Mushrooms

[Gary A]

There are many different kinds of mushrooms available in the local fresh markets. Every time my girlfriend brings home any kind that I have not seen before it makes me nervous. Has anyone heard stories about any of these being poisonous?

Edited May 1, 2005 by Gary A

[Totster]

There are many different kinds of mushrooms available in the local fresh markets. Every time my girlfriend brings home any kind that I have not seen before it makes me nervous. Has anyone heard stories about any of these being poisonous? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There was a story I read a while ago where a young lad died and family memebers seriously ill after eating some maushroom that the young lad had bought back...

However... I would say any mushrooms that have been bought in the market will be safe to eat...

totster

[medicinebox]

There are many different kinds of mushrooms available in the local fresh markets. Every time my girlfriend brings home any kind that I have not seen before it makes me nervous. Has anyone heard stories about any of these being poisonous? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Make her eat some first.

[Gary A]

LOL Excellent idea. From now and in the future mushrooms must be taste tested by the buyer one day prior to serving them in my food. I was going to feed some to the dog first but he is totally innocent!

There are many different kinds of mushrooms available in the local fresh markets. Every time my girlfriend brings home any kind that I have not seen before it makes me nervous. Has anyone heard stories about any of these being poisonous? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Make her eat some first.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[meadish_sweetball]

There are many different kinds of mushrooms available in the local fresh markets. Every time my girlfriend brings home any kind that I have not seen before it makes me nervous. Has anyone heard stories about any of these being poisonous? 

I dont think you need to worry about the mushrooms as such being poisonous, Thai people are not that keen on trying new or unknown things anyway so I think your missus will know what mushrooms she brings home...

IMO though, what is a consideration, as with all food here, is the use of pesticides, artificial colouring agents and potentially harmful GMO technology - it is very difficult to assess what food is safe and what isnt.. the vendors are very unlikely to tell you about pesticides.

Would be interesting to hear from somebody who has some hard knowledge about food safety here.

[p1p]

You can be almost certain that fungi sold in markets are perfectly Okay. The vendors tend to know what they are selling and, for some reason, feel that killing off their customer base might not be such a good idea. (This can be regrettable at times I can think of a few who would greatly benefit from a plate of Fly Agaric, or other equally interesting fungus.)

The problem lies with those who like going into the Paa and collecting these beautifully coloured toad-stools! Those can cook up much more than a storm if they are less than fully edible, and testing on the kids might have un-wished-for results -r perhaps not.

[Gary A]

We were in the fresh market one day and were buying some vegetables. My girlfriend was buying from a table where the vegetable leaves were riddled with bug holes. On the next table the vegetables looked beautiful. I asked her why she was buying the ugly ones when the nice looking ones were on the next table. She said "Bugs not like I not want to eat too".

[Totster]

We were in the fresh market one day and were buying some vegetables. My girlfriend was buying from a table where the vegetable leaves were riddled with bug holes. On the next table the vegetables looked  beautiful. I asked her why she was buying the ugly ones when the nice looking ones were on the next table. She said "Bugs not like I not want to eat too".

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ha ha... excellent...

totster

[Farma]

Walking on Koh Chang the other day, I spotted what looked like some nice mushrooms. My wife proceeded to scratch the underneath to check if they were safe to eat. A milky substance emerged and she proudly informed me I would have been very sick if I ate them. She said as a general rule, any mushroom that emits a sap is poisonous.

Farma

[penzman]

All this talk about mushrooms brings back memories of an Emerson, Lake and Palmer concert back in '77.

[meadish_sweetball]

We were in the fresh market one day and were buying some vegetables. My girlfriend was buying from a table where the vegetable leaves were riddled with bug holes. On the next table the vegetables looked  beautiful. I asked her why she was buying the ugly ones when the nice looking ones were on the next table. She said "Bugs not like I not want to eat too".

Your wife is smart enough. The more the veggies look like in the pictures in the glossy magazines, the more likely they are to have been manipulated with chemicals.

[costas]

There are many different kinds of mushrooms available in the local fresh markets. Every time my girlfriend brings home any kind that I have not seen before it makes me nervous. Has anyone heard stories about any of these being poisonous? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I dont think you need to worry about the mushrooms as such being poisonous, Thai people are not that keen on trying new or unknown things anyway so I think your missus will know what mushrooms she brings home...

IMO though, what is a consideration, as with all food here, is the use of pesticides, artificial colouring agents and potentially harmful GMO technology - it is very difficult to assess what food is safe and what isnt.. the vendors are very unlikely to tell you about pesticides.

Would be interesting to hear from somebody who has some hard knowledge about food safety here.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi meadish,

i'll reply as a food scientist and ex-worker in a research centre that made GM manipulations.

To start with, i have not seen a single Thai food establishment that would meet European regulations regarding food safety. There might be a few scattered around the country, but up around Loei, certainly NONE.

so every time you get food from a stall, you have a choice.

Regarding pesticides, the use might be a bit too liberal for european liking, but i am not sure that you should worry too much about it. At the end of the day, you have to eat s@itloads of chemicals to have more than an upset stomach. However, you only have to have a couple of those stirfried dishes from a street vendor, that passers by choke from (due to the oil used overheating excessively (sp?)) and your intake in carcinogenic substances is really high...

another concern would be not so much the artificial colourings (which tend to be on the safe side, -assuming we are talking imitations of the natural stuff, not paint...) but the unbelievable use of MSG.

with regards to potentially harmful GM technology, i spent three years of my life assessing those, and i can safely say, NOONE can tell whether it is harmful or not. The time scales employed in such assesments are irrelevant to the real problem.

I can certainly tell you that GM wheat is fine and looks and feels and tastes like the non GM, cause i checked it, but cannot tell you eat GM wheat for 20 years and there will be no problems..impossible.

I understand that people might feel they have to be cautious cause they donmt know what the manipulation entailed, but on the other hand, there is yet to be hard proof to support this stance or the opposite for that matter..

summing up, if you want to enjoy your food, dont be concerned about those issues....

if you want to eat no chemicals, no artificial colourings, no GM anything, then i am afraid you're facing starvation. No soya in the world is left unGM, rice is heading the same way along with maize, and wheat is not far behing.

sorry if the picture is not too bright, if you wish more details about any of that, please PM me.

cheers

costas

[meadish_sweetball]

Thanks for the reply Costas.

I realize GMO is neither black nor white and the difficulties in the long-term assessment of the safety - the point is that I would like to know what I eat, and here in Thailand the companies arent even required (or dont care) to inform on the labelling if the product contains GMO products or not.

I have heard stories of fresh meat in the markets being infused with some kind of harmful chemical in order to make it look more red and less grey, which does not sound too promising.

Still, I eat most food here that I like, anyway... and I definitely enjoy it - gained 7 kilos since moving here. :-)

[costas]

in terms of labelling , you are absolutely right, it is an era behind western europe...

standards have to be applied throughout the food producing chain if it was to be possible to have labelling such as you require...and we both know that this is not the case in Thailand....so if the farmer uses shitloads of chemicals, and this information is deemed as not important by him when a sell is on, then this information will not go further....no feasible way to check .....perhaps in big farms with established ISO systems etc you could trust them, but without i very much doubt it.

as for the various nitrates being added to meat to make it redder, i think it is standard practice everyhere, but i believe that in the EU the amounts are regulated

hope it helps

cheers

costas

[Plus+]

There are two different concerns here - poisonous mushrooms and chemicals. All muchrooms sold in established narkets come from mushroom farms and so are harmless. As far as chemicals are concerned - you'll never know what's in there. 80% of pork in Bangkok markets comes from illegal sloughterhouses. That was in the news four years ago.

[meadish_sweetball]

There's an illegal slaughterhouse in my soi. You start hearing the screams around 01.00 in the morning.

My original theory was that it came from the Nation's editing office, which is also not too far away from here.

[feffejonsson]

If the local people eats them it´s safe. Thai people are not stupid. They know what is safe to eat in their surroundings. Just ask in the market. Het Fang (tooth mushroom) being my favourite. If you slice it from top to bottom it looks exactly the same as a molar.

Edited July 11, 2008 by feffejonsson

[cathyy]

We were in the fresh market one day and were buying some vegetables. My girlfriend was buying from a table where the vegetable leaves were riddled with bug holes. On the next table the vegetables looked beautiful. I asked her why she was buying the ugly ones when the nice looking ones were on the next table. She said "Bugs not like I not want to eat too".

I like her attitude, too. Certainly she's going to be ingesting fewer pesticides than if she ate the perfect produce from the next stall! There's a reason the bugs don't like it!

[MarkBKK]

All this talk about mushrooms brings back memories of an Emerson, Lake and Palmer concert back in '77.

Jesus, that was a bad trip. Hope you were OK.