No hummus please

For quite some time, one of my favorite snack foods has been a fabulous hummus dip with some great pita chips or really any type of chips.

Part of my fondness of hummus was the fact that I always felt it was slightly healthier than a normal dip. So, while I was munching on bread or chips or veggies and double-dipping into the red-pepper hummus, I didn't fell nearly as bad as I would have felt had it been ranch dip.

Unfortunately, my love affair with hummus is over and it's quite possible I may never eat it again. Last year, I went with a friend to the Taste of Chicago for lunch. It's a national festival, but for those who may not know much about it, this is the premier festival in Chicago where they serve up hundreds of different types of foods.

My friend and I went there to grab a few items for lunch. Our first thing we gobbled down was the taste portion of some hummus. It was pretty good. Then, I went for these gigantic turkey legs and we wrapped up the lovely sunny summer day with ice cream. Sounds pretty perfect, right.

Yes, we gorged ourselves. But everything was great until late that night when I woke up quite sick. Leaving out all of the gory details, I was the sickest I've ever been and I couldn't eat anything for about 3 weeks.

Turns out my friend and I both got salmonella poisoning from that tiny bit of hummus we ate. Also turns out this was the first case of food poisoning at the Taste's long history.

Boy, we're lucky, right.

I was quoted in the local newspaper during the time of the food poisoning. However, I hope that story has fallen into the Internet's sinking sand because the reporter called me right when I was still ill, and I pretty much sounded like an idiot...a salmonella-sick idiot, mind you.

A friend of mine who freelances for The Chicago Tribune was writing about the experiences and now it's documented here.

So, while I'm still a firm believer that hummus is a great snack, I'm not sure that I'll ever be able to eat it again.