I always remember when I first left the East Coast for California for college so many years ago (How long ago? Let's just say that I brought an electric typewriter with me). I was a stranger in a strange land but I was pleased to see that the sandwich shop I had walked into offered Pastrami. In my religion, you eat Pastrami on rye (or marble rye if you're feeling a little crazy), put a little mustard on it, and have it either hot or cold, and have a nice kosher pickle on the side. This is what I was expecting. Imagine my shock, then, as I was served a Pastrami sandwich with more sprouts on it than meat. As Colonel Kurtz liked to say "The horror. The horror. It really gets to me sometimes!"
So I really wasn't surprised to read that the FDA has issued a warning against eating raw alfalfa sprouts because of a salmonella outbreak.
Raw sprouts have been linked to several outbreaks of salmonella over the past two decades, FDA says. There have been 31 cases in six states since mid-March, and another 100 or so since February.
Anyway, I'm back on the East Coast now. Not a sprout in sight.
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