We were advised by someone on this message board to avoid the street food, but fortunately for us, we didn't listen. The first thing we tried was sticky rice and banana wrapped in palm fronds and it was so fabulous that we couldn't wait to try more! As long as you can see what they're cooking and know that it's fresh and not fly-ridden, etc, it should be fine. Not one of the 4 of us got sick from anything we ate or drank.
And if you're a true traveler, you'll get yourselves out of the hotels and find restaurants where the non-tourists eat. The food is terrific everywhere, not to mention cheap! It was hard to come home to San Francisco Bay Area prices.

patt, I couldn't agree more! I always try the street food ( or as my thai friend calls it " footpath " food ) and it completely different to food we all know. If you are diligent about which ones you choose you will have a great experience. There are plenty on this forum who will advise against it and I can understand that but I have no problems and will keep it up. Cheers!

You never know who reads the forum and what someone will or will not do if he/she gets sick.

I'll tell people I eat from street vendors all the time with no problem, but I'll never tell people to "go for it!"

how can you tell it's fresh? just b/c you see them cooking it? It sounds so tasty..but nervous to eat something wrong and have my whole trip ruined! Are there good restaurants off the beaten (tourist) track which are reliable (if you had to pick 1 or 2 spots).

Just curious, but what makes you think that just because someone has a storefront, it is safer than the food from vendors? Why do you imagine a difference? I'm not trying to argue - just a question. Because I think this anti-street food thing is more cultural than health oriented.

I generally judge a places "safety" by the number of locals I see eating there. If lots of locals are lined up or the place is packed, it's probably a safe bet. They wouldn't keep coming back if it was making them sick. On the other hand, I don't assume that a place packed with tourists is safe. They may only eat their once, so who knows if they will get sick or not. I learned this the hard way in Mexico

First of all the locals can eat at many of these street stalls because their system is used to the common bacteria and other organisms present. Second there really is no way to know if the food they are cooking is fresh- how long has that food been out in the heat?
These stalls do not have any refrigeratiuon? Also how do they clean their cooking/serving utensils? Do you think they have have hot water/soap to clean them all day long? Bottomn line if you take a chance on eating from these stalls you are throwing the dice on your vacation and praying it does not come up snake eyes! To the poster who says- how do we know these store fronts (restaurants?) are clean- well we don't know but of course you stand a much better chance at a restaurant that an open air stall. There will always be some risk where ever you go- its all about taking prudent risks- and eating at stalls, IMHO, is not prudent.

I would agree with BillT. From my research, I have heard the number one problem with street food is the lack of clean water to wash dishes/utensils. Number two would be spoiled ingredients.

This being said, I think some common sense could be employed, if you really want to enjoy street food. First, patt711 talked about sticky rice and banana wraped in palm fronds. This is something I would probably "risk" with street food - no ingredients that tend to spoil, and not served on reusable plates with utensils. I might question getting chicken stir fry from a street vendor.

In HK, we ate this fried dough stuff from street vendors b/c we saw it deep fried right in front of us, and it was then served in plastic bags.

Of course, I could have made up this "criteria" just to make myself feel better. This is coming from the person that forgot about the water restrictions in BKK the very first day and brushed her teeth with tap water. Needless to say, 4 days later, I was very ill and it took a month to completely clear up the parasite AND bacteria I contracted. That being said, I have not been scared off of BKK and will probably break down and sample some street food on our next trip because it just looks and smells too good to pass up!

Hello - thought I'd better pipe up re. rice.

Rice is one of the things you should be very wary of when buying from the street. When I worked in Asia and Africa as a volunteer, we were told that rice was a "high risk" food to buy from a street vendor (or eat at a buffet). We were educated about such things because in the rural areas we were in, there were no restaurants as such, we had to eat from the street vendors or cook our own if we had the equipment. From a microbiological perspective, rice is a breeding ground for bacteria when left to go lukewarm (or cold) as it commonly is. So unless you have watched the rice come out of the oven or cooking utensil I wouldn't eat it. The same goes at home - don't keep rice until the next day, cook fresh. I wouldn't touch the stuff at a buffet either and if it comes to your table in a large pot and is lukewarm - send back for fresh whatever country you are in.

Restaurants have a cleanliness problem in Pittsburgh, .

Make sure you get Hep A and Hep B immunizations, liver disease is a bad thing. And, get an antibiotic from your doc that would be useful in case of a GI bug.

Then, enjoy the local street food.

The greatest risks from food are risks associated with cleaniless - and not necessarily cleanliness of dishes and utensils. It is handwashing that is the greatest preventative in spreading Hep A and typhoid. These are diseases that are spread by the oral-fecal route, so whether there are handwashing facilities for the people making and serving the food is the biggest factor. (As others have mentioned, spoilage of food is also a factor for other kinds of GI upsets.)

Thus, "street food" is more risky simply because of lack of handwashing facilities. Of course, in a store front, having handwashing facilities is not a guarantee that the employees use the facilities, but do increase your odds of cleanliness wherever you can.

Many GI upsets are caused by unfamiliar food, spices or the local bacterial fauna and flora. Antibiotics are useful only when a serious stomach upset that is caused by a bacteria threatens one's ability to stay hydrated. Antibiotics are not a cure-all for GI upsets and can make some worse. so don't think that because you have antibiotics you can eat whaever you want and treat away any after effects.

I'm glad you didn't have problems, patt, but that doesn't mean that someone else might not becaome very ill eating at the same stall.

Kathie- excellent point about the hand washing- no one at the stalls washes their hands - so the risk here is high compared with restaruants.

the last time i had an unpleasant dining experience was finding a cockroach in my bowl of wuntun min(after i ate half of it) in a downtown chinatown restaurant in honolulu. quite a well known place. i think even ht dined there.

as far as rice, i've eaten cold rice all my life and never got sick once. i guess i'm immune to whatever bugs cold rice harbors. fortunately now, we have rice cookers with fuzzy logic that will keep rice edible for a few days. but i also believe the quality of rice determines how long the cooked rice will be edible.

i love street food, but not all street food. i don't like green papaya salad so i won't eat that, but i love the stir fried squid with spicy veg. over rice topped with an overeasy. i also loved the meat on bamboo stick that orgy once bought me. i didn't know what it was, and didn't care to ask. it was delicious.

Lets see - stall food consisting of cold rice, seafood with an over easy egg- I don't know how you add much more risk into this concoction?

I've eaten a lot of street food here & never had a problem. Last time I had food poisoning was from a Big Mac in Oklahoma.

I think you can find 100 people that have eaten stall food and not had a problem- but do you want to risk your $5,000 vacation on the theory that 100 people were fine so it must be ok? If you happen to be the one that does get affected- there you are sitting in your hotel room two steps from the bathroom- kicking yourself.

Not that I would recommend that anyone eat any food with bacteria; but, does anyone know of charcoal tablets that are supposed to be a sort of an intestinal filter, warding off stomach upsets? I presume that you take them as a penetrative. I have not done any other research on this subject and should probably ask a pharmacist.

I've heard something like that too, but can't imagine that charcoal would really kill bacteria.

As far as hand washing goes, don't they have sinks wherever these vendors use the restroom? What would make them any less likely to wash afterward than someone at a restaurant? I'm guessing none of them really wash that well. Most people in restaurants in the states don't really wash as often or as well as they should. I've worked in many restaurants and have horror stories. Although I've been horribly sick twice in Mexico, both times came from eating at high end establishments. I refuse to worry about it. If something looks good and fresh and is populare with the locals, then I just might give it a try.

We selectively eat street food in BKK. My son and his wife ate everything. No tummy problems at all. I don't remember reading any posts of people who have gotten sick eating street food. Does anyone remember any such post?

Yes I remember a few- there was a guy who ate seafood just before his flight and bingo on the plane he had a real problem. Ok here is another way to look at the subject- do a risk/benefit analysis. What is the upside benefit compared to the downside risk. Does the risk out weigh the benefit? If in your opinion it does then mimimize your risk by avoidng the stalls. If the benefits out weigh the risk of your spending a good part of your vacation in a hotel room or worse then by all means Bon Appetite!