Somtam lovers warned

[NickJ]

Eat out sometimes....I have a bunch of pappaya trees....so free somtam.....best kitchen in Thailand....mine.....armchair chef....

[Bernard Flint]

Somtam is devil food made by Thais for Thais or masochists. Burned my mouth apart trying a bit of my girlfriend's. And I have never had squits like I have had in Thailand before. Got so sick I had to stop the car immediately by the side of the road jump out and puke. Having said that I have eaten at her family's home and had some amazing food in LOS.

Sir

I love somtam, very spicy too, never had a problem, with food poisoning. Thai food is amazing, both issan, and south thailand are good too

[jerojero]

Why is this news? Food Safety is suspect all around Thailand, all the time. You pays yours money's and you's takes yours chances.

[asdecas]

Khai Kem is my favorite Som Tam with Lab Moo on the side. If you really want it right you need to the northeast.

You seem to be under a misapprehension. Som Tam is not salty egg, nor is it minced pork, Esaan-style. And you do not have to go to Esaan to eat it, half of Esaan lives in Bangkok most of the year.

[billphillips]

Perhaps the solution to checking if the suspect Thai food is ok or not, would be to smell it. If it smells off .... don't eat it. 55555

[maoro2013]

How would anyone know how many cases of diarrhoea have been it is normally a home treated issue.

Maybe they are talking about dysentery.

[Songhua]

Going overland to India in 1970 we got ' Delhi Belly'

' The Darjeeling Feeling '

The Shalamar shakes and The Tabritz Squits

Are there similar conditions to get over here ?

The Hualampong Heave, 'take a Din Daeng dump' or the Chonburi Chunder.

[mikebell]

If my wife disobeys my wishes through craving for this vile smelling muck, an exclusion order is cast round my bed for 72 hours. If I smell it on a waitress/bargirl/go-go dancer - no tip.

[lemonjelly]

Som Tam Thai I would guess is pretty innocuous, but Som Tam Bpu? How anyone eats that is beyond me

I like all the variations - especially som tam bpoo phra raa.

I just love those little crabs, that unique fermented preserved fish flavor. I eat spicier than Mrs. BB too. Even many of my Thai friends don't like that.

All down to personal taste.

Aaahh..... be careful of pla raa... if prepared traditionally (ie not boiled) can be full of liver fluke and Nitosamine ..... you really don't want that, believe me.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/Udon-Thani-has-highest-rate-of-liver-fluke-cancer--30141691.html

[HaleySabai]

SomTam is an awesome salad, if you know how to order it to suit your constitution.

Play it safe kiddies...hamburgers & fries ......

[ALFREDO]

Som Tam Thai I would guess is pretty innocuous, but Som Tam Bpu? How anyone eats that is beyond me

Som Tam Poo Pa Ra....you may as well just go and take a spoon and eat from the nearest toilet bowl! In fact eating Human Faeces is probably less risky, how many people have ended up in ER after blowing a Ladyboy compared to eating that little delicacy?

Does anyone remember a case a few years back near Chiang Rai where loads of these idiots were dying and sick after they caught or killed some deer like animal and put it into black plastic bin bags until it festered in the hot sun then proceeded to make some sort of "LAARB" from it....there were loads in hospital, nothing better for Sunday Lunch than a rancid piece of raw road kill! Darwin really was correct, it is just a pity that good money is spent by hospitals trying to revive these idiots.

Maybe Thailand should stamp every Thai I.D With "DO NOT RESUCITATE"

You have some funny thoughts -Vogele123-

"how many people have ended up in ER after blowing a Ladyboy compared to eating that little delicacy?"

lol,

Reading that thread, I remember that sorry, probably =Som Tam death=

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/127035-swedish-man-found-dead-after-eating-spicy-som-tam/

[gk10002000]

of course the general lack of hand washing santation doesn't help.

[gk10002000]

AFAICT, the average Thai seems to have some kind of phobia about refrigerating things.

But, of all the Thai food things and practices to get concerned about, I don't quite understand why som tam, at least som tom Thai, belongs on the list.

Unlike a lot of the raw food ingredients and cooked dishes that sit out and sit around un-refrigerated for hours and hours at food courts, supermarkets and street food carts, som tam Thai is usually prepared fresh to order. And most places only shred so much papaya in advance, and what they shred usually goes pretty fast. So it's not like the main ingredients are sitting around rotting all day. What else, roasted peanuts, freshly sliced tomatoes, some chilis, fresh cut limes and the freshly prepared sauce. That normally isn't going to have the makings of a rotting, bacteria laden dish.

But compare that with the roasted chickens or stir fried pork dishes or curry sauce dishes that sit out all day at supermarkets in packages or in trays at food courts, or the raw meats that hang for hours in the streetside cards waiting to be used little by little through the evening. It's those kinds of things where it seems to me the likelihood of bacterial illness is more likely to occur.

I've only gotten seriously sick one time in Thailand that I can recall from eating food, and that occurred just after buying and eating a cooked meat and rice dish that had been sitting packaged on the ready-to-eat section of one of the major Thai supermarket chains. Ever since that pretty bad episode -- and by that I mean much worse than diarrhea -- I avoid the pre-prepared, unrefrigerated stuff entirely.

I watched a documentary film a few years ago. The Thai food vendor said, No!, don't make cold. Bacteria only sleep! So they turn on one little 30 watt light bulb and let the bacteria and protein stew at just above room temperature which is the perfect breeding environment for bacteria.

[Rogergreybeard]

Simple, pick your nose, throw a few buuggers around, use hands to blow snot out of nose,go for crap, don't wash hands, then mix the mince or prepare meat and salads, buy meat and chop up in the heat then sit on filthy table under hot light in market near open sewage drain and covered with flies use the same motor and pestal over and over again without washing and the list goes on and on and on,happy eating,oh there is one place i eat at in Chaing Mai that is spotless all stainless benches and the broth is kept at the correct temp.and the staff wash their hands regularly, i eat there never been crook

[SiSePuede419]

Just ate some Nam bpluu yesterday, with sticky rice and fresh bambo. It was black, salty and spicy. Not a fork or spoon in sight.

Today, I had mild constipation.

Wimps.

[wow64]

There should also be a warning that it ruins relationships.... The farts it causes are enough reason for a divorce.

Sent from my c64