Street Food- what is the safest?

machadinha · Mar 21st, 2008, 07:07

So let me see: You guys spray yourself against mosquitoes in the airport, use hand sanitizers before touching any food, and so on?

One sometimes wishes the web had never been invented, it's true. But, er, hey, do as you like, of course. It can't hurt, I'm quite sure.

(Although I often honestly wonder why visit a place one perceives to be so problematic, but oh well. If it's danger you want there are other destinations than well-trodden India you know.)

kristinm · Mar 21st, 2008, 07:51

No mosquito spray

I don't quite understand the problem with hand sanitiser. Its amazing stuff - so practical and easy to carry...I don't think its offensive, I don't find it offensive when people who come to my house wash their hands before they eat. It's silly & self destructive not to acknowledge that you have no resistance to bugs in a place that is not your home, I'm sure many Indians get sick when they come here and are exposed to our terrible flu and cold bugs.

If people find that offensive I wonder how they feel about the Japanese tourists I saw wearing face masks - they wear them here too, and I have never found it offensive.

We never ever got sick and as I said we ate everything -

We are talking about street food..which you eat with your hands and then lick your fingers - try not licking your fingers after a hot jalebi!!!. Of course if there is a basin and towel and soap available we would use that - in a restaurant or home.

Mostly in a market or street there is no water and its messy to pour water from your water bottle over yourselves & then wipe your hands on your clothes, it just turns the dirt on your hands into mud... and after a few hours of traipsing around, picking things up and putting them down, sitting down on steps shaking everyone's hands, handling money and so on your hands are filthy - have a look at the dirt that comes off when you wash them.

Don't you wash your hands before you eat at home??? I thought everyone did..? I know Indians do, it would be extremely rude to eat in an Indian home or restaurant and not wash your hands first. Hand sanitiser is just an easy, dry way to do it, and if there are bugs for which you have no resistance then it may get rid of them... its also handy for treating scratches and grazes. in fact more than once at a street stall Indian women asked ne about it and borrowed some to squirt on their kids hands or their own..

Can I just ask what it is that you do Macha before you eat? Not wash at all...? Wipe your hands on a passing dog or on your clothes? Or are you just so macho that dirt is frightened of YOU!

And just by the way - wasn't it you who was criticising others for personal attacks just a few posts ago?

machadinha · Mar 21st, 2008, 08:08

Sorry, I didn't mean to make fun of you, and good for you.

One just can't help but being a little amazed with some questions and reports here sometimes. Makes you wonder why go out there at all. To be able to say I braved India without the India? No one forces you to go there. (And I'm not addressing you, Kristin, it's just a general reflection.)

Yes, of course one washes one's hands before and after eating, more diligently so than where I live was my obversation in India. Even the simplest of places will provide a basin for the purpose.

As for eating street food, I was just never very paranoid about it no. If that's good or bad I'll leave up to you. Having some kids in tow I'd be more careful with it no doubt. Just remember being taken to an exotic place like Spain as a kid in my time would inspire the exact same concerns: But!! What about the water!! etc. And the chillies!! Which are commonplace in western cuisine now of course. But anyway all those cautions (on women's safety and stuff too no doubt, and you know those Latin men's reputation...) would be no different than today if you mean to go to somewhere as exotic as India, lord forbid.

Even today in Spain, you'll have the choice of either bottled or chlorinated tap water there. Yes, that's what travel there is like. If you don't like it, don't go there. There'll be overpriced tourist joints to suit you no matter what your needs though, and a bad imitation of a pizza is never hard to cook up.

kristinm · Mar 21st, 2008, 08:16

You should see the look on our Japanese homestay student's faces when we go to a football match and they are handed a sausage and sauce in a breadroll or a meat pie covered in tomato sauce..its priceless. We weren't paranoid about street food - no more than here, I would never eat a plate of warm food that had been sitting around in a Bain Marie in an unpatronised food outlet - in Sydney, Mumbai or anywhere else - you'd have to be mad! Follow the crowd is always a good bet - there is a reason why one samosa whallah has a queue up the road and the other one has just a few flies buzzing around!

PeakXV · Mar 21st, 2008, 08:33

Each time I pass anywhere near a street food vendor the server starts twirling the dreaded 'dirty wiping cloth' around like some sort of baton at an Easter Parade. Ain't no hand washing or sanitary wipes in the world going to save you from getting the 'Great Indian Kennel Cough' if he passes that 'live culture' over your feast-to-be.

kristinm · Mar 21st, 2008, 08:37

We have a law here that requires people serving food to wear rubber gloves - and they do mostly and then they take the money in the same pair, open the till in them, wipe the benches in them, make the next sandwich in them - probably go to the toilet in them!!!

Gardener972 · Mar 21st, 2008, 08:58

I'm guessing it's not different anywhere in the world. One should eat cooked food only, now raw like lettuce, etc. On one trip to Mexico, we had lots of street food but what got us was the brushing of our teeth with tap water. WRONG! Chai would be OK as long as it's piping hot and you've seen it being made. Raw fruit is OK too as long as YOU peel it. I had raw unpeeled fruit from the market in India but I soaked it for about an hour in boiled & then cooled water with a few drops of grapefruit seed extract which is supposed to kill all kinds of bacteria. It's also a good idea to take 5 drops of that in water daily. You can also get it in capsule form too.

Munivar · Mar 21st, 2008, 09:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by kristinm

...I'm sure many Indians get sick when they come here and are exposed to our terrible flu and cold bugs....

I know this is generalisation, but Indians in the US do believe that they have higher immunity and not get sick that often as in India.

It has worked out for me. I haven't been sick even once in my 5+ years in the US..occasional cold/running nose once a year that I let go by itself. I haven't been to a doctor or have take any medication in these five years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by the opoponax

I would guess that devout Brahmins probably don't eat street food, no.

Devout anybody won't eat street food. I guess it all depends on person to person and the mood that person may be in at that time.

If I am hungry and don't have time to bother finding a restaurant..and I see a meals on wheels buzzing with people...I take a look and if it is freshly made and no insects dead in the sambhar/chutney...heck I am eating it.

Tea/Coffee has never been a problem..it is boiled. Also idli cuz it's steamed.

I don't eat fried stuff on the street...but that's because I don't eat them in my home too.

Aishah · Mar 21st, 2008, 09:13

Get sick, not get sick - just something one can't generalise about, everyone is so individual. Some people only have to look at something, breathe the air, and they get sick, others can eat anything without a qualm. So as far as street food goes, use your commonsense - if a stall is well frequented by many people and the food is cooked on the spot and not just re-heated, generally o.k. Buy your own fruit and eat that. Chai is o.k. anywhere - all that boiling up kills anything.
As for which locals, caste-wise , eat street food, here in my experience anyone from any caste will eat street food if they fancy it. Caste doesn't come into the equation at all.

camelgirl · Mar 21st, 2008, 09:32

Our rules for street food are the usual. Chai is always OK (even in those dirty looking chipped glasses or cups), and fruit you peel yourself & the vendor doesn't handle the part you will eat or put water over it, anything cooked right in front of you and put directly on a plate (not too clean plate or leaf still OK) and not touched by vendor.

You are not likely to get sick from street food, it's the vendors hands. It's the reason people get sick in the most expensive restaurants in India (statistically, quite as often as budget travelers!)--good food, bad food handlers. That's true all over the world and why there are all those signs in toilets in the US saying employees must wash their hands!!

My husband rarely follows the above, just has to have that carrot or whatever and he often gets sick

never learns, can't help himself! Oh well!

PeakXV · Mar 21st, 2008, 10:01

So I guess the answer is to "what is the safest street food" is: if the handler's hands are clean, and your hands are clean, and the 'dirty wiping cloth' isn't too dirty and the pots all have covers to prevent, among other thingies, the errant betel hawker-sputtam from touching-down then it's pretty much like the family picnic

g ..... now will somebody get me a frickin cold lager with that street khanna!

SPACEBUM · Mar 21st, 2008, 10:44

I ate some indian street food when in the bus between cities. Some dal, some rice and vegetables. No problems whatsoever. Then at the next stop I bought from a roadside kitchen some rice, some curry and a tomato salad (cooked specifically at my request), also no problems. Ate coconuts and potato also on the street, also bananas. Drank fresh juices on the street. Well, I think you can eat whatever cooked meal you like safely, but stay away from non-bottled water as tap water is IMO for Indian stomach only. Also fruit and vegetables may be a problem, though it my case it was allright. Street kitchens and small roadside cafes use normal utensils (and contrary to what you could have imagined, not their bare hands) to distribute portions and cooked meals get disinfected by the cooking process itself. I guess any processed food is therefore 100% safe.

I think if you have some activated fiber with you, just in case your stomach doesn't like the food, you are safe to eat anything except tap water (which they usually bring you when you order the food). Get some bottled water or buy some Pepsi or something. Make sure the bottle is sealed when you buy. If you notice the stomach disorder is about to take place, eat 5 tablets of fiber. Buy it for such cases at the pharmacy, its cheap and very effective.

.

Aishah · Mar 21st, 2008, 12:30

These fibre tablets sound interesting Spacebum - can you remember the name? could be handy to have I reckon.

shashank.aggarwal · Mar 21st, 2008, 12:58

I am just trying to picture this country ..without the street food....NOOOOOOOOOO.....

While I always and still believe that Delhi has the best street food available, however I am surprised by the sheer variety and quality on offer at other places in India....

I was in Rudrapur in Uttranchal, and everywhere you can see those carts selling 'Kadi-Pulav' and 'Rajma-Pulav'. And somehow the carts, with spotlessly clean pots and utensils.... decorated with all those lemons, onions and chilly seemed to be so inviting..I finally gave into the temptation and had both Kadi-Pulav and Rajma-Pulav at one go...Rs.15 per plate and they were fabulous...piping hot, spicy, flavorful and srved with care...

SPACEBUM · Mar 21st, 2008, 13:01

In Russia, they are called 'Activated Coal' (sorry - not fiber, coal), 10 tablets a pack, very cheap. It is a natural product made from purified charcoal. It binds the bacterias and toxins, good for stomach disorders and food poisonings. I think you will need to ask the pharmacist for coal-based tablets for stomach. Besides tablets in Russia there is also a powdered variety, this you'll need couple of teaspoons (taken with some liquid) and there's also an extra-powerful coal-based mix with some hi-tech antibacterial add-on and improved detoxificating ability. But I always preferred the activated charcoal, works fine and easy to carry. It also binds the alcohol so you don't get boozed quickly, recommended especially if you mix like beer with whiskey (prevents the hangover).

I think you you need to explain what you want at the pharmacy and see if they sell something like this.

Mar 21st, 2008, 07:07	#16
machadinha Not Your Guru Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: yörp Posts: 8,503	So let me see: You guys spray yourself against mosquitoes in the airport, use hand sanitizers before touching any food, and so on? One sometimes wishes the web had never been invented, it's true. But, er, hey, do as you like, of course. It can't hurt, I'm quite sure. (Although I often honestly wonder why visit a place one perceives to be so problematic, but oh well. If it's danger you want there are other destinations than well-trodden India you know.) __________________ Reading tips, all picked up at IndiaMike : INDAX's A Comprehensive Guide To India / Dinoj Surendran's Desi Humor / ITHVC on Culture Shock & Travel Health / JetLag Travel Guides For the Undiscerning Traveller / India Travel Links

Mar 21st, 2008, 08:33	#20
PeakXV Naan.tering Nabob Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Abode of Glooscap Posts: 3,520	Each time I pass anywhere near a street food vendor the server starts twirling the dreaded 'dirty wiping cloth' around like some sort of baton at an Easter Parade. Ain't no hand washing or sanitary wipes in the world going to save you from getting the 'Great Indian Kennel Cough' if he passes that 'live culture' over your feast-to-be. __________________ We shall not cease from exploration and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started ...and know the place for the first time. T.S. Eliot http://www.indiamike.com/images/smokin.gif Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

Mar 21st, 2008, 09:13	#24
Aishah She-who-must-be-obeyed! Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Jaisalmer Posts: 3,508	Get sick, not get sick - just something one can't generalise about, everyone is so individual. Some people only have to look at something, breathe the air, and they get sick, others can eat anything without a qualm. So as far as street food goes, use your commonsense - if a stall is well frequented by many people and the food is cooked on the spot and not just re-heated, generally o.k. Buy your own fruit and eat that. Chai is o.k. anywhere - all that boiling up kills anything. As for which locals, caste-wise , eat street food, here in my experience anyone from any caste will eat street food if they fancy it. Caste doesn't come into the equation at all. __________________ "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

Mar 21st, 2008, 09:32	#25
camelgirl 10 year Visa okee dokee Join Date: May 2005 Location: Swannanoa NC usa Posts: 837	Our rules for street food are the usual. Chai is always OK (even in those dirty looking chipped glasses or cups), and fruit you peel yourself & the vendor doesn't handle the part you will eat or put water over it, anything cooked right in front of you and put directly on a plate (not too clean plate or leaf still OK) and not touched by vendor. You are not likely to get sick from street food, it's the vendors hands. It's the reason people get sick in the most expensive restaurants in India (statistically, quite as often as budget travelers!)--good food, bad food handlers. That's true all over the world and why there are all those signs in toilets in the US saying employees must wash their hands!! My husband rarely follows the above, just has to have that carrot or whatever and he often gets sick never learns, can't help himself! Oh well! __________________ My selected India photos http://www.indiamike.com/photopost/s...r/7030/cat/500

Mar 21st, 2008, 10:01	#26
PeakXV Naan.tering Nabob Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Abode of Glooscap Posts: 3,520	So I guess the answer is to "what is the safest street food" is: if the handler's hands are clean, and your hands are clean, and the 'dirty wiping cloth' isn't too dirty and the pots all have covers to prevent, among other thingies, the errant betel hawker-sputtam from touching-down then it's pretty much like the family picnicg ..... now will somebody get me a frickin cold lager with that street khanna!

Mar 21st, 2008, 07:51	#17
kristinm Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Beautiful Bondi (not Bundi!) Posts: 1,104	No mosquito spray I don't quite understand the problem with hand sanitiser. Its amazing stuff - so practical and easy to carry...I don't think its offensive, I don't find it offensive when people who come to my house wash their hands before they eat. It's silly & self destructive not to acknowledge that you have no resistance to bugs in a place that is not your home, I'm sure many Indians get sick when they come here and are exposed to our terrible flu and cold bugs. If people find that offensive I wonder how they feel about the Japanese tourists I saw wearing face masks - they wear them here too, and I have never found it offensive. We never ever got sick and as I said we ate everything - We are talking about street food..which you eat with your hands and then lick your fingers - try not licking your fingers after a hot jalebi!!!. Of course if there is a basin and towel and soap available we would use that - in a restaurant or home. Mostly in a market or street there is no water and its messy to pour water from your water bottle over yourselves & then wipe your hands on your clothes, it just turns the dirt on your hands into mud... and after a few hours of traipsing around, picking things up and putting them down, sitting down on steps shaking everyone's hands, handling money and so on your hands are filthy - have a look at the dirt that comes off when you wash them. Don't you wash your hands before you eat at home??? I thought everyone did..? I know Indians do, it would be extremely rude to eat in an Indian home or restaurant and not wash your hands first. Hand sanitiser is just an easy, dry way to do it, and if there are bugs for which you have no resistance then it may get rid of them... its also handy for treating scratches and grazes. in fact more than once at a street stall Indian women asked ne about it and borrowed some to squirt on their kids hands or their own.. Can I just ask what it is that you do Macha before you eat? Not wash at all...? Wipe your hands on a passing dog or on your clothes? Or are you just so macho that dirt is frightened of YOU! And just by the way - wasn't it you who was criticising others for personal attacks just a few posts ago?

Mar 21st, 2008, 08:08	#18
machadinha Not Your Guru Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: yörp Posts: 8,503	Sorry, I didn't mean to make fun of you, and good for you. One just can't help but being a little amazed with some questions and reports here sometimes. Makes you wonder why go out there at all. To be able to say I braved India without the India? No one forces you to go there. (And I'm not addressing you, Kristin, it's just a general reflection.) Yes, of course one washes one's hands before and after eating, more diligently so than where I live was my obversation in India. Even the simplest of places will provide a basin for the purpose. As for eating street food, I was just never very paranoid about it no. If that's good or bad I'll leave up to you. Having some kids in tow I'd be more careful with it no doubt. Just remember being taken to an exotic place like Spain as a kid in my time would inspire the exact same concerns: But!! What about the water!! etc. And the chillies!! Which are commonplace in western cuisine now of course. But anyway all those cautions (on women's safety and stuff too no doubt, and you know those Latin men's reputation...) would be no different than today if you mean to go to somewhere as exotic as India, lord forbid. Even today in Spain, you'll have the choice of either bottled or chlorinated tap water there. Yes, that's what travel there is like. If you don't like it, don't go there. There'll be overpriced tourist joints to suit you no matter what your needs though, and a bad imitation of a pizza is never hard to cook up.

Mar 21st, 2008, 08:16	#19
kristinm Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Beautiful Bondi (not Bundi!) Posts: 1,104	You should see the look on our Japanese homestay student's faces when we go to a football match and they are handed a sausage and sauce in a breadroll or a meat pie covered in tomato sauce..its priceless. We weren't paranoid about street food - no more than here, I would never eat a plate of warm food that had been sitting around in a Bain Marie in an unpatronised food outlet - in Sydney, Mumbai or anywhere else - you'd have to be mad! Follow the crowd is always a good bet - there is a reason why one samosa whallah has a queue up the road and the other one has just a few flies buzzing around!

Mar 21st, 2008, 08:37	#21
kristinm Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Beautiful Bondi (not Bundi!) Posts: 1,104	We have a law here that requires people serving food to wear rubber gloves - and they do mostly and then they take the money in the same pair, open the till in them, wipe the benches in them, make the next sandwich in them - probably go to the toilet in them!!!

Mar 21st, 2008, 08:58	#22
Gardener972 Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Dallas, Texas USA Posts: 250	I'm guessing it's not different anywhere in the world. One should eat cooked food only, now raw like lettuce, etc. On one trip to Mexico, we had lots of street food but what got us was the brushing of our teeth with tap water. WRONG! Chai would be OK as long as it's piping hot and you've seen it being made. Raw fruit is OK too as long as YOU peel it. I had raw unpeeled fruit from the market in India but I soaked it for about an hour in boiled & then cooled water with a few drops of grapefruit seed extract which is supposed to kill all kinds of bacteria. It's also a good idea to take 5 drops of that in water daily. You can also get it in capsule form too.

Mar 21st, 2008, 10:44	#27
SPACEBUM Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Russia Posts: 16	I ate some indian street food when in the bus between cities. Some dal, some rice and vegetables. No problems whatsoever. Then at the next stop I bought from a roadside kitchen some rice, some curry and a tomato salad (cooked specifically at my request), also no problems. Ate coconuts and potato also on the street, also bananas. Drank fresh juices on the street. Well, I think you can eat whatever cooked meal you like safely, but stay away from non-bottled water as tap water is IMO for Indian stomach only. Also fruit and vegetables may be a problem, though it my case it was allright. Street kitchens and small roadside cafes use normal utensils (and contrary to what you could have imagined, not their bare hands) to distribute portions and cooked meals get disinfected by the cooking process itself. I guess any processed food is therefore 100% safe. I think if you have some activated fiber with you, just in case your stomach doesn't like the food, you are safe to eat anything except tap water (which they usually bring you when you order the food). Get some bottled water or buy some Pepsi or something. Make sure the bottle is sealed when you buy. If you notice the stomach disorder is about to take place, eat 5 tablets of fiber. Buy it for such cases at the pharmacy, its cheap and very effective. .

Mar 21st, 2008, 12:30	#28
Aishah She-who-must-be-obeyed! Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Jaisalmer Posts: 3,508	These fibre tablets sound interesting Spacebum - can you remember the name? could be handy to have I reckon.

Mar 21st, 2008, 12:58	#29
shashank.aggarwal The Meet Up Guru Join Date: May 2007 Location: ~ Dilli ~ Posts: 4,170	I am just trying to picture this country ..without the street food....NOOOOOOOOOO..... While I always and still believe that Delhi has the best street food available, however I am surprised by the sheer variety and quality on offer at other places in India.... I was in Rudrapur in Uttranchal, and everywhere you can see those carts selling 'Kadi-Pulav' and 'Rajma-Pulav'. And somehow the carts, with spotlessly clean pots and utensils.... decorated with all those lemons, onions and chilly seemed to be so inviting..I finally gave into the temptation and had both Kadi-Pulav and Rajma-Pulav at one go...Rs.15 per plate and they were fabulous...piping hot, spicy, flavorful and srved with care... __________________ Travelogue - Around India Random Reviews

Mar 21st, 2008, 13:01	#30
SPACEBUM Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Russia Posts: 16	In Russia, they are called 'Activated Coal' (sorry - not fiber, coal), 10 tablets a pack, very cheap. It is a natural product made from purified charcoal. It binds the bacterias and toxins, good for stomach disorders and food poisonings. I think you will need to ask the pharmacist for coal-based tablets for stomach. Besides tablets in Russia there is also a powdered variety, this you'll need couple of teaspoons (taken with some liquid) and there's also an extra-powerful coal-based mix with some hi-tech antibacterial add-on and improved detoxificating ability. But I always preferred the activated charcoal, works fine and easy to carry. It also binds the alcohol so you don't get boozed quickly, recommended especially if you mix like beer with whiskey (prevents the hangover). I think you you need to explain what you want at the pharmacy and see if they sell something like this.

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

User Name		Remember Me?
Password

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Bangalore Street Food and Darshini's: Where are the best?	mudpuppy	Bangalore	3	Jan 12th, 2008 17:34
Orchha Street food	GulabJamun	Indian Recipes	8	Jun 14th, 2007 07:03
Street food?	sharm	Health and Well Being in India	52	Sep 20th, 2006 06:05
Street FOOD? Advice	Laflx	Health and Well Being in India	32	Jun 18th, 2005 13:04
buying food at the street?	trillian	Indian Cooking and Cuisine	4	Aug 23rd, 2004 13:29