Food Poisoned Again

[surayu]

Despite trying to be carefull with food and places, i got it again and guess from what? hot dogs, i mean the cold variety you see inside the fridges of the "coolest" franchising all over Thailand, nothing suspicious about them, biggest brand, not yet expired, usual taste, the only funny thing was this little hot dog being squeezed out in the middle of them (which i only noticed once reached that point), i didn't eat it and i stopped eating thinking about how that could have happened, maybe was a customer wanting to test their consistency....or maybe a bored employee playing with it for possibly hours waiting for the time to go home, anything is possible, anyway, sorry for this, i already throwed out once, the pain and nausea is slowing fading away, i read on the net that one of the best thing to do in this cases is just rest and drink some water, if anyway the cold hot dogs will won the battle, at least you will know why Surayu it's not posting anymore, ah ahh....ouch!

[Darrel]

Ask 100 people where they got food poisoning in Thailand and most will say "hamburgers", "hotdogs", "pizzas", "kebabs", "chicken skewers", "buffets" and all the other Western junk food. Hardly any of them will say "papaya salad vendors" or "noodle soup vendors".

Moral? Stay away from Western junk food and stick to proper cheap Thai food.

In 30+ years of eating street food in SE Asia I only ever got food poisoning once. Where? From a pizza place in Manila about 25 years ago.

YMMV

[onnut]

The only place I got poisoned in 8 years of living here was at a 5 star hotel buffet!

Street food has never given me problems.

[tangcoral]

The only place I got poisoned in 8 years of living here was at a 5 star hotel buffet!

Street food has never given me problems.

Try the fresh squeezed oranges selling from street carts, that always gets me everytime.

[onnut]

The only place I got poisoned in 8 years of living here was at a 5 star hotel buffet!

Street food has never given me problems.

Try the fresh squeezed oranges selling from street carts, that always gets me everytime.

No chance, never know how many days that stuff has been sitting in the heat.

[smokie36]

The only place I got poisoned in 8 years of living here was at a 5 star hotel buffet!

Street food has never given me problems.

Try the fresh squeezed oranges selling from street carts, that always gets me everytime.

Did me in Patong once as well.....great weight loss program...

[surayu]

Well, actually the last poisoned food was from a street vendor, after having seen almost everyone buying them, including local kids, none of them showing any problems afterwards, i dared to give them a try, those tipycall fried fish/meatballs, i just tasted them, in total it was less then a single ball what i had, but i felt so sick for 3 days, so no more of it for me and for sure, before that i got it from shell fish served at a local famous chain of restaurants, but this packaged food came as a surprise, i feel like i have a whole brick into my stomach and dizzy, from tomorrow i will get my food flyied into the country using "Markey's" private jet

[DP25]

The only place I got poisoned in 8 years of living here was at a 5 star hotel buffet!

Street food has never given me problems.

Try the fresh squeezed oranges selling from street carts, that always gets me everytime.

I drink those all the time, never had a problem so far.

My worst case was at a BBQ buffet joint where I guess I didn't cook it enough or accidentally used the chopsticks for raw food to eat with

[Shurup]

Yeap, that's right, cheap street vendors' Thai food is good for you... because it soaked in the one week old used cooking oil and full of carcinogens that even the bacterias can't survive!

I am getting a food poisoning every once in a while, I am guessing once every 6 months or so, but only because I love sea food and as you know, if it's not cooked properly or not fresh enough it can get bad very fast in this heat. I also love fresh oysters, fresh shrimps, fresh crabs in papaya salad, fresh salmon... That is my problem, but I rather eat that and enjoy every single bite than eat the deep fried junk they sell on the streets.

By the way, Thais are getting it too sometimes. My Thai GF got a food poisoning from eating papaya salad some time ago.

[Latindancer]

Ask 100 people where they got food poisoning in Thailand and most will say "hamburgers", "hotdogs", "pizzas", "kebabs", "chicken skewers", "buffets" and all the other Western junk food. Hardly any of them will say "papaya salad vendors" or "noodle soup vendors".

Moral? Stay away from Western junk food and stick to proper cheap Thai food.

In 30+ years of eating street food in SE Asia I only ever got food poisoning once. Where? From a pizza place in Manila about 25 years ago.

YMMV

Exactly : All meat dishes. Seafood is the most common food which causes food poisoning. Other meat dishes are second. They are an ideal breeding ground for bacteria. Many people I know are vegetarian when travelling in Asia.

[Ulysses G.]

Yes, yes, street food with flies crawling over it and no running water to clean cutlery is much more sterile than a hot pizza fresh from the oven in an air-con place with a dishwashing machine.

[robblok]

Yes, yes, street food with flies crawling over it and no running water to clean cutlery is much more sterile than a hot pizza fresh from the oven in an air-con place with a dishwashing machine.

I never get food poisoning from western foods also i rarely get it from Thai food. But most of the time i cook my own food. Then im 100% sure its good.

[grumpyoldman]

Yeap, that's right, cheap street vendors' Thai food is good for you... because it soaked in the one week old used cooking oil and full of carcinogens that even the bacterias can't survive!

I don't know here, one of the worst cases I got in Bangkok was from one of the fried bread (doughnut sort of thing) vendors.

I believe many times it comes from peoples own hands; shake hands with that Nepalese tailor, touch the door handle at 7/11, put food in your mouth with that same hand, bingo.

[cardholder]

Ask 100 people where they got food poisoning in Thailand and most will say "hamburgers", "hotdogs", "pizzas", "kebabs", "chicken skewers", "buffets" and all the other Western junk food. Hardly any of them will say "papaya salad vendors" or "noodle soup vendors".

Moral? Stay away from Western junk food and stick to proper cheap Thai food.

In 30+ years of eating street food in SE Asia I only ever got food poisoning once. Where? From a pizza place in Manila about 25 years ago.

YMMV

Exactly : All meat dishes. Seafood is the most common food which causes food poisoning. Other meat dishes are second. They are an ideal breeding ground for bacteria. Many people I know are vegetarian when travelling in Asia.

You have more chance of getting food poising from salad than you do from a street vendor.

[doctormann]

I've only been afflicted once in nearly seven years here in Thailand. Bought some green mussels from that supermarket chain that is shortly to quit. I was quite seriously ill for about a week. Never had anything like it before or since. It's put me off green mussels for life - which is a pity as I do quite like them. Only need one bad one in a batch to lay you low so I don't chance it any more.

DM

[ableguy]

The only place I got poisoned in 8 years of living here was at a 5 star hotel buffet!

Street food has never given me problems.

Try the fresh squeezed oranges selling from street carts, that always gets me everytime.

Did me in Patong once as well.....great weight loss program...

Had it twice each time 6 days in Bumrumgrad hospital BKK, both times from Hotel Burgers first one Nana Hotel BKK, second time Hotel on Soi19 Sukhumvit forgotten name ( never went back ) stick to noodles now,

[Awohalitsiktoli]

Yes, yes, street food with flies crawling over it and no running water to clean cutlery is much more sterile than a hot pizza fresh from the oven in an air-con place with a dishwashing machine.

We agree. I have been sick many times and mostly from street food. I did get sick once from Pizza Company, but that only happened one time and normally it is good food. Thais seem to have no concept of hygiene--forget hand washing; know that glasses and dishes are washed in dirty water; look at the flies all over and ask yourself if that really is sanitary; know that in order to make money food is often sold way past its prime; and just look at the nose-picking that goes on followed by food preparation and think how good that is for health. I think the only reason I don't get sick each day is because my stomach has changed and become "stronger." I would advise all first-time tourists to avoid street food unless you can see it "burned" in a wok before your eyes. If anything you get smells even a bit odd, do not eat it! Now about playing with the offending hot dog, somebody needs to follow that up with a good joke

[Darrel]

Yes, yes, street food with flies crawling over it and no running water to clean cutlery is much more sterile than a hot pizza fresh from the oven in an air-con place with a dishwashing machine.

The Manila pizza place I eat in didnt have air-con and probably didnt have a dishwashing machine. It was pretty classy though, at the time. The free doctor I saw (who, by the way, prescribed well-done toast and bananas, which worked incredibly well) said that nearly all the problems he saw stemmed from half-cooked food that was left lying around to be finished off later: like pizza toppings and BBQ buffets.

To be more precise about my diet here: I rarely eat meat at all and would never eat any sort of meat skewer no matter where it was from. I do eat plate-fulls of spicy seafood salads and noodles both from street vendors and cheap restaurants and none of them has ever made me ill. Probably because they dont hang around part-cooked for hours on end. Also seafood pad thai, seafood-balls and similar dishes, and lots of fried fish but not the sort that has a brown "batter" on it.

YMMV. I am not a doctor or a lawyer.

[mark45y]

Yes, yes, street food with flies crawling over it and no running water to clean cutlery is much more sterile than a hot pizza fresh from the oven in an air-con place with a dishwashing machine.

The Manila pizza place I eat in didnt have air-con and probably didnt have a dishwashing machine. It was pretty classy though, at the time. The free doctor I saw (who, by the way, prescribed well-done toast and bananas, which worked incredibly well) said that nearly all the problems he saw stemmed from half-cooked food that was left lying around to be finished off later: like pizza toppings and BBQ buffets.

To be more precise about my diet here: I rarely eat meat at all and would never eat any sort of meat skewer no matter where it was from. I do eat plate-fulls of spicy seafood salads and noodles both from street vendors and cheap restaurants and none of them has ever made me ill. Probably because they dont hang around part-cooked for hours on end. Also seafood pad thai, seafood-balls and similar dishes, and lots of fried fish but not the sort that has a brown "batter" on it.

YMMV. I am not a doctor or a lawyer.

The street vendors don't have access to toilets with toilet paper, or clean towels and soap to wash after pooping. So the poop gets in the food. Unless it is cooked very well you get sick from the Thai vendors poop. The doctor in Manila would have known this also if he requested you provide him a stool sample. If the doctor does not get a stool sample he is only guessing what you have anyway.

Thailand is a good 100 years away from having any adequate standards of sanitation.

[glomp]

Never got sick from the street food. The buffet where you cook stuff at your table gets me every time.

Nasty 10bath market food where the "meat" was boiled crushed bones never got to me. Tasty too.

[Tonto21]

Ask 100 people where they got food poisoning in Thailand and most will say "hamburgers", "hotdogs", "pizzas", "kebabs", "chicken skewers", "buffets" and all the other Western junk food. Hardly any of them will say "papaya salad vendors" or "noodle soup vendors".

Moral? Stay away from Western junk food and stick to proper cheap Thai food.

In 30+ years of eating street food in SE Asia I only ever got food poisoning once. Where? From a pizza place in Manila about 25 years ago.

YMMV

I agree with you on this, Western junk food cooked in Thailand, <deleted> stir-fries fish and chips? I’ve been lucky, only had the squirts a few times here in Thailand and I can put it down to western junk food.

[keestha]

Talking about food poisoning, please keep in mind that it can be that symptoms start 6 hours or more after eating the wrong food. The couple gets sick after eating in a restaurant, which is of course blamed for it, but in reality it is because of something they took out of their own fridge at midday.

Arriving in Paris at midday, I had lunch in an otherwise empty sidestreet restaurant, and I was stupid enough to order liver. My dinner was lambmeat in a packed Tunisian restaurant. About half of the following night I spent at the toilet in the hotel room, not difficult to pinpoint the source of the problem.

Edited March 14, 2011 by keestha

[F1fanatic]

Well, actually the last poisoned food was from a street vendor, after having seen almost everyone buying them, including local kids, none of them showing any problems afterwards, i dared to give them a try, those tipycall fried fish/meatballs, i just tasted them, in total it was less then a single ball what i had, but i felt so sick for 3 days, so no more of it for me and for sure, before that i got it from shell fish served at a local famous chain of restaurants, but this packaged food came as a surprise, i feel like i have a whole brick into my stomach and dizzy, from tomorrow i will get my food flyied into the country using "Markey's" private jet

I've had food poisoning a couple of times in Thailand and knew all about it! It hit v suddenly and I was continuously throwing up even when there was nothing left. Apologies to those who are eating!

The reason I mention this is because I think it might be worth your while seeing a doctor with a stool sample if it carries on for a couple of days. I came down with amoebic dysentery in the Phillipines and the distinguishing symptom I remember was being virtually unable to walk because of the pain - it felt as if I had a brick in my stomach.

[mark45y]

Well, actually the last poisoned food was from a street vendor, after having seen almost everyone buying them, including local kids, none of them showing any problems afterwards, i dared to give them a try, those tipycall fried fish/meatballs, i just tasted them, in total it was less then a single ball what i had, but i felt so sick for 3 days, so no more of it for me and for sure, before that i got it from shell fish served at a local famous chain of restaurants, but this packaged food came as a surprise, i feel like i have a whole brick into my stomach and dizzy, from tomorrow i will get my food flyied into the country using "Markey's" private jet

I've had food poisoning a couple of times in Thailand and knew all about it! It hit v suddenly and I was continuously throwing up even when there was nothing left. Apologies to those who are eating!

The reason I mention this is because I think it might be worth your while seeing a doctor with a stool sample if it carries on for a couple of days. I came down with amoebic dysentery in the Phillipines and the distinguishing symptom I remember was being virtually unable to walk because of the pain - it felt as if I had a brick in my stomach.

The stool sample is definitely the way to go but if you don't live in a large city that may mean waiting at the local hospital for hours while in pain and pooping and throwing up. The treatment for most food poisoning is the same so I do the easiest thing which is to pop antibiotics at the first sign of a problem. I realize this is stupid but it is the easy way out. I have also considered getting a pressure cooker. Normal boiling does not kill everything where a pressure cooker does. The only reason I have not purchased one so far is I am afraid of my Thai GF using it. She might hurt herself. Pressure fryers are even more dangerous and do a great job on chicken but I have never seen a home model.

[mstribling]

Funny. I was going to post how I have never had a problem eating anything here. Last night I got a bad case of gas from eating some spicy pork sausage.

[jdinasia]

Qyite often, people blame food poisoning on the last thing they ate. This simply is not usually an accurate way to determine causation. Food poisoning normally shows up in 2-6 hours BUT may take far longer.

Symptoms

The symptoms from the most common types of food poisoning generally start within 2 - 6 hours of eating the food. That time may be longer (even a number of days) or shorter, depending on the cause of the food poisoning.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001652.htm

When I moved to Thailand I got sick every 3 months for the first year (twice requiring IV fluids) the doctor I saw suggested that it wasn't actual food poisoning and instead was a reaction to foreign bacteria that my body was building up immunities to. I remarked that it sounded like he was saying the same thing bacteria caused food poisoning. He waffled a bit and then told me it was and was not the same because in a few months I would stop having these reactions. He was right, after a year of living here I stopped getting sick. I have been sick once since then from food poisoning symptoms, I couldn't tell you if it was KFC that did it, or fruit from a market, or any other directly attributable source. I got sick. If other people are not getting sick from the same food source it probably isn't actually true food poisoning.

BTW -- I had food poisoning once in the US and had to be hospitalized for it. 20 other people got sick from the same restaurant and the place was shut down for 2 weeks for inspections.

[thaipod]

The several years of living here I've had serious food poisoning at least 7-8 times where twice had to go to hospital , most of the time it's been what my wife calls famous eating places she has been told about or write ups in famous magazines .

The last time was a well known restaurant in Pattaya after eating a hamburger which I believe had been defrosted several times .

Some of the scenes I 've seen in so called restuarants in thailand looking into kitchens makes me freak out with dogs and cats licking plates ,so called cooks in dirty clothes with aprons that are full of bacteria and fungal infested chopping boards, with food not kept in the right temperture and seafood in contaminated ice. The list goes on.

Now I always have carbon tablets and other meds for food poisoning both at home and when I travel also in the car .

[mstribling]

Never watch your food being cooked or your house being built. It will keep your panties from riding up.

Unfortunately In Asia we get to see what is going on in the kitchen.

[tim armstrong]

I've had it maybe once in almost 10 years here, from a roadside restaurant, where it had been sitting half the day. My own fault, but hungry at the time. Street vendors - no problem, but I always try to get the food cooked while you wait.The same in restaurants.

I notice lately that the popularity of Sushi is increasing at street vendors and in Big C shopping malls. But there doesn't seem to be much ice used to keep it cool. That must be a prime breeding ground for the bad bacteria.

[surayu]

Talking about food poisoning, please keep in mind that it can be that symptoms start 6 hours or more after eating the wrong food. The couple gets sick after eating in a restaurant, which is of course blamed for it, but in reality it is because of something they took out of their own fridge at midday.

Trust me, i am quite sure of which food caused my problem, anyway i have been lucky as i started feeling better as soon as i throwed it out, some food can start make you feeling ill much faster then the 6 hours you mention, as in this case....