but the huge TV screen with the collapsing Dow was rather distracting.

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  4. Interesting about your link with migraines and cow's milk. When I was a kid I had bad eczema and I tried giving cow's milk up to see if it made any difference. It didn't seem to, but I remember loving having my own section of the fridge that my sisters weren't allowed to eat from! However I suspect that the novelty wears off after not very long!

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  5. Yeah it does wear off - and now I have to share mine with E5N1 following a suspicion he has inherited my issue with cow's milk. Hopefully we are mistaken about him, but at least it is a lot easier now than it was twenty-five years ago.

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