I am allergic to scallops, hotate in Japanese.

Eating them causes a really unpleasant reaction: my lungs seize up and I panic as I try to catch my breath. As a result I am pretty careful about avoiding scallops but twice this week I have been caught out in dishes where they lurked without warning.

I thought I was ok because I discovered them and picked them out of my food both times, but I was wrong. After years of successful avoidance, after lunch today I discovered that in addition to making my lungs unhappy, scallops cause my tongue and face swell up. Wheee.

I will exercise extreme caution with my seafood orders from now on and doubly so in February, the height of hotate season.