Vibrio: The kind of "get up and go" you don't want to have

Fresh from the top of the Big Gore-Tex Northwest Mailbag:

Q: What is Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and where can I get it?

A: Vibrio parahaemolyticus, duh, is a right-handed reliever in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. Good fastball, decent changeup. Came over from the Greek Developmental League.

But since you're within reach of Washington's Thickest Newspaper (patent pending), we suspect you might be asking about the other Vibrio parahaemolyticus — namely, what local raw shellfish get when they're inundated with billions of creepy crawly bacteria in the summer.

You can get it at the beach, and if you do, you'll wish you'd stayed home and watched people play bingo on TV.

Vibrio, as it is known to fans and people with doctorates in Things That Will Make You Want to Die, is a common threat in the summer, when warm temperatures and low tides combine to lure oyster slurpers to their gastronomic demise on local beaches. Vibrio — a naturally occurring toxin — poisoned about 100 Washingtonians last summer.

The good news: Unlike other shellfish sicknesses, such as potentially deadly Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) and Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP), vibriosis can be prevented simply by cooking your shellfish to 145 degrees. Those other bacteria can make you sick — or dead — even if you do cook your catch.

So what's a summer oyster plucker or clam raker to do? Take our entirely nonscientific advice: Don't do it. Anyone snacking on raw shellfish on beaches in Puget Sound in the warm-weather months is playing with fire. If these toxins don't scare you away, the sounds of toilets flushing in nearby houses darn well should.

Or, take the state's advice: If you must harvest, check for various toxin alerts on the Health Department Web site: www.doh.wa.gov/biotoxinmaps.htm, before you go. Harvest your gloppy prey as soon as possible when the tide goes out. Refrigerate it immediately. And cook it before you eat it.

In either case, avoid downing raw stuff. Let's be honest: Slurping down a fresh oyster may look cool. But it's really exactly like swallowing down a big oceangoing loogie.

Q: Should we just avoid Mount Rainier National Park this summer because of all the road damage?

A: Yes. Not because you can't get around, but because you'll only get in the way.

The truth is that in spite of the massive damage caused by last fall's floods, most commonly traveled roads inside Mount Rainier National Park are already open. You can drive to Paradise and Sunrise as usual, and even damaged internal park roads such as the Stevens Canyon Road are open, albeit with single-lane passage in some places.

The exceptions: The Carbon River Road is still washed out, although it will be repaired later this summer. Work has been suspended until early next month to protect spawning and breeding grounds of spotted owls, marbled murrelets and bull trout.

You can get an update on Rainier roads and other information here: www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/road-status.htm

Q: When I saw you holding your girlfriend's purse in the midway at my local county fair last summer, I was gnawing on an "elephant ear" and you asked me to remind you next summer about a reader-response idea for a column about food at county fairs.

A: Ah, yes. Thanks for the reminder, Biff.

And it's timely, because fair season is upon us. It's that time of the year when all youngsters' thoughts turn to barnyard smells, overbearing salesmen, noxious fumes from spray-paint artistes, bad '70s rock bands, and artery-clogging foods. That's right: basically a wonderful mélange of things that can make you throw up.

That's where you readers come in! For a future column, we're inviting submissions of your personal favorite most indulgent fair-food item. The idea being to compile a list of the most insanely delicious, preferably high-calorie, instant-life-

span-altering, preferably non-healthy food item you've ever seen — or eaten — at your local fair. High amounts of sugar/lard/tropical oils earn bonus points, as does the complete and utter lack of any sensible nutritional value.

Please include basic information such as which local fair sells it, how much it costs, where to find it on the fairgrounds, etc. Send them to the e-mail address below. There's no prize money — just extremely limited fame, plus the warm satisfaction of helping to spread your own brand of physio-malaise to the rest of the unsuspecting world.

Get them in by the end of the month. And if you need inspiration, the King County Fair in Enumclaw starts Wednesday. Take a Prilosec.

Ron Judd's Trail Mix column appears here every Thursday. To contact him: 206-464-8280 or rjudd@seattletimes.com.

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