Are Bangkok Street Vendors Safe?

[zzaa09]

as a newbie from the US, your stomach will not be able to handle the bacteria of street food -

The OP is from the UK not the US so is probably used to dodgy food

Dodgy food is one thing, but their systems have become numb from a processed, MGOed, chemically and toxin enriched food system - their bodies would reject food.

[zzaa09]

Some of the best thai food in thailand is sold from the carts. Highly recommend it!!!!

...I might add that aside from street food, the best can be home cooking!!!

[paddydubai]

One of the posters makes a very good point - look out for stalls that have a lot of people already eating at them. If it's popular, it tends to mean the food is good and if there's a high turnover it's more likely to be fresher.

Two other thoughts:

Give yourself a couple of days after arrival to acclimatise; take things slow and easy before you dive right into the street food thing. Or anything else really - apart from other factors, the Thai humid climate can make you feel washed out and exhausted so, as I say, start slowly before you attempt too much.

And I always eat something eggy, like poached eggs or an omelette for breakfast, to bind my guts a bit. This is probably a waste of time based on a myth, but in many trips to Thailand, the only time I've ever got sick was the very first time, and that was directly after eating at a very upmarket "Royal Thai" place in Bangkok! Street food has never done me any harm at all. I can't get enough!

[steve w]

Got food poisoning from a bad hot dog in family mart.

only time i got bad guts is from a hotdog from 7-11 ,only thing i could find at 4am,never again!

[MarkBKK]

Got food poisoning from a bad hot dog in family mart.

only time i got bad guts is from a hotdog from 7-11 ,only thing i could find at 4am,never again!

Well ... until the next time, eh? :-)

[HalfSquat]

Do they have kebabs out there?

Donner with chilli sauce my fren?

[Geekfreaklover]

Do they have kebabs out there?

Donner with chilli sauce my fren?

Many a donner to be found around soi 5 sukhumvit, or in Kho San in Bangkok. Very nice too, although a lot smaller than the western version. Usually best to buy two. mmmmm. Donner.

[HalfSquat]

I've been here about five days now and have eaten from a few street people with mixed results.

All have been nice but some nicer than others.

They are a bit of a mystery to me though as the ones near me don't have any signs up and I can't really see what they are cooking due to the positioning of the carts so I just do a little mime show and get given a dish of something. One time they gave me the food in plastic bags which was good as I could take it home and eat it but another said what I thought was "takeaway?" to me and I said yes but she served it up in a bowl so I ate it at the table. It would be quite handy to know how to order eat in or takeaway as a plastic bag of food away from home isn't going to be much use!

I haven't seen any coconut curry dishes at any street people yet which I am quite disappointed about or any vegetable tempura - are these just western-Thai dishes?

Also like the Thai dish known as 'double Big Mac' which is something we don't have in England.

[skettios]

I eat street food every now and then...

As an "insurance", I also eat yogurt with 3 types of probiotic bacteria.

Moreover, I am vaccinated for typhoid, diptheria, cholera, etc.

Turns out that the cholera vaccine (or is it the typhoid one) also protects you against up to 70% of the types of food poisoning.

So far, the only food poisoning bout I can remember was right after eating in a prestigious Japanese restaurant chain with numerous branches in Bangkok. The salmon sashimi tasted like it was going bad; but I'm not normally a fish eater so I wasn't sure about good from bad, and I assumed that because it was a "highly reputed" restaurant, it was okay to eat and I just wasn't "educated" enough with fish to assess. The restaurant chain starts with the letter "F".

That was also before the vaccinations, by the way.

.

Same story here, only time I've ever been sick in Thailand was eating salmon at the big 'F', Soi Ari branch.

As far as street stands go, as another poster said, I prefer the speed and cost to almost any other kind of restaurant.

[fishtard]

how much do street food usually cost? 30 baht?

10 baht for fruits, how about other cooked snacks?

would they quote you a "foreigner" price if you ask how much it costs in english?

[Michaelaway]

Hello,

I've been reading up on my Thailand and Bangkok guide books and they all speak highly of the street food stalls that serve up dishes for a few quid.

I'm really excited to try the food from them as I love the Thai food that is served here in England.

But I've been reading a few posts here and now I'm starting to get put off what with the high fat content, fake chicken and poor hygiene.

So what do the locals say? Would you eat from them or are they like the street hot dog vendors we get here on Friday and Saturday nights selling dog meat sausages to unsuspecting drunks?

In the books it says the fresh meat and veg is piled up and cooked before your eyes to order - this sounds quite healthy to me. Is it really like this? How can I spot fake chicken? Which stalls or areas should I avoid? How much should I expect to pay for a safe, healthy(ish) Thai meal like a green curry with chicken or beef and rice or noodles or a rad na or a massaman or similar?

Thanks.

Geez, where to begin? Ok, maybe here:

Aroy (delicious) is a very big word in the Thai vocabulary. Overall, there is a lot of pride taken in the preparation of food in Thailand; many chefs will ask you, "Aroy mai?" after you've had a minute to sample the food...

I've been eating Thai food in Thailand since 1980. Eating on the street in Thailand will rarely make you sick (although it'd be a lie to say it never happens... watch the seafood)! If you want to be careful, first have a look at the food sftuffs the vendor has on display before you order; they're all layed out for all to see. Just like anyplace, if the ingredients look normal, fresh & unspoiled, then just go ahead and order, man! Street food is delicious & safe in Thailand... overall.

In the Maybe I Lead a Sheltered Life Department:

No idea what you refer to as fake chicken, never heard of it! Why the heck should they have fake chicken in Thailand, anyway?? There are soooo many chickens grown here, and sooooo cheap to buy... they don't really need any fake chickens, do they?? Ok, maybe there's a new chicken-looking/tasting something-or-other now available for vegetarians, but I believe that 99% of the chicken called chicken, in Thailand is... well, chicken! (Anyone please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Hign fat foods & meals exist in nearly every international cuisine. Here, as mentioned, you can stay away from deep fried dishes (where they use and reuse the cooking oil...to death!) especially things like chicken skin, pork skin or moo krob (crispy pork belly) if you're health conscious. Overall again though, I believe Thai food is quite a healthy cuisine. There are soooo many delicious vegetables which can be prepared soooo many ways; there are different varieties of fish and seafood dishes (try the steamed fish, superb!); lean pork exists here now, too, along with chicken, tofu, and all the rest (beef... not so good here). You can get a salad, either Thai spicy or western style, too (a head of iceberg lettuce costs 30 baht at the supermarket!).

You are definitely worrying tooooooooo much.

A good size bowl of gaeng cullie wan gai, moo, neua or goong (sweet green curry with chicken, pork, beef or shrimp) ought to cost you 60-90 baht with rice. Massaman, and nearly all the other curries are about the same. Also, you can go to any of the food courts- either in the department stores, or elsewhere- and get foods like this and much more, for 30 baht w/rice... And, you'll see a lot of farangs eating there (usually lunch) with their Thai girl (boy) friends who've clued them in as to the cheapest and most tasty places to eat. Noodles are wonderful. Most cost 30 baht and up; all are delicious. I like baa mee (egg noodles).

I think the best restaurants for curries, noodles, and most Thai food are the local, family-run places. Cheaper prices, pride in cooking...

In Thailand, cheap really can be healthy and delicious. If you're overweight, you can eat very well and stll loose weight here! If you go to the high-so, more expensive restaurants, you'll have to pay more money for more or less the same foods as the food courts or local restaurants. Sometimes it's better, but not always. It's up to you. Anyway...

Good luck, farang!

[sbk]

I don't get a bad stomach from street food, but they all use massive amounts of MSG (which I cannot eat). Its not so much the hygiene that bothers me but the particulate pollution from the cars, trucks, buses and lorries being spewed all over my food. Cheers, but I already breathe enough of that in already, I don't need to ingest it as well.

[bkkjames]

I don't get a bad stomach from street food, but they all use massive amounts of MSG (which I cannot eat). Its not so much the hygiene that bothers me but the particulate pollution from the cars, trucks, buses and lorries being spewed all over my food. Cheers, but I already breathe enough of that in already, I don't need to ingest it as well.

You make it sound like the islands no longer belong to Gilligan?

[sbk]

Not alot of street food here James, this is mostly on the mainland or Bangkok. But yeah, Gilligan disappeared a few years ago.

[bkkjames]

Once I week I grab some bhummi nam (sp) on the way home but I do give it a quick boil to kill any residual bacteria from the pork hanging there all day.

Touching wood now, the one and only time I was violently ill (both ends, same time) was after eating hoi can (sp again) - those red coloured shellfish.

The key to street food is turnover imo. Watch where the locals are eating for a hint of what's good or not.

[jasreeve17]

OP, if you like the double Big Mac then go to a Burger King; they have a big surprise for you...

I've been a tad flumuxed (is that a real word? Doubtful, especially with that spelling...) by some longtermers worrying about street vendors. In China I never ate from street vendors - they're dirty... But, Thai street vendors are clean and fine. Good fresh food that's probably far healthier than your UK Tesco plastic produce. Fruit and vegtables here are primed with stomach cancer inducing chemicals, but the street food? No, it's fine. Fresh and fine.

I've had mild food poisoning three times, and all were down to cut meats from Foodland (all 3 times was a chicken roll down to it's final cuttings); Mild sickness for 24 hours only.

Edit to add: BkkJames is a braver man than I. Don't eat the street vendor shellfish, especially the 30 second splash in hot water little clams. I take the missus to hospital at least once a year due to these little blighters...

Edited October 12, 2009 by jasreeve17

[OZinBKK]

I've been here about five days now and have eaten from a few street people with mixed results.

All have been nice but some nicer than others.

They are a bit of a mystery to me though as the ones near me don't have any signs up and I can't really see what they are cooking due to the positioning of the carts so I just do a little mime show and get given a dish of something. One time they gave me the food in plastic bags which was good as I could take it home and eat it but another said what I thought was "takeaway?" to me and I said yes but she served it up in a bowl so I ate it at the table. It would be quite handy to know how to order eat in or takeaway as a plastic bag of food away from home isn't going to be much use!

I haven't seen any coconut curry dishes at any street people yet which I am quite disappointed about or any vegetable tempura - are these just western-Thai dishes?

Also like the Thai dish known as 'double Big Mac' which is something we don't have in England.

To get take away you can just say sai toong which means bag it.

I have my own questions - people say the fruit and veg is 'cancer ridden with chemicals' - how do you mean? I know in Australia the fruit and veg is coated in strong chemicals but you just give it a rinse and close your eyes - is it the same deal here?

[Panhandler007]

So long as the food has not been sitting in the sun and collecting pollutants from the roads for hours.

Make sure the bowls have been cleaned well

OR

Spend 5bt more and eat in food courts