Generally, I am not an alarmist. There is the rare occasion that I will sound off on a wine that should not, under any circumstances, be consumed (okay, so there's a laundry list of these wines) but this is not one of those postings. This is in fact a serious warning to lovers of pine nuts.
I am a pine nut junkie. I top most everything with a heaping portion of toasted pine nut goodness, so to my surprise, I found that Trader Joe's is selling a huge bag of these little gems for 8 bucks! For those of you not addicted to the pinoles, they normally go for at least twice that for a teeny tiny bag. Needless to say, I was not leaving the store without this miraculous find.
Fast forward 3 days...
Here I am, professional wine drinker, lover of anything gastronomic, with a constant bitter taste in my mouth. CONSTANT.
Today's menu included a delicious chicken, goat cheese and spinach pizza. Bitter. Salad with mushrooms, salami, olives, cheese, garbanzo beans and tomatoes. Bitter. Sixteen different wines - Lebanon, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain. Bitter. I could go on and on but I'll spare you the rest.
So the hypochondriac fears start to go into overdrive. I've heard about this symptom before... this is how it all starts... I'm going to be a cautionary tale... Internet research goes into overtime. Luckily, the Internet is a glorious world of fellow hypochondriacs, all looking to dispel each others paranoia's - To my relief (and according to WebMD) , I don't have cancer of the mouth or colon cancer. I don't think it's possible for me to have prostate cancer, and I don't take Lunesta. So that narrowed my findings down to this; Several people have reported the same symptoms after having indulged in Trader Joe's pine nuts.
Coincidence... I think not.
I remember at the time thinking that this was a ridiculously low price for this savory, indulgent little nut. Now, as good humor would have it, I am paying the price for these nuts with every morsel that I consume.
Consider yourself warned.
Now excuse me while I resume choking down my exquisite bottle of 2007 Darioush Cabernet.
