Wednesday, July 01, 2009

About That Halvah...

I had to dispose of it before getting photos. Oh, it worked, turned out really well, looked lovely...and it sent my child to the hospital with a severe allergic reaction. I guess it was the sesame. At least, now we know. That's a pretty lousy allergy to have as there's sesame in so many things from tahini to Chinese food.

Having a severe allergy to nuts myself, I was probably a little better prepared for what happened, but that doesn't make it any less awful. We're off to see his regular doctor today, but for the next few days it will be steroids and antihistamines...and comic books. You get comic books when you're sick in this family.

Anyway, the recipe is HERE, but if you've never had if before, go easy and have a very tiny taste to see if your tongue swells up and you begin puking (sorry, that wasn't a nice thing to say at a food blog).

4 comments:

Raymond said...

I *grew up* on halvah! My Russian grammaw always had it.

And so when I'd visit NYC, I'd of course visit Brighton Beach (next to Coney Island) which is a very Russian neighborhood and so I was in total heaven. (I wouldn't mind living there if I lived in NYC.) I'd buy halvah, piroshki, kvass, etc etc etc. Heaven I tell you, HEAVEN!

Goody said...

When my sister got married (the first time) they had a "sweet table" that included halvah wheels set up in tiers like a wedding cake. Everyone did this, and your family would have considered you cheapskates if you didn't. Thing is, that stuff was expensive-and there was so damn much of it. After the wedding, my parents looked at the leftovers and just *couldn't* leave five hundred dollars worth of candy to the dumpster. So they had it wrapped up and we took it home. Everyone took some. We had an extra freezer in the garage that was filled with these foil wrapped one pound packages of halvah for years. The shit lasted longer than the marriage, no exaggeration.

By the time my mother finally tossed it out, it has probably been long rancid, but I swore I'd never look at the stuff again. That was around 1979-80, so I thought I was due for some. Had no idea it would make Dannypants so sick though. Oh my God, who could have guessed a tiny sliver of halvah could cause all that?

Raymond said...

Great story.

But beyond all the stories, how's he doing? Better? And are we sure it's the sesame? Maybe honey?

Goody said...

He's doing much better. There's a possibility it could have been the honey, but that seems unlikely as he's been eating it for years. The sesame was probably the culprit-I guess it is a common allergen.

We went to see his doctor yesterday, and he sent us home with an Rx for an Eppi pen (just like mom's, but smaller!) and the name of an allergist to go see.

You know how most people get dopey on benadryl? With kids it makes them all hyper-talkative and wired. We're calling him "Ricochet Rabbit" because for the last couple days he's been bouncing around the house going "Bing Bing Bing!"

He's pretty proud of having thrown-up all over my car though, and he makes sure to let everyone he meets know about it, as a sinister smile breaks across his face. By the time we got to the hospital he was a mess and there was a teenaged girl in a wheelchair clutching her foot (it had a LARGE roofing nail stuck all the way through it)and Danny looks at her and says:

"I threw up in Mama's car", and then softly whispers, "And when I get home, I'm going to throw up in her bed if I can."

She laughed so hard I thought the nail would pop out.

But yeah, he's doing much, much better.