Is street food good for you? Old rancid oil. Cheap oil. Food dripping with oil.

[Gobbler]

I don't want anything fried on the street. The Thais use cheap oil that isn't healthy. They tend to either burn the oils, which are usually vegetable oil, or fry the food but the oil is not hot enough. I told the GF not to bring home anything fried anymore. When I need sheets of paper towels just to sop up what drips from the food, it is too much. 

[brianthainess]

16 minutes ago, Gobbler said:

I don't want anything fried on the street. The Thais use cheap oil that isn't healthy. They tend to either burn the oils, which are usually vegetable oil, or fry the food but the oil is not hot enough. I told the GF not to bring home anything fried anymore. When I need sheets of paper towels just to sop up what drips from the food, it is too much. 

Plus that awful stuff they call margarine that they use to cook pancakes, it needs no refrigeration and they leave the tub open. I don't buy street food anymore, but occasionally I would like a pancake, but I won't buy them sopping in that goo.

[brianthainess]

And the way they fry and egg till its crispy to me is disgusting.

 

[Bill97]

10 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

And the way they fry and egg till its crispy to me is disgusting.

 

Usually that’s delicious 

[Gobbler]

13 minutes ago, Bill97 said:

Usually that’s delicious 

Delicious wasn't my question. Healthy was my question.

[mikebike]

All good in moderation. There's some damn yummie street food out there 😀

[jaywalker2]

Whether it tastes good is a different issue from weather it's healthy. Hygiene is poor with dishes washed in big buckets of dirty water and vegetables not adequately washed before they're cooked, the oil is often bought used from places like McDonald's, fruits and vegetables are steeped in pesticides, most dishes are loaded up with sugar and salt, the meat is left out in the heat unrefrigrated,

 

You have to be very careful when buying street food.

[MalcolmB]

1 hour ago, Gobbler said:

I don't want anything fried on the street. The Thais use cheap oil that isn't healthy. They tend to either burn the oils, which are usually vegetable oil, or fry the food but the oil is not hot enough. I told the GF not to bring home anything fried anymore. When I need sheets of paper towels just to sop up what drips from the food, it is too much. 

No good for fat western snowflakes.

 

But us tougher farangs along with the tough Thais, not only is all that oil a good source of energy but the rancid stuff builds up your immune system.

 

Half the kids in the nanny state west can’t even eat a peanut theses days without having a seizure.

[MalcolmB]

1 minute ago, jaywalker2 said:

fruits and vegetables are steeped in pesticides, most dishes are loaded up with sugar and salt, the meat is left out in the heat unrefrigrated,

A bit of roughage never hurt anybody.

[KhunLA]

Yes, as with everything, choose wisely 

[connda]

Is street food good for you? Old rancid oil. Cheap oil. Food dripping with oil.

 

What I see here is Westerner cultural superiority.  Westerners are freaking clean freaks.  In 17 years here I have seen all the tropes, exaggerations, and outright falsehoods about "Thai street food."  This is reflective of Westerners who come here already prejudging something that isn't part and parcel of their own culture - well, outside of perhaps food stalls you can find a fairs.
Ultra-clean Farang Fred:  "Unlike Thailand we have whole branches of our excessively large, nanny-state government dedicated to inspecting food establishments, especially "ify" food stalls at fairs."
Exactly!  One of the things I like about Thailand is that it doesn't have a nanny-state government monstrosity getting into everyone's business.  Kids can't even open a freaking lemonade stand in the West.

I've lived in Bangkok, Korat, and Chiang Mai and have often eaten Thai street food as well as getting to know the vendors who prepare the food.  Yeah - that does require you to have immersed into both the culture and the language of Thailand 👈 something most Westerners who lock themselves in gated communities and who associate primarily with their fellow farangs can never grasp.  I personally have lived IN Thai communities since I got here in 2007 and made an effort to learn the language and to assimilate the best I can into the culture. 

So I find that the topic of "Thai street food" just brings out the worst of Western Cultural Chauvinism. 
"It's dirty!
"It's greasy, cockroach laden trash!!"
"You'll get food poisoning!!!"

Hate to burst ya'll's ethnocentric bubbles, but the street food I've eaten is fresh, delicious, and generally prepared one order at a time right in front of you if you take the time to watch the process and interact with the staff.  Like any brick&mortar establishment (where you can't see the staff prepare the food), on occasion you'll find a place where the food sucks.  But those are the exceptions and not the rule.  And, oh!  I have had food poisoning in Thailand twice!!!  👉 Both times after eating at international fast food restaurants (I avoid those place like the plague now - can't name them due to Thai defamation laws). 

Denigrating "Thai street food" is just more Thai-bashing by Westerners who come to Thailand with bad case of Ethnic Egotism:  Western food clean; Thai street food dirty.  Most probably don't eat Thai street food because they already harbor the preconceived notion that it's unfit for human consumption.  That's ok, go back to your clean gated communities and eat clean food from Michelin 5 star restaurants and wallow in your Western ethnic snobbery.  Eating "Thai street food" is obviously beneath your social status.
"Dirty food for dirty people!  Grrrrr!"

[connda]

1 hour ago, Gobbler said:

Delicious wasn't my question. Healthy was my question.

Yes - it is as "healthy" as any food from brick&mortar restaurants. Same food, same ingredients, just cooked in a street stall. 

[hotandsticky]

1 hour ago, MalcolmB said:

 

 

But us tougher farangs along with the tough Thais,  ....

 

 

 

.....plus other pompous pr1cks and wannabe Thais.....

[hotandsticky]

4 minutes ago, connda said:

Yes - it is as "healthy" as any food from brick&mortar restaurants. Same food, same ingredients, just cooked in a street stall. 

 

 

No it isn't....especially up country.

 

The conditions/facilities with those street stalls (plus use of cheap oils etc) are the reason.

[richard_smith237]

1 hour ago, mikebike said:

All good in moderation. There's some damn yummie street food out there 😀

Op is clearly looking to load the response by shoehorning in his bias…. 
 

IMO - it’s like fast food, does the job… 

but not as part of a daily diet.

 

But how many people speaking badly of street food do things like getting on the back of a moto-taxi…

 

… there is potential a lot of hypocrisy in the juxtaposition between the response & people’s daily behavior. 

[richard_smith237]

1 hour ago, MalcolmB said:

No good for fat western snowflakes.

 

But us tougher farangs along with the tough Thais, not only is all that oil a good source of energy but the rancid stuff builds up your immune system.

 

Half the kids in the nanny state west can’t even eat a peanut theses days without having a seizure.

Perfect response….  
 

Anyone looking to promote themselves to halfwitted troll of the day - this is now the ‘measuring stick’ !!!

[Bill97]

1 hour ago, Gobbler said:

Delicious wasn't my question. Healthy was my question.

It is response to another’s comment not yours.

 

Can’t you tell for yourself if it is healthy by watching them prepare it?  They do it openly hiding nothing.

 

 

 

[1FinickyOne]

1 hour ago, Gobbler said:

Delicious wasn't my question. Healthy was my question.

And they put plenty of msg and some sugar... I vote with you. Not healthy... and for me, not delicious either. 

[MalcolmB]

8 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Anyone looking to promote themselves to halfwitted troll of the day - this is now the ‘measuring stick’ !!!

 

 

50 minutes ago, connda said:

What I see here is Westerner cultural superiority.

Sadly I see it everyday on this forum from the usual suspects.

[Gobbler]

51 minutes ago, connda said:

Is street food good for you? Old rancid oil. Cheap oil. Food dripping with oil.

 

What I see here is Westerner cultural superiority.  Westerners are freaking clean freaks.  In 17 years here I have seen all the tropes, exaggerations, and outright falsehoods about "Thai street food."  This is reflective of Westerners who come here already prejudging something that isn't part and parcel of their own culture - well, outside of perhaps food stalls you can find a fairs.
Ultra-clean Farang Fred:  "Unlike Thailand we have whole branches of our excessively large, nanny-state government dedicated to inspecting food establishments, especially "ify" food stalls at fairs."
Exactly!  One of the things I like about Thailand is that it doesn't have a nanny-state government monstrosity getting into everyone's business.  Kids can't even open a freaking lemonade stand in the West.

I've lived in Bangkok, Korat, and Chiang Mai and have often eaten Thai street food as well as getting to know the vendors who prepare the food.  Yeah - that does require you to have immersed into both the culture and the language of Thailand 👈 something most Westerners who lock themselves in gated communities and who associate primarily with their fellow farangs can never grasp.  I personally have lived IN Thai communities since I got here in 2007 and made an effort to learn the language and to assimilate the best I can into the culture. 

So I find that the topic of "Thai street food" just brings out the worst of Western Cultural Chauvinism. 
"It's dirty!
"It's greasy, cockroach laden trash!!"
"You'll get food poisoning!!!"

Hate to burst ya'll's ethnocentric bubbles, but the street food I've eaten is fresh, delicious, and generally prepared one order at a time right in front of you if you take the time to watch the process and interact with the staff.  Like any brick&mortar establishment (where you can't see the staff prepare the food), on occasion you'll find a place where the food sucks.  But those are the exceptions and not the rule.  And, oh!  I have had food poisoning in Thailand twice!!!  👉 Both times after eating at international fast food restaurants (I avoid those place like the plague now - can't name them due to Thai defamation laws). 

Denigrating "Thai street food" is just more Thai-bashing by Westerners who come to Thailand with bad case of Ethnic Egotism:  Western food clean; Thai street food dirty.  Most probably don't eat Thai street food because they already harbor the preconceived notion that it's unfit for human consumption.  That's ok, go back to your clean gated communities and eat clean food from Michelin 5 star restaurants and wallow in your Western ethnic snobbery.  Eating "Thai street food" is obviously beneath your social status.
"Dirty food for dirty people!  Grrrrr!"

You have a knack for ignoring the original post, writing volumes of characters, and you say nothing.  You answer nothing. Are you so absorbed with your virtue signaling that you have to do this and yet not address anything in the original post? 

 

What a waste.

[Gobbler]

8 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

And they put plenty of msg and some sugar... I vote with you. Not healthy... and for me, not delicious either. 

I have repeatedly asked my girlfriend to stop buying oil-soaked food.  She brought back badly fried food last night. The oil smells off.  I used several paper towels to soak up the oil. 

 

It isn't coconut oil. It's not olive oil.  It's crap vegetable oil. 

 

There are no vegetables in the oil. 

[UWEB]

I don't touch it at all.For me far too much use of sugar and salt.

[Jerry777]

25 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Op is clearly looking to load the response by shoehorning in his bias…. 
 

IMO - it’s like fast food, does the job… 

but not as part of a daily diet.

 

But how many people speaking badly of street food do things like getting on the back of a moto-taxi…

 

… there is potential a lot of hypocrisy in the juxtaposition between the response & people’s daily behavior. 

I treat street food like a treat. Its not my main diet. And i just go long with it.

[Fortunateson]

1 hour ago, connda said:

Is street food good for you? Old rancid oil. Cheap oil. Food dripping with oil.

 

What I see here is Westerner cultural superiority.  Westerners are freaking clean freaks.  In 17 years here I have seen all the tropes, exaggerations, and outright falsehoods about "Thai street food."  This is reflective of Westerners who come here already prejudging something that isn't part and parcel of their own culture - well, outside of perhaps food stalls you can find a fairs.
Ultra-clean Farang Fred:  "Unlike Thailand we have whole branches of our excessively large, nanny-state government dedicated to inspecting food establishments, especially "ify" food stalls at fairs."
Exactly!  One of the things I like about Thailand is that it doesn't have a nanny-state government monstrosity getting into everyone's business.  Kids can't even open a freaking lemonade stand in the West.

I've lived in Bangkok, Korat, and Chiang Mai and have often eaten Thai street food as well as getting to know the vendors who prepare the food.  Yeah - that does require you to have immersed into both the culture and the language of Thailand 👈 something most Westerners who lock themselves in gated communities and who associate primarily with their fellow farangs can never grasp.  I personally have lived IN Thai communities since I got here in 2007 and made an effort to learn the language and to assimilate the best I can into the culture. 

So I find that the topic of "Thai street food" just brings out the worst of Western Cultural Chauvinism. 
"It's dirty!
"It's greasy, cockroach laden trash!!"
"You'll get food poisoning!!!"

Hate to burst ya'll's ethnocentric bubbles, but the street food I've eaten is fresh, delicious, and generally prepared one order at a time right in front of you if you take the time to watch the process and interact with the staff.  Like any brick&mortar establishment (where you can't see the staff prepare the food), on occasion you'll find a place where the food sucks.  But those are the exceptions and not the rule.  And, oh!  I have had food poisoning in Thailand twice!!!  👉 Both times after eating at international fast food restaurants (I avoid those place like the plague now - can't name them due to Thai defamation laws). 

Denigrating "Thai street food" is just more Thai-bashing by Westerners who come to Thailand with bad case of Ethnic Egotism:  Western food clean; Thai street food dirty.  Most probably don't eat Thai street food because they already harbor the preconceived notion that it's unfit for human consumption.  That's ok, go back to your clean gated communities and eat clean food from Michelin 5 star restaurants and wallow in your Western ethnic snobbery.  Eating "Thai street food" is obviously beneath your social status.
"Dirty food for dirty people!  Grrrrr!"

 

 

[Captain Flack]

A number of bickering posts and replies, calling each other trolls have been removed. Please discuss the topic.

[Gobbler]

1 hour ago, connda said:

"Dirty food for dirty people!  Grrrrr!"

If the shoe fits, you wear it. 

[Fortunateson]

5 minutes ago, Fortunateson said:

 

My Thai wife ate street food until she took a food hygiene course.  She immediately stopped

eating it.

 

[renaissanc]

There is very little street food in my area so I have such food maybe once a year. The problem is the oil used and the sugar the sellers add. The food might taste nice but it's so unhealthy for you. 

 

[Gottfrid]

2 hours ago, Gobbler said:

Delicious wasn't my question. Healthy was my question.

Of course most of the street food that are deep fried or in other ways drenched in oil, sugar, salt or other less desirable ingredients are not healthy. However, we tend to walk the line here, with a balance of all from unhealthy food to clean and healthy food. In my opinion this is very common in most countries, but in some legal and in others not. Some of us like the street food. Maybe not all, but some favorites among the huge variety. I don´t think it will be all too dangerous to eat it once in a while, but definitely nothing that should be a base for what you eat.
 

2 hours ago, MalcolmB said:

No good for fat western snowflakes.

 

But us tougher farangs along with the tough Thais, not only is all that oil a good source of energy but the rancid stuff builds up your immune system.

 

Half the kids in the nanny state west can’t even eat a peanut theses days without having a seizure.

This is as most posts and replies from you, Malcolm. Just because you don´t care or have enough knowledge, you feel the need to use the though boy attitude and call others for snowflakes. That just cement you maturity level to a 13-16 years old school boy. Rancid food, or ingredients in food, does not build up any immune system. They are dangerous. However, not many food stalls are using rancid ingredients in their food, as the result of that would be that many people got sick.
 

1 hour ago, connda said:

Yes - it is as "healthy" as any food from brick&mortar restaurants. Same food, same ingredients, just cooked in a street stall. 

That is definitely not true. There are different types of restaurants, different types of food knowledge and different ways of cooking. All that leads to that some restaurants get very busy and popular, known for it´s great taste, while the neighbor offering the same menu uses cheaper ingredients only get 3-4 visitors over lunch. Actually it´s the same with street stalls. 

38 minutes ago, MalcolmB said:

I am trolling because you can not fit in with the local ways? 

Stuck up in your own ignorance, much of the street food is grilled, boiled or steamed, plenty of healthy choices.

 

The whole OP is just a Thai bashing troll.
 

No, Malcolm! You are posting garbage just because you have an uncontrollable urge to do so. A chronic condition that you must check up, as well as you totally lack the ability to accept other peoples stance or what they prefer in life. Moreover, you are 100% incoherent to facts, even when presented.

[Gobbler]

The GF bought deep-fried seafood that smelled rancid. I've told her countless times that if the food is dripping in oil or looks like an oil sponge, pass it. It was improperly cooked. The oil wasn't hot enough. 

 

Full stop. 

 

This happens with almost all the fried food she brings back.