{"id":789,"date":"2012-09-27T04:33:03","date_gmt":"2012-09-27T04:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/?p=789"},"modified":"2012-09-27T04:37:53","modified_gmt":"2012-09-27T04:37:53","slug":"the-engagement-crab-legs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/?p=789","title":{"rendered":"The Engagement Crab Legs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Foodie Tales is about food fabulousness and the many ways we experience food.\u00a0 As a foodie I seek out many kinds of food encounters.\u00a0 In my work as a veterinarian I also see the times when the food experience goes horribly wrong. \u00a0This story is about a dog named Maya and how a bad experience led to a uniquely sweet celebration in which of course food was involved.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Maya was a big fluffy herding dog and was so miserable when I met her during an emergency shift early one morning that she didn\u2019t even lift her head from the floor when I came into the room.\u00a0 Her owner was a fisherman taciturn to the point of silence, fortunately accompanied by his more outgoing girlfriend.<\/p>\n

Maya had been vomiting, and had stopped eating.\u00a0 As I worked my way through the diagnostics, it became clear that she was most likely suffering from severe pancreatitis.\u00a0 The pancreas is most well known for its role in producing insulin to help us regulate our blood sugar levels.\u00a0\u00a0 It also produces digestive enzymes to help us digest our food.\u00a0 The pancreas can sometimes start releasing those enzymes within itself, causing inflammation, pain, and nausea.\u00a0 At best it resolves with some supportive care over a few days.\u00a0 At worst it can be fatal, and Maya was sick enough to be at risk for the worst consequences of the disease.\u00a0 She was having the worst experience ever trying to digest her food.<\/p>\n

I made up a cost estimate and went to explain to her owners that she needed to stay in the hospital on IV fluids and medications until her vomiting was controlled, and that she would benefit from a transfusion of plasma.\u00a0 Unfortunately, although they loved her more than anything, they couldn\u2019t afford the nearly two thousand dollars it would cost to hospitalize her.\u00a0 None of us was ready to give up on her, but she needed lots of care, and fast.\u00a0 The fisherman\u2019s girlfriend was a nurse and she asked if they could take care of her at home.\u00a0 I explained to them that we couldn\u2019t let Maya have anything orally, even water, in order to let her pancreas rest and recover, and that she needed fluids plus several medications.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t let her go home without treatment, as she was in the twin agonies of severe pain and nausea, two of the worst feelings in the world.\u00a0 She was also dehydrated and could easily progress into a state of systemic shock and die if we didn\u2019t intercede.\u00a0 In addition, she couldn\u2019t be around even the smell of food or her pancreas would respond and potentially worsen her condition.<\/p>\n

They wanted to try, so I taught them to administer subcutaneous fluids and injections, and I prepared injections for pain and nausea as well as big bags of fluids.\u00a0 We gave Maya her first treatments together.\u00a0 They then took her home to see if she could make it with what they were able to do for her.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been more worried about a patient or felt more helpless.\u00a0 She had a potentially very treatable problem, but the home care was going to be less than ideal.\u00a0 With the severity of her symptoms and lab work I was afraid that I had sent her home to die in distress.\u00a0 I had allowed her owners to take on a huge medical task when I knew the best thing was for her to get intensive care in the hospital.<\/p>\n

I spoke with Maya\u2019s owners every day.\u00a0 They were fantastic, and tended her around the clock.\u00a0 I saw her on a Saturday so when we got to Monday and she was still hanging in there I started to feel hopeful.\u00a0 We had a hitch when she developed profuse bloody diarrhea but we were able to manage it with more medication, and then she slowly started to get better.\u00a0 A few weeks later they brought her in and I got to see the real Maya for the first time, happy and wagging her tail and asking for biscuits.\u00a0\u00a0 Her owners were incredibly grateful and I was too.\u00a0 She could go back to having a terrific relationship with food.<\/p>\n

A few weeks after that the fisherman appeared at our front counter.\u00a0 He carried a white plastic kitchen garbage bag heavy and bulging with something and heaved it over the counter toward the staff.\u00a0 As he passed the bag over, everyone jumped as a two foot long prehistoric looking spiny leg tore through the bag and jabbed out at them.\u00a0 After asking that the bag be given to me with his thanks, using more words at once than in almost any of our encounters, the fisherman quickly disappeared.\u00a0 I was in our treatment area when one of my staff members appeared, holding the bag at arm\u2019s length.\u00a0 She handed it over to me and when I looked inside, it held not just giant Alaskan king crab legs, but also huge hunks of frozen filets of halibut and salmon.\u00a0 My fisherman had brought me the cream of his catch from a trip to the dangerous icy waters of Alaska.\u00a0 Food was the currency of his livelihood and the magnificent trove of seafood was the sweetest gift I ever received from a grateful client.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Looking at the bounty in the bag, I knew that a special gift had to have a special use.\u00a0 My best friend Rhonda\u2019s 60th<\/sup> birthday was coming up and we would of course have a special party for her.\u00a0 Her boyfriend is an awesome grill-master, so I knew he would make perfect use of this choice seafood.\u00a0 The bag was too big to fit in my home freezer, so I kept everything in the big freezer at work until Rhonda\u2019s birthday party.<\/p>\n

Rhonda and I have a tradition of spending a leisurely time at a spa on our birthdays, and we had an especially good time on this landmark day. We lingered a little longer than planned and were late getting home.\u00a0 When I dropped her off at her house, I told her I\u2019d go get the fish and bring it back over to thaw for the party the next day.\u00a0 Her boyfriend said they would drive down to the hospital with me, so I wouldn\u2019t need to come all the way back.\u00a0 It was a little strange, but I didn\u2019t protest more than once, so soon they were following me down to the clinic.\u00a0 I retrieved the seafood and put it in the back seat of their car.<\/p>\n

I returned home to get a phone call from Rhonda.\u00a0 It turned out that her boyfriend had been planning for weeks to ask her to marry him on her birthday, and his plan included ring shopping followed by a special dinner out.\u00a0 Our delayed return from the spa had put him in a time crunch.\u00a0 He decided that they could go right from picking up the fish to the jewelry store and get there before it closed, so he proposed to her in the car in the parking lot of my hospital, with the giant crab legs in the back seat.\u00a0 And that was how the crab legs came to be known as the engagement crab legs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Robert and Crab Legs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next night Rhonda\u2019s boyfriend grilled the fish on cedar planks, infusing the halibut and salmon with the aroma of the northwest.\u00a0 The crab legs were the best I\u2019d ever had, sweet, buttery and succulent.\u00a0 Their inherent briny ocean essence was sublime and the smoke of the fire brought them to perfection.\u00a0 A friend designed a special drink for Rhonda\u2019s birthday, the Rhondatini.\u00a0 As we drank Rhondatinis and ate Alaskan seafood Rhonda told the story of the fisherman, his dog, the giant crab legs and the parking lot proposal.\u00a0 Some party goers didn\u2019t hear the whole story clearly and later asked me if the fish and crab were unfortunate veterinary patients of mine who didn\u2019t make it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Engagement Party Hearing Story<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today Rhonda and her husband are a happy couple, Maya still has a good relationship with her food, and the Rhondatini is a symbol of a most happy celebration.\u00a0 I still love to eat seafood from Alaska, but nothing has ever surpassed the engagement crab legs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rhonda and Robert with Rhondatini<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Rhondatini
\nCreated by Terri Sullivan<\/p>\n

1 part vodka
\n1 part Alize passionfruit liqueur
\n1 part Jarritos grapefruit soda
\n2 parts pomegranate juice
\nFresh mint
\nLemon peel twists for garnish<\/p>\n

Combine all ingredients in a shaker over ice.\u00a0 Shake well and strain into a martini glass.\u00a0 Garnish with a lemon peel twist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Foodie Tales is about food fabulousness and the many ways we experience food.\u00a0 As a foodie I seek out many kinds of food encounters.\u00a0 In my work as a veterinarian I also see the times when the food experience goes Continue reading The Engagement Crab Legs<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[231,230,229,235,236,233,234,232],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=789"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1045,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions\/1045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}