Not entirely bad advice, even though personally I'm a teetotaller. Spirits can prevent some types of food poisoning -- such as due to salmonella, shigella and even hepatitis A (note the latter will manifest itself weeks after exposure, so that 'dodgy oyster from last night' wasn't responsible). However, as a pedant, I should note that alcohol is extremely unlikely to prevent toxin-mediated effects, such as from Staph toxin-mediated food poisoning.

To the OP: hope you're feeling better. Sometimes the culprit of the food poisoning is not as clear as one thinks -- it might have been what you ate for lunch, for example (except for toxin-mediated poisoning, symptoms can take 6-24 hours to develop). You should report the case and try to determine if others were similary affected. I hope the point about losing 10kg in weight was an exaggeration. Only cholera can really cause that magnitude of weight loss, and would result in extremely grave symptoms, requiring intensive and careful rehydration.

tb

Might have to stick with "Hooters" at SBM.

Haha, I could never expect anything like what I experienced after eating Legal. I think the only time I've ever had a bad experience with seafood in the USA was at McCormick and Schmicks when my belly couldn't handle the mahi mahi I ordered.

Feeling a little bit better now, but I've just slept for the last two days basically and haven't had anything to eat. Going to try and hunt out something safe to eat around here.

Good old Legal, I thankfully never got sick there but love their clam chowder.

Both M & S and Legal are relatively safe in my book because they are high volume chains... they can afford to test their products for bacteria of all sorts. The same does not hold true for any given hotel brunch. The fact that Legal is on my hit list suggests that I am abnormally sensitive to shellfish.

Nice place to eat at Logan airport. Legal C, before security, will stamp your BP
for F security line.

Love Legal - FYI - I can now buy the clam chowder at my local Costco - Yum!

I kinda doubt the Chinese follow these type of guidelines.


Legal Sea Foods, a Boston-based company that has earned an industrywide reputation for its focus on the freshness and safety The process starts,
with Arthur Kloak, who clambers into the clammy holds of fishing boats after they tie up at Fish Pier, off Northern Avenue in South Boston.
It continues with Stephen E. Martinello armed with a degree in food science, he wears a white lab coat as he prowls among benches loaded with test tubes, beakers and photospectrometers -- an impressive battery of scientific gear devoted to combating toxins, bacteria and spoilage.
It moves next into a refrigerated cutting room, where men deftly fillet fish and slice them into portions, which are loaded onto refrigerated trucks for delivery to restaurants, where they remain in coolers until they go into a pan.

Raw oysters "got me" twice in Qingdao of all places. Premium seaside restaurant and hosted by a local real estate tycoon on both occasions. From my limited experience, the safest locations for seafood seem to be heavily Japanese and Korean influenced cities like Dalian and Weihai where quality norms are unusually high.

In Shanghai and environs would only eat raw fish and seafood if the chef is Japanese or Korean. On occasion have also brought my own fish, Korean style, to a Japanese friends restaurant in the Shanghai area and have the chef prepare it in different ways.

While I'm no expert in this area, my understanding is that it is not economically sensible for single location venues to perform the types of tests that are necessary to protect those of us with week stomachs. I don't dare to play ball any more, but if I did, Legal would be on the top of my list, followed by M&S.

Actually, I had a pretty bad experience with a Korean restaurant in Qingdao about a month ago. Was out in the Korean area - the place where everything and everyone is Korean. Anyways, it wasn't seafood, but beef, and while I wasn't that sick, I didn't handle it too well either. What bothered me was that I paid like 120 rmb for it and it was supposed to be their premium stuff.....

My worst food poisoning came from a steak dinner at Kuala Lumpur's 'most luxurious KLCC' hotel (not mentioning the name ). Hospitalized in Singapore.
Followed by an almost as severe incident in San Francisco and Macau.
Haven't had any (serious) problems in China so far, though.

Lessons learnt: price, location, reputation - all doesn't matter...

Can I add to that list?

8) Ritz Carlton, HK (now demolished and re-located)
9) Island Shangri-La, HK

Food poisoning remedy in China

Quite possibly a Qigong master at a univeristy level in Chinese
Medicine can extract the toxins through the top of your head
without much if any body contact. Sounds absurd to most
westerners, but in fact it is very applicable. Best to find such
in Beijing.

While not relevant to food poisoning, one of the reasons I visit spas so often is because China is simply awash with toxins (food, air, fake booze, cigarette smoke, etc).

Here is a sample regimen:

1) 20 minutes of light cardio
2) 30 minute body scrub with sea salt
3) 15 minutes in sauna with cold beverage... e.g. water or sports drink
4) 2 minute plunge in ice pool
5) cupping massage... need to avoid water for 12 hours after, so plan accordingly
5) relax in