Before I go, I’d love to take a few minutes to recap my favorite (and least favorite) moments of the challenge.  There were so many strange and ridiculous situations that I encountered during this project, and I’m happy that I can now look back fondly on them all.  Here we go!

The Top 3 Best Foods
Number 4 – Steak Tartare
I’m more or less a man when it comes to food.  Slap some raw ground beef in front of me, and I’m going to enjoy every last bite of it.  And while this made me move at the pace of a sloth for the rest of the day, it was well worth it.

Number 19 – Steamed Pork Buns
I don’t know what it was about these, but once I was finished eating them, all I could think about was getting more.  The texture was like nothing I had ever felt before- light, fluffy, and slightly spongy, with warm chunks of BBQ pork inside.  I need to go back and get more of these, stat!
Number 48 – Eel
Yes, eel.  This premade unagi kabayaki that I bought from a local Japanese market was beyond amazing.  While its texture wasn’t the greatest, the flavors were incredible.  The kabayaki sauce made my taste buds sing!

The #1 Worst Food
Number 52 – Umeboshi
Japanese pickled plums.  These bastards were the only things on this list that almost made me vomit.  The second I placed one in my mouth, I wanted to die.  The overwhelming salty flavor and the mushy texture made these the most horrible things I have ever tasted.  I felt like I was eating an eyeball dipped in formaldehyde.  The third ingredient in these babies, MSG, couldn’t even save them.

#1 Hardest to Find
Number 93 – Rose Harissa
I have no idea why this was so difficult to locate, but rose harissa had me driving to Canada, walking for miles in freezing weather, then pawing through thousands of tiny jars and bottles.  No fun.

#1 Craziest Experience
Number 75 – Roadkill
Driving 12 hours to attend a roadkill cook-off in the mountains of West Virginia is crazy enough to make this list.  Add in the creepy motels, the camo-clad locals, the hair-raising roads, and the Miss Roadkill pageant, and you’ve got yourself a winner.

#1 Saddest Moment
Number 97 – Lobster Thermidor
Mercilessly stabbing Randy the lobster in the head was one of the saddest and most difficult things I have ever done.  His little squirmy body didn’t make it any easier.  God bless you, Randy.

#1 Gross-Out Moment
Number 65 – Durian
It’s safe to say that tearing a durian apart with my bare hands was the second most disturbing thing I have ever done.  The sound and the feeling of ripping the shell was just too much to handle.  The most disturbing thing I have ever done was pulling out the egg-colored flesh from inside of it.  I felt like I was performing an alien abortion.

I think “alien abortion” is a nice note to end this blog on.  It captures the ridiculousness and vulgarity that I like to offer to you lovely people, my readers   Thank you all again for reading the Omnivore100Project and being so loyal; this blog would be nothing without you!  Now that I’m back in the world of the working, it’s time for me to take an extended hiatus.  I’ll do my best to stop by when I can, but if I end up slacking (which I usually do), know that I’m thinking about you all.  And if another interesting challenge arises, I’ll be all over it.  You can be sure of that.

Hasta la vista, babies!

So after the Black Truffle Explosion, the waiter came out with a veritable shit-ton of silverware.  At first I was confused, but as he placed each spoon and fork in front of me, I quickly realized that each one had a different bite on it.

The waiter explained that this course was inspired by a Joan Miro painting that the chef had seen at the Tate Modern art gallery in London.  He also revealed that one of the bites was squab and another was foie gras, but that was it.  We had to figure out the rest…(?!?!)  So the square on the left was the foie, the fork above it was a green olive with some kind of herb, the next spoon seemed to be balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and the next one I think was crumbled pancetta with something else.  This was tough!  The brownish-red spoon tasted like fruit leather on a spoon, and the orange one next to it?  No idea.  The top right was the squab and below it was a rectangle of beet (maybe), then finally on the bottom was some kind of sweet noodle.  The best bite was absolutely the squab.  It was perfectly cooked, it was simple, and it was identifiable (which always helps).

The next course was a little bit startling, primarily because it was on fire.  It was a flaming cinnamon stick with a deep-fried piece of brie on the end.  There were also caramelized onions and Anjou pears inside.  Just the sound of this dish made me salivate, and it tasted just as good as I had hoped.  I mean, deep-fried cheese with a hint of sweetness?  <<Insert Homer Simpson drooling noise here.>>  The only thing that was a bit much was the smoking cinnamon, which smelled great at first, then turned into an overwhelming campfire smell.

The next course was ginger five ways.  The pieces were so small that my camera refused to focus on them, so I apologize for the blur.  I’m not a huge ginger fan, and every part of this dish was ginger, so for the sake of brevity, I’m just going to say it was gingery.  Good enough?  Ok.

At that point, I looked away for second, and when I looked back, there was a full-on winter scene in front of me.  There were fir branches, liquid nitrogen-dipped stones, peppermint snow, a variety of different sweets, and a mug of “hot chocolate” sitting on a stump.  Resting on the bed of peppermint snow was a cherry jam/sauce, a square of honey, a blood orange segment, and a gingerbread marshmallow.  While the whole thing was beautiful, it was all too sweet for me.  I’m more of a savory kinda gal, and the peppermint snow combined with already sweet ingredients was just a bit much.  And the hot chocolate tasted like chicken stock with chocolate in it.  Bizarre.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any weirder, the waiter put a balloon in front of each of us!  The balloon was made of green apple taffy and was filled with helium.  Apparently, the chef had been working on this concept for over seven years.  We were told to suck out the helium, say something ridiculous (yes, they actually told us to do this), then eat the balloon.  While it was a fun idea, the taffy was super sticky and got all over us.  And, once again, the sweetness was overwhelming.

Now, for the final course!  After clearing our table, the waiter rolled a silicone tablecloth over the table (although he tried to convince us that the silicone was dolphin skin).  He then placed a lingonberry sauce, a butternut squash sauce, a stout sauce, and some flower petals on the side.  Next to it lay a couple of spoons, a pitcher of liquid nitrogen, and a hollow chocolate sphere.  After waiting a moment, a chef came out.  He dotted and swirled the sauces all over the table, then sprinkled the flower petals around.  Finally, he placed the chocolate sphere in the center, poured liquid nitrogen in it, then smashed it to pieces.  The end result:

Talk about modern art!  Inside the chocolate sphere, there was some cotton candy, “french toast” pieces, lingonberry and cream cheese logs, and a heck of a lot of other things that we couldn’t figure out.  Amy and I had a great time picking through the contents and eating off the table, especially as we were now sufficiently tipsy.  The chocolate sphere was definitely the best part, but the sauces were fantastic, too.  As a whole, though, it was too sweet (notice a theme here?) and VEEERY large.  We managed to make a pretty good dent in it, though.

And, with that, the meal had ended!  We were there for around three hours, and each spent around $500, including the meal, the wine flight, tax, and tip.  I realize that 500 bucks is a ludicrous amount to spend on a meal, but it was my birthday, it was a once in a lifetime thing, and I had just found out that afternoon that I got my dream job!  I think I had more than a couple reasons to celebrate.

THE VERDICT
This was definitely an experience.  I have never such carefully and creatively prepared food in my life.  Some of the courses were outstanding, and some didn’t quite live up to my expectations, but the whole thing was surprise after surprise, which made it a whole lot of fun.  Would I do it again?  Eh, maybe.  I can think of a lot of other things I’d rather spend $500 on, but I’m definitely glad I did this.

If you missed out on part one of my dinner at Alinea,

The next course was what they referred to as the “throwback course” due to its rustic nature and large portions.  It started off with a full sea bass.

The fillets had already been separated from it (thank god), so Amy and I each took one.  The skin was perfectly crispy and salty, and the fish was full of flavor.  The other dish that was served in the “throwback course” was a modernized ratatouille.

It was very fresh, with a combination of sweet and savory flavors.  It did a great job of bringing some brightness to the sea bass.  Lastly, there was a small bowl of fried “chips” with a pesto dipping sauce.

These were a nice addition, but they were so oily that I was glad there were only a few on the table.  The whole course was completely unexpected and delicious, but it was a LOT of food for one of 20 courses!

The next course came in a small wax bowl, and the waiter described the course as being so time-sensitive that he actually stood there and watched us eat it (awkward!).  In the bowl was a cold, creamy potato soup, and on the wire attached to it was a warm ball of potato, some black truffle, and a couple of other unidentifiable objects.  We were told to pull the wire out and let the ingredients drop into the soup, so I did.  And spilled all over the table.  Oops.  Anyways, this dish was incredible.  The hot potato and the cold potato together were just fantastic.  I wish I could say that I tasted the black truffle, but I didn’t.  It still counts, though!

The next course came out on a pillow that was infused with Hollywood juniper.  I guess the point was to have the scent of juniper in the air as you ate the course, which they titled Foraging for Mushrooms.  Here’s a close-up:

The dish was mainly a combination of several kinds of wild mushrooms.  I don’t remember too much about this dish, which probably means it wasn’t the best.  I think I remember the chewy texture of the mushrooms more than anything.  Meh.

Soon, the waiter brought out some red cabbage “flags,” which were pieces of red cabbage hanging from sticks.  We then were told that we had to assemble a cradle for our cabbage using two puzzle pieces (unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of the pieces, but you can kind of see where they fit into the wooden plate).  The waiter then spooned some venison with a berry sauce into the leaf.  We also were given a billion other little ingredients on a glass plate that we were supposed to dump into the leaf, as well.  I honestly can only remember one of the ingredients, which was a little sweet potato square (top right).

Sorry for the blurriness, but here’s the finished cabbage wrap.  We then had to roll up the wraps and eat ‘em.  They were super tasty, and the warm venison in berry sauce was fantastic.  The only unfortunate thing was that all the other ingredients were so small that they weren’t in every bite.  But this course was definitely fun and a little messy!

The final course that I’m going to talk about today was called the Black Truffle Explosion.  It was a raviolo with shaved Parmesan, black truffle, and romaine.  Inside the raviolo was a seriously powerful explosion of some kind of liquid.  So powerful, in fact, that the waiter told us to be sure to seal our lips when we ate it.  I don’t know exactly what the liquid inside was, but it was goooooooood.  And I adored the big piece of Parmesan on top.  Fabulous.

I’ll tell you about the final courses tomorrow, so y’all come back now, hear?!

Alright, it’s finally time to tell you all about the grand finale of this challenge!  This past Friday, my friend Amy and I celebrated my birthday dinner at Alinea, Chicago’s only three-star Michelin restaurant.  We had to make reservations three months in advance, and I can see why.  The restaurant is world-renowned and was even named the World’s Top Restaurant by Elite Traveler Magazine.  Holy jeez.

Neither of us could wait for our 20-course dinner, but when our cab pulled up next to an unmarked building with a blue door, we were confused.  “This is it,” the cab driver announced.  Interesting.  We walked through the blue door into a long hallway, and a hidden door slid open to our left.  Through the door was a beautiful staircase.  A hostess took our name and we were escorted upstairs to a small room with about five other tables.  The ambiance was very chic and modern, but minimalistic to ensure that the food was the star of the show.  Our waiter greeted us and offered us each a 10-wine flight to accompany the meal.  We both accepted, of course.  Then, before we knew it, the meal had begun.  We were poured our first beverage (champagne) by a crazy-haired sommelier and our first course arrived.

The first course was steelhead trout roe with carrot and coconut in a curry sauce.  The roe burst in our mouths and was perfectly countered by the sweet, creamy sauce and the crispy carrot and coconut.  It was amazing- the perfect introductory course.

After that, a large piece of driftwood covered in seaweed was placed in front of me.  I was definitely taken aback.  There were four different seafood “tastes” on the driftwood.  We later found out that this was actually four courses in one- if I had known that at the time, I would have taken better, more detailed pictures of each one.  Sorry, folks.

The first one on the left was a Scottish oyster leaf that tasted just like the sea.  It was salty and fresh and delicious.  I never thought a leaf could taste so good!

The second one was a razor clam (I really should have opened the shell to display how beautiful it was) with soy and daikon.  Amy found this one to be the most mundane, comparing the sauce to teriyaki.  I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t my favorite.

The third one, which you can hardly see in this picture, was a mussel with a sprinkling of saffron and oregano, plus a bit of chorizo.  This one was absolutely heavenly and tasted almost like a curry to me.

The final taste was king crab with passion fruit and hearts of palm.  Very fruity and tropical, with a creamy mayo-like sauce.  Deelish.

The next course they described as the “hands-free” course.  It came out on a thin wire-like contraption (I couldn’t get a good picture because my camera wouldn’t focus on it properly) and you were supposed to just lean in and eat it without using your hands.  A little embarrassing, for sure.  Here’s a picture of the whole thing:

On the end of the wire was a small squid, along with a piece of woolly pig, some fennel, and some orange.  Amy and I found this course disappointing because we could only really taste the orange.  It was bitter and chewy, like eating an orange rind, and we didn’t really get the flavors of the other ingredients at all.  Bummer.  Meanwhile, various wines kept being poured for us and stories of the vineyards and the varietals went on and on.  I smiled and nodded, but I was starting to get a bit tipsy and found myself thinking about all sorts of other things as the sommelier gave his spiel.  I’m clearly not mature enough for this place.

All of a sudden, a bizarre contraption was placed on our table with no explanation.  A fire was lit under it, and as I watched the contents bubble up, I felt like I was in high school chemistry class again.  We soon learned that what had just been concocted before our eyes was dashi, a Japanese stock made of seaweed, soy, chili peppers, and a lot of other things I don’t remember.  The dashi was then poured over the next dish and also into a little sake glass for sipping.

As you can see, the thing in the middle looks like tofu.  If you were there, you’d know that it also tasted like tofu.  But it was actually a scallop that they emulsified with soy milk to turn it into a kind of imitation tofu.  While the idea was cool, I’d much rather eat something that tastes like a scallop than something that tastes like tofu.  The dashi was tasty, though.  Salty and full of flavor.

Now, what I didn’t mention was that the whole time we were seated, there was a large, clear crystal-like sculpture on our table.  It had two streaks of red in it and looked like a very cool modern art piece.  At least, that’s what I thought until they pulled it in front of us and gave us straws.  “Here is your next course!” our waiter said, revealing that what had been sitting there was a block of ice with beet juice inside.  We stuck our straws in and slurped it out!  It was a great palate-cleansing course- cool, refreshing, and with a kick of healthiness!  This pic shows what our “sculpture” looked like almost fully drained.

I’ll stop here, because this is getting long.  We’ll get to the rest of the meal (including the black truffle!) soon, so come back and visit!

If you know anything about Indian food, you know that the vindaloo is the hottest curry in the world, right?  Wrong.  The vindaloo comes in close second to the phaal, which is the best way to burn your mouth off in five seconds or less.  “So, Kathryn,” you ask, “why on earth did you leave all the spicy stuff ’til the end of the challenge?  The Scotch bonnet, the rose harissa, the phaal?”  In short, because I’m a moron.  And apparently I enjoy torturing myself just hours before my birthday.

I had a gay old time collecting the ingredients for this recipe.  Chili powder?  Check.  Fresh chilies?  Check.  Dried chilies?  Check.  The one thing I didn’t understand about this recipe, though, is that it didn’t specify what kind of chilies to use.  How can it be the hottest curry ever if you use, for example, banana peppers?  I ended up buying the cheapest chilies I could find, which were fresh serranos and dried arbol chilies.

Three full serrano chilis, one arbol chili, and one tablespoon of chili powder went into a single serving of phaal.  I was really not looking forward to cooking this.  I had a roommate in college that was addicted to hot sauce.  He would cook with it like it was oil, and the spicy fumes would fill the house and act as a sort of tear gas.  I would be upstairs in my room with the door closed and he would be downstairs in the kitchen cooking.  Suddenly, I would be wheezing, coughing, and crying and I wouldn’t know why.  Then, I’d realize to my dismay that Jamie was cooking downstairs.  I was scared to death that making the phaal would be similar, but luckily the only thing that filled the house was an amazing aroma.

Soon, the phaal was ready to go, as was a hefty helping of rice.  I was more than a little nervous to taste it.  I mean, when I ate a tiny piece of the Scotch bonnet pepper a couple of weeks ago, I could barely talk.  This meal had four full chilies in it!  Upon tasting it, my initial thought was, “oh, this isn’t so bad.”  But a few minutes later, I learned that this was the kind of spicy that grows and grows until you can barely feel your lips.  I kept eating it, though, because it tasted so damn good!  It wasn’t at all like I thought it would be (tasteless and violently spicy); it actually had a great combination of flavors, from the sweet tomatoes to the tender chicken.  The garam masala spice mix ended up being the true star of the show and gave the phaal that authentic curry flavor.

I actually managed to eat most of this without suffering too badly.  I’ve had Thai curries that were hotter than this, and Thai curries aren’t usually very hot.  And the best part is that I have had a horrible cold for the last few days, and the phaal did a pretty rockin’ job at clearing my sinuses.

THE VERDICT
I think the sole reason why I survived this dish was solely due to the fact that the recipe didn’t call for a specific type of chili peppers.  Serranos are hot, but nowhere near as hot as bird’s eye chilies, which are more widely used in Asian cooking.  I’m just thankful that I didn’t burn myself to a crisp just in time for my b-day.

P.S. You may have noticed that the challenge ends tomorrow at midnight.  You may have also noticed that I only have two items left on the list!  I have big plans for tomorrow, and I will without a doubt be finishing the challenge in time, but you may not hear about the final two until a few days after it’s all over.  Stay tuned for the grand finale!

I waited until today to actually open the stuff because, frankly, I had no idea what to do with it.  Luckily, I found a super easy recipe for harissa-rubbed chicken and threw that together in minutes.  All it involved was putting olive oil, oregano, and rose harissa on a few chicken breasts and sticking ‘em in the oven.

As a side dish, I threw together this Basil Quinoa with Red Peppers (and threw in some feta cheese, for good measure).

Once the chicken was ready, I dug in.  The rose harissa added a subtle spiciness to the chicken, but I don’t think I added enough to really get a good taste of it.  To remedy this problem, I took a spoonful of the stuff and just ate it out of the jar.  Big mistake.  It was REALLY spicy.  It was nothing compared to the Scotch bonnet pepper I had a few days ago, but still very, very spicy.  It was loaded with chili pepper seeds and spices, and had a really bold flavor.  It actually tasted kind of meaty, like a piece of extra-hot chorizo.  Although it burned my mouth off, it was delish!  The whole time I was tasting it, I kept searching for the delicate flavor of rose petals, but I couldn’t really find it.  I guess when you mix rose petals with hot peppers, the hot peppers win.

THE VERDICT
I’m not usually a fan of heat, but I could get used to this stuff.  It really gave a lot of flavor to an otherwise plain chicken breast, and I barely had to use any of it.  I have heard of people mixing rose harissa into soups or pasta sauces or couscous, or topping their roasted veggies with it, and I would love to try it in all sorts of different ways.  The sauce is so complex and versatile that I can imagine it giving any bland dish new life.

Yesterday, I finally decided to conquer my fear of eggs Benedict.  Dan and I headed to Cheesecake Factory for their Sunday brunch and, before I knew it, I had the world’s largest plate of food in front of me.  The English muffin halves were overflowing with ham, Hollandaise sauce, and soft-boiled eggs.  My first bite was surprisingly tasty.  The Hollandaise was tangy and the ham was flavorful, but the whole thing was so rich and heavy that I very quickly started to feel ill.  And once I got to the egg, it was all over.  It was the most nauseating texture- spongy and gelatinous with a yolk that wasn’t as runny as it should have been.  I think I lifted the egg to my mouth three times, but I could never get myself to eat it.  At that point, the Egg McMuffin similarities were just too apparent, and I literally had to build a wall of hash browns in front of the eggs Benedict so I didn’t have to look at them anymore.  I seriously thought I might vomit.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking to myself, “I have handled raw pig intestines, killed a live lobster, eaten sea urchin gonads, and traveled across the country to dine on roadkill, and a run-of-the-mill breakfast dish is making me want to puke my guts out?”  But no matter how much I tried to snap myself out of it, it just didn’t happen.  After doing some deep-breathing exercises and drinking lots of water, I still left the restaurant feeling horrendously ill.  Thank God that Dan got a yummy smoked salmon platter and shared it with me; I needed something to get the McDonald’s breakfast taste out of my mouth.

THE VERDICT
I really did enjoy the first few bites of this, but after that, my psychosis got the better of me.  I’m thoroughly ashamed that eggs and ham on an English muffin is enough to make me break down, but what can you do?  Everybody has a weakness, and this appears to be mine.

I have never felt so guilty as I did today.  I have never intentionally taken a living creature (other than a bug) and quashed out its life before.  Doing it in such a violent manner made it even more traumatizing, but a knife to the brain is the most humane way to kill a lobster.  The guys at the butcher shop tried to convince me to just cook him alive, but I was not going to let Randy die a slow, painful death.

I think it took me about 20 minutes to psych myself up enough to finally kill him, and there was lots of screaming and squealing involved (on my part- not Randy’s).  When it was all over, his body still moved for a few more seconds, which made me scream even louder.  Once I actually cut him in half, though, I knew he had ascended to lobster heaven.

After halving the lobster (or should I say Randy?), I baked it in the oven for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.  When it was done baking, I removed the cooked meat from its tail and claws.  Then, using this recipe, I started on a creamy white wine sauce to combine with the meat.  The sauce was made up of chicken stock (I couldn’t find any fish stock), heavy cream, white wine, shallots, butter, lemon juice, parsley, and spicy mustard.  I let it thicken, then combined it with the lobster meat.

Then it was time to spoon the meat back into the lobster’s body, top it with Parmesan cheese, and broil it for a few minutes.  At this point, I couldn’t wait to taste it; it looked soooo good!

When I took the lobster out of the oven, the cheese was bubbling and it looked absolutely divine.  I added a little bit of sauteed spinach to a plate and served up my lobster!  How was it?  I think a real chef would probably say that the subtle and elegant flavor of the lobster was covered up by the creamy sauce and mounds of cheese, but I’m not a real chef.  I’m more or less an idiot on the street.  In my mind, anything with cream and cheese and butter tastes ridiculously good, and this was no exception.  I thought the white wine sauce was indulgently amazing, and it paired so well with the huge, juicy chunks of lobster.  I especially liked how the spicy mustard gave the sauce a bit of a bite; that prevented it from being a one-note cream sauce.  The whole thing was just awesome, and it wasn’t overly heavy, either.  It was just enough to fill me up and make me sigh with delight.

THE VERDICT
Wowza.  Randy, you were delicious.  This was one of the most expensive meals I have ever made for myself ($40!), but I think it was worth it in the end.  I ate like a queen today and that’s always a fun feeling.  Now, let us all have a moment of silence for Randy, who selflessly gave up his life for this blog.  Thanks, dude.  You rock.

You might be wondering what you’re looking at right now.  It sure as hell doesn’t look like food, and that’s probably because it isn’t food…which makes me wonder why it was ever put on this list.  Kaolin is a type of clay, and (supposedly) many women in the south eat it.  Some of them use it as an appetite suppressant, but many others have a form of pica, the desire to eat non-food items, such as clay, dirt, and chalk.  I, however, don’t tend to crave inedible substances, so I wasn’t really looking forward to dining on nasty grey powder.

I attempted to find kaolin in its actual clay form – I think you can buy it like that – but I had no success.  It was available in powder form from many different online stores, but for the purpose of external use (making face masques, soaps, or scrubs).  Finally, I found what claimed to be edible kaolin.  I have no idea if it was actually any different from any other kaolin, but I figured it’s better to be safe than sorry and I bought the “edible” kind.  It also made me feel better that kaolin is used in some antidiarrheal medications; knowing that, I didn’t feel quite so scared about eating something that wasn’t actually food.

A few days later, the grey powdery substance arrived in a small, unmarked plastic bag and I felt like some sort of drug lord.  I bet people at the post office were suspicious!  I read online that to consume it, you can mix it with water to form a clay, so I did that.  It felt no different from the clay I used to mold in high school art class, and I cringed at the thought of putting it into my mouth.

It was disgusting.  It was mushy, thick, gritty, and just plain awful.  It kind of had the flavor of flour mixed with water, except it was more metallic-tasting.  The grit managed to get between my teeth, and several minutes later, whenever I closed my mouth, my teeth crunched together.  It’s like when you go to the beach and get sand in your mouth- it NEVER goes away.  You’re crunching for hours.

THE VERDICT
I don’t understand why someone would crave this.  The flavor isn’t pleasant and neither is the texture.  At least when you eat Playdough (yes, I ate it all the time as a kid), it’s deliciously salty.  The kaolin was just muddy and bland, with an unpleasant aftertaste.  I think I’ll stick to actual food, thank you very much.

THE VERDICT
In a strange, masochistic way, I was actually kind of disappointed by how quickly the spiciness passed. It was absolutely the hottest thing I have ever had, but within a minute or two, the worst was over and I could return to normal life. Lame.