How one bite of oyster in Hong Kong ruined food trip but taught valuable lessons

Everyone loves the idea of being a food journalist, but few see the downsides: the countless mediocre meals fatly sandwiching the exceptional ones, the weight gain, the late nights, and the most dreaded of all: the inevitable bouts of gastroenteritis.
I am usually quite disciplined about not eating out – or at least not eating risky dishes – days before an important engagement or holiday.

But this time, things did not quite work out.
At a dinner, an oyster-led dish was presented.

It occurred to...