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.

[Gobbler]

17 minutes 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.

 

You're trolling. Stop it.

 

[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!"