Street Food: What to Avoid/Advice...

[NickJ]

The Bangkok Post did and expose in the Outlook section in the early ninties. The Dept of Public Health sent ten ten man teams to ten diffrent Bangkok locations. Each team member was responsible for measuring/testing one item....then they let the results be known. Its been awhile but I remember the fresh orange juice was measured to have a super super high level human feces,e-coli....the fish balls they said had 150x the safe level of preservative in them and they stated that they were so full of chemicals they didnt ever need to be refriderated.......And.....swabbing the "clean" plates and utensils and culturing the samples showed that you were exposed to dozens of pathogens........Anyways....I could never eat street food.....with that sais I have been made sick from some pretty hi end hotels......

[SiSePuede419]

KFC. It tastes good when you're eating it, but an hour later your stomach will regret it (rancid oil, carginogenic because overheated beyond smoking temperature)....

[stoneyboy]

I eat it everywhere and all the time I'm still alive to tell the tale.

35 baht dishes with all the fat thrown in for good measure.

Basic Thai food that's food that the majority of Thais eat daily is of very poor quality IMHO but it's delicious to them as its all they know.

Also beyond Pad Krapow moo and Khao Moo Deang and Geang Kia Wan food of the rural folk is much more basic and less known to the average tourist.

Bamboo curries,Gaeng Som etc etc some smells putrid and looks hideous but to them it's very tasty.

Westernised Thai Food as I call it is a mile away from what average joe here eats in all honesty.

Worry less and eat more,sample taste spit it out if need be but never be afraid to give it a go.

[SoiBiker]

Interesting that you'd call better quality food 'westernised' - especially considering that huge quantities of people in the west live on poor-quality frozen crap.

[stoneyboy]

Interesting that you'd call better quality food 'westernised' - especially considering that huge quantities of people in the west live on poor-quality frozen crap.

Fair comment maybe I was talking solely about the way I westernise my Thai food,example I only use chicken breast in a Thai green curry I'm not interested in the innards feet or bones like most Thais know.

Laarb Moo I love it but I want decent minced pork no skin blood or offal like lots of rural folk eat and I prefer my minced pork cooked.

I'm sure you get the gist.

As for frozen food I couldn't agree more,it's literally non existent here.

[stoneyboy]

I forgot to add also that the better quality food you speak of is like rocking horse shit where I live,are you in a tourist area by any chance,because it's possible to take out ten people for a meal including beers and whisky and still have change from 5000 baht.

I mean I've paid 60 quid for a steak in the UK lol.

[SoiBiker]

I'm in Bangkok. I wouldn't call it a 'tourist area' - a hell of a lot of Thai people live here.

[smokie36]

I'm in Bangkok. I wouldn't call it a 'tourist area' - a hell of a lot of Thai people live here.

There are places I know to have my krapow gai rather than moo for the reason stones says above....I am not a fan of gristle and fat....and yes its an area of Bangkok not many of us are around.

This is from a haggis muncher....and I am a fan of that....but in small doses....so I agree with both of you....always give it a try!

[Razzler1973]

I have eaten street food in Thailand for nearly 20 years and never been sick once

Busy stalls, empty ones in the middle of nowhere and nearly all top notch. Consistently good

One question though. The Khao Gairng curry over rice food stalls ... I have seen them setting up and laying out all their food. It's clear this is some kind of chain and that this food is made centrally and distributed to various stalls but does anyone know where they make it, is it actually a chain of food stalls all interconnected or some kind of 'franchise'

[scapegoat]

In years of eating from street carts I've never gotten sick. The only time I've gotten food poisoning was from a western breakfast in a seaside cafe owned by an Englishman.