Food In Thailand - What To Buy

[The Snark]

Thailand is still entirely oriented to local market shopping. Buy it fresh, take it home and prepare it. Food preservation is only just coming into its own, and often in ways you do not want. Reliable refrigeration has only been around for 20 years. Refrigeratied distribution of foods is still almost non existent at present.

ALL foods that can rot quickly are suspect. This is especially so with meats. Thorough cooking will kill bacteria but will not remove the toxins the bacteria has left.

Some companys, businesses are capitalizing on using food preservatives. They can and do use any chemical under the sun, many of which you do not want to eat. Ever bought meats or some select commercial produce and noticed an odd metallic odor? That's formaldehyde. But one example.

Two easy and simple ways to protect yourself:

ALWAYS SUSPECT meats. The larger the company, the better chance of the food being spoiled. Try to buy local whenever possible.

The McDouche. AKA pink slime mark 2 method. Buy citric acid. It is available at many large commercial food centers and chemical supply houses. Soak any food that you suspect might not be fresh for at least 20 minutes. Even meat. Rinse thoroughly with drinking water. This is the method Mc and other garbage purveyors have turned to since the recent semi poisonous pink slime was brought to light. Rinse your veggies in the acid. Rinse anything and everything, including your hands. One heaping tablespoon in a liter of water. For seriously suspect foods, use up to 3 tablespoons.

The acid kills nearly all common bacteria outright. It then invades the cell walls. No bacteria can grow in a Ph under 3.0. Citric acid in low concentrations is non toxic to humans and the commonest source of vitamin C. (Though not the best source)

Use citric acid solution to rinse your counters. Your dishes and cutlery. Anywhere you think bacteria might grow. Beats the heck out of sitting on the can and feeling like the Space Shuttle on take off.

[BookMan]

How does the citric acid affect the taste of the food?

[Scully]

When in Issan my ex girlfriend always bought her meat from an old lady that she had bought off for 20 years.

Always fresh and slaughtered on that day.

This was from the day tallad and these market traders need to make money so don't make a habbit of poisoning their customers.

The pigs head should always be on show so you can look into It's eyes and estimate when it last grunted

[The Snark]

How does the citric acid affect the taste of the food?

It can be rinsed out almost completely. It is commonly used in many processed foods as a preservative. It is the slightly tart taste that may be noticed in anything from hot dogs to various drinks to lunch meats to ice creams. It has no significant odor so the flavor will be very subtle.

Scully made an excellent point. When a certain part of the anatomy is on display with the meat... This is an ancient custom common throughout Asia and known to have been used in China for over 2000 years. Also, in certain areas, one may find a foot of the animal on display. This is so customers can tell rabbit from cat from dog from rat and so on.

[pigeonjake]

once youve been here a while your tummy tends to get used to a bit of bacteria,,lol,

we get all our food fresh, from the mkts,

jake

[h90]

"No bacteria can grow in a Ph under 3.0."

That is complete nonsense. A lot bacteria can live far below....but they don't harm.

[The Snark]

"No bacteria can grow in a Ph under 3.0."

That is complete nonsense. A lot bacteria can live far below....but they don't harm.

I stand corrected. I was speaking of the USDA requirement for food processing where, if complete sterilization in packing procedures are not implimented, the Ph of the food material must not be above 3.2

[londoedan]

"No bacteria can grow in a Ph under 3.0."

That is complete nonsense. A lot bacteria can live far below....but they don't harm.

He's right you know - they're called acidophiles - fascinating organisms and this group may well hold some of the clues to the origin of life on this plant and whether other planets can support life.

[pigeonjake]

bloody hell i thought for a mad miute then there was going to be aguing over bacteria,,lol

[elektrified]

once youve been here a while your tummy tends to get used to a bit of bacteria,,lol,

we get all our food fresh, from the mkts,

jake

That is not true. I've been here 5 years and always have issues with the food and subsequent stomach problems and I'm a very picky eater. The g/f's brother is 35 and always has to be careful what he eats. He is Thai and has lived here all his life. He won't eat food prepared in roadside stalls, in fact he eats very little Thai food and never eats chiles.

[h90]

"No bacteria can grow in a Ph under 3.0."

That is complete nonsense. A lot bacteria can live far below....but they don't harm.

He's right you know - they're called acidophiles - fascinating organisms and this group may well hold some of the clues to the origin of life on this plant and whether other planets can support life.

At university I was fascinated that our professor told us that some sulfur acid bottle are infected (can't recall if in our university or somewhere else) and the concentration sulfur acid is slowly going down.

he used that to bait us....high temperature, acid, heavy metals, a lot weird (by our standards) bacterias around us.

They split away from us in the very early days of evolution and developed very different.

ph 3 is no challenge to them...but they won't like the organic stuff...

[kblaze]

Ok, so the headline of this thread is misleading, i thought i was going to learn what food to buy here.. But I guess im grateful to have learned about the wonders of citric acid.

Also; Scully that bit about "...so you can look into the pig's eyes and estimate the last time it grunted" made me lol.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

How about what NOT to buy...

This is an except of an article in The Nation recently that was posted in another thread...

[Semper]

once youve been here a while your tummy tends to get used to a bit of bacteria,,lol,

we get all our food fresh, from the mkts,

jake

That is not true. I've been here 5 years and always have issues with the food and subsequent stomach problems and I'm a very picky eater. The g/f's brother is 35 and always has to be careful what he eats. He is Thai and has lived here all his life. He won't eat food prepared in roadside stalls, in fact he eats very little Thai food and never eats chiles.

I've been here 12 years and never had any issues with my stomach. Maybe the the cause to your problems could be that you're a "picky eater" and your stomach have no chance of getting used to the bacteria?

[pigeonjake]

i agree, i do really think you need a bit of bacteria in there,

you need bacteria in your stomock,good bacteria,

[rsokolowski]

once youve been here a while your tummy tends to get used to a bit of bacteria,,lol,

we get all our food fresh, from the mkts,

jake

When I have visited we always bought the meat from the market in the morning (Lahansai, Buriram). You should be able to look at the meat (or smell it) and be able to figure out if it is fresh or not. I agree with Jake, fresh meats are better.

[mr3cho]

What are the most common types of food contanination here? Salmonella, E.Coli, and Rota?

I've been here 2 years and have had 5-6 cases of food poisoning. The latest from eating packaged luncheon meat. Violent vomitting, diarrhea ... it wasn't pretty at all.

[Semper]

What are the most common types of food contanination here? Salmonella, E.Coli, and Rota?

I've been here 2 years and have had 5-6 cases of food poisoning. The latest from eating packaged luncheon meat. Violent vomitting, diarrhea ... it wasn't pretty at all.

Have you tried eating "normal' food?

[F1fanatic]

What are the most common types of food contanination here? Salmonella, E.Coli, and Rota?

I've been here 2 years and have had 5-6 cases of food poisoning. The latest from eating packaged luncheon meat. Violent vomitting, diarrhea ... it wasn't pretty at all.

Have you tried eating "normal' food?

I suspect its more that he's not used to the various bacteria etc. in Thai foods, as he's only lived here 2 years.

When I first moved here, I had the same problem but now that I've lived here several years, the tummy upsets are far less frequent and far more mild.

Elektriefied - you may suffer from IBS if your tummy problems are lasting for such a long period of time.

[elektrified]

What are the most common types of food contanination here? Salmonella, E.Coli, and Rota?

I've been here 2 years and have had 5-6 cases of food poisoning. The latest from eating packaged luncheon meat. Violent vomitting, diarrhea ... it wasn't pretty at all.

Have you tried eating "normal' food?

I suspect its more that he's not used to the various bacteria etc. in Thai foods, as he's only lived here 2 years.

When I first moved here, I had the same problem but now that I've lived here several years, the tummy upsets are far less frequent and far more mild.

Elektriefied - you may suffer from IBS if your tummy problems are lasting for such a long period of time.

I don't have IBS. The food preparation here is very sketchy; chicken is not handled properly, cooking utensils not properly cleaned, etc. I eat at home 80% of the time and avoid problems for the most part.

[Seismic]

When I am working in West Africa, our onboard medic always ensures that any vegetables and fruit are washed in a potassium permanganate solution before we store them in the cold stores.

I would think this would work here as well. As for meat, I would think a citric solution or simply taking the hit and buying from the more 'expensive' stores would work.

[notmyself]

Can't remember the last time I had bad guts.

[somtumlion]

Never had any problem with meats bought at the local market. But have gotten rank smelling meat many times from the "Modern" supermarkets...

[Semper]

Can't remember the last time I had bad guts.

Same here. But I have to admit that there is no point in bringing reading material when I visit the loo, as the 'business' won't last more than 2 minutes.

But I wouldn't call it food poisoning.

Edited October 7, 2012 by Semper

[nisakiman]

once youve been here a while your tummy tends to get used to a bit of bacteria,,lol,

we get all our food fresh, from the mkts,

jake

That is not true. I've been here 5 years and always have issues with the food and subsequent stomach problems and I'm a very picky eater. The g/f's brother is 35 and always has to be careful what he eats. He is Thai and has lived here all his life. He won't eat food prepared in roadside stalls, in fact he eats very little Thai food and never eats chiles.

That's probably why he, and you, have problems.

You build up a resistance to many of the less virulent bacteria in food - if you allow your body to do so. I've always eaten food from roadside stalls, from when I was in Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent in the 60s to Thailand these days. Sure, I get the occasional case of the squits, but nothing serious, and not often. And your g/f's brother is missing a trick if he doesn't eat chillies - they are a natural internal disinfectant. He'd probably have far fewer problems if he ate chillies the way most Thais do.