I’m allergic to mustard. When I eat mustard, my skin becomes inflamed, I get sick to my stomach, and enter the early stages of anaphylactic shock.
I’ve been in anaphylactic shock thanks to my bee allergy before, so I’m a bit of an expert on the matter.
Thankfully, I’ve never experienced anything close to anaphylactic shock due to mustard because I am so attuned to the presence of mustard that I’ve never eaten it in great quantities.
A couple years ago, Elysha served me some barbecue chicken. I took one bite and instantly knew that there was mustard in the barbecue sauce. Though she could not taste the mustard at all, I knew instantaneously. When she check the label, she saw that, sure enough, it contained mustard.
Yesterday, at the Patriots tailgate, my buddy, Tony, opened the ziplock bag that the steak had been marinating it overnight. I was sitting about six feet away, but as soon as the bag was opened, I asked if the marinade had mustard in it. No one sitting around me, including Tony, could smell any mustard, but I could.
Tony said no. There wasn’t any mustard. In fact, I’d eaten that same marinade before.
“Okay,” I said. “The smell must be coming from somewhere else. But I definitely smell mustard.”
Once again, no one smelled a thing.
Then Tony’s wife said, “Wait, we used a new barbecue sauce this time as a part of the marinade.”
Sure enough, that barbecue sauce contains mustard.
Our bodies are amazing machines. I’m able to smell mustard when no one else can, and it’s probably saved my life on more than one occasion.
My friend, Tom, doubted my mustard allergy years ago. It’s admitted an odd one, but still, don’t doubt a man when he says a food makes him ill. Then we were at lunch one day, and I was served a slider with mustard after I had asked them to hold the mustard. I took a large bite, sensed the mustard immediately, spit it out on my plate, and still had a reaction.
I love “I told you so” moments, but not when they come at my expense.
Elysha recently purchased the first food item that I’ve ever seen that acknowledges mustard as a potential allergen and sent me a photo, knowing how much I would appreciate it. Having never met another person allergic to mustard, and knowing how often people are surprised and even disbelieving of my allergy, it was nice to see.
Perhaps I’m not alone after all.
