Bangkok Street Food and Mom & Pops

[si geena]

I was walking along Yaowarat with my Boss (it was a working trip).

I saw lots of tantilising street food and I was game as anything to try some but my Boss is a hypochondriac and so we had to eat at some fancy dancy Chinese restaurant.

Some street food is good for the stomach, flushes everything through.

[stogie bear]

Tomcat sorry old chum but I think your stomach is made not of caste iron but something a litte softer...

There is almost certainly some truth in that. I'm very sensitive to 'harsh' food.

[Torurot]

Try the kid test. If you see locals eating street food with their children it's likely "safe". Would you take your Kids to McDonald's if you thought they would get sick eating there?

[Tomcat]

Just as a brief analogy, around 10 years ago six of us got food poisoning in a wine bar after feasting on the house Chile Con Carne

I had a word with the manager and he brought the chef up. He showed me the Chile Pot which was like a rice wamer and said

" i cant understand it , i top up this pot up every day "
( "top up" being the relevant word here)

I wonder how old the sludge is in the bottom of a typical Pattaya Soup Stall....

[Dieter]

I never eat street food without a good Mekhong Lek...till now I never had a problem with street food in LOS........


Dieter

[jimslim]

When it comes to food like anything else in life we are all different .
Some can and will eat and enjoy anything , others have very plain tastes and their little tummies will play them up if they try anything new .

I find it funny when someone blames the trip to the kebab shop at 3am on a Sunday morning as the cause of their mystery illness when they wake up later
could it have been the 14 pints of guinness washed down with 4 double bacardi and rasberry .....
What ! no way I can handle my drink , must have been that bloody kebab , thats the last time I go there

[Torurot]

Terry Prachet (DiscWorld) has some interesting things to say on food & drinking. Search I will.....

[jadeite]

(PigDogg @ Jan. 09 2008,08:23) a friend who had emigrated there long before me let me in on a secret: the best food in Thailand is served by street vendors and at basic mom-and-pop restaurants.

Overall the article bored me and I didn't make it through but this point sticks out as the only part worth remembering. I totally agree with that, and have a theory that the cheaper the food, the better and more authentic the taste. But at the same time eating on the street sucks. Excruciating heat, terrible pollution from the road, rats and roaches milling about, and the dilapidated state of everything. Seems the author forgot to mention those little details. I do eat street food and enjoy it, but not that often for those reasons.

[Tomcat]

(jimslim @ Jan. 11 2008,04:48) and their little tummies will play them up if they try anything new .

I still reckon its a roulette wheel...keep on eating that shit and one day you will surely lose the inside of your arsehole...its just a matter of time Ozzie .

In 1991 i had to crawl on all fours to the Doctor and nearly lost my life due to a Sea Bass i ate that had obviously been stuck in a sewer pipe for two weeks before it was cought..

[rxpharm]

There is no doubt street food can be more delicious than restaurant food - but you really need the proper immune system to handle it - one night my ex-gf and I had noodles at a "footpath" noodle stall. Both of us were sick for 3 - 4 days after - this was bad since I had to fly back to work the next day.

Since then I have been quite selective about sidewalk food - but still enjoy the bah jang (Chinese sticky rice stuffed with egg, pork, peanuts wrapped in lotus leaf) from the food stall just near Bangkok Bank on Sukhumvit Soi 10, and the steamed corn sellers get my business too.

The main thing to watch for is it must be hot, completely cooked when you get it, and watch how they handle the food - some actually have reasonable hygenic technique.

[Mr. GRUMPY (Grrr!)]

(rxpharm @ Jan. 11 2008,21:05) but you really need the proper immune system to handle it...

Asians are raised on this filth. They are made of much sterner stuff than us delicate souls. We ain't built for it, so be careful.

[Guest]

(Mr. GRUMPY (Grrr!) @ Jan. 11 2008,23:32)

(rxpharm @ Jan. 11 2008,21:05) but you really need the proper immune system to handle it...

    Asians are raised on this filth. They are made of much sterner stuff than us delicate souls. We ain't built for it, so be careful.

You aint built for it Stogie.

Of course it might take a little getting used to, that is the case with any new cuisine. Most westerners are not used to spicy food and mistake the odd case of chilli diarrhoea with a bout of food poisoning.

I eat on the street every day in Bangkok but I am near a major hospital and the doctors and nurse also eat in my area.

[Snick]

Keep in mind that sometimes its not the food that makes you sick but the utensils.
I have a friend who keeps his own spoon,fork and chopstick in his bag when he travels outside Bangkok.

Most of the time I at street food, I pick it up and bring it home.

[Torurot]

Thai airways kindly supplies my eating utensils

[stogie bear]

(Torurot @ Jan. 12 2008,16:30) Thai airways kindly supplies my eating utensils

...and thoughtfully they also provide a sick bag!

Just kidding... great grub on Thai Airways.