Street Food- what is the safest?

capt_mahajan

Elsewhere (in India too? Dunno) this is known as activated charcoal.

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Nick-H

This I strongly disagree with.

I am a chai addict. I can go all day without food, but a few hours without chai and I become listless and irritable (ok, it's probably a refined-sugar addiction, but this is not about my problems!).

So I'll take much more risk with tea than I will with food.

My (sometimes overprotective) wife usually rushes in and tells them to use a disposable cup, which I resent because they are tiny, and get about half as much tea for the same money ---- but It is very sensible.

My criteria for a chai stall is that it looks generally clean, and that there is evidence that they have running water.

If you are lucky, and you can always ask, they will run boiling water over the glass.

But tea in a glass which has just been rinsed in a bowl full of everybody else's germs does not seem safe at all to me, nor would it to many resident Indians. I've got away with it, so far.

Plates, utensils, hands etc can always be the weak link, however well cooked the food is. When I was small I was taught not to handle money and then food, a lesson pretty much forgotten in my UK, and possibly never thought of by many here. It's a great way to spread germs. Did you know you can catch AIDS from going to the toilet with a dirty Rs2 coin in your pocket?

Hands... A brahmin wedding; banana leaves laid out on long tables, food being distributed from pots, buckets and baskets. The guy distributing the appalams has a nice hygienic plastic glove on his hand, the back of which he wipes accross his nose.

A semantic (is that the right word?) point is that persons of any religion can be devout without being orthodox, or (a more popular choice ) orthodox without being devout! A really orthodox brahmin only eats food prepared in their own kitchen ---and does not cross the sea to visit other countries!

I don't eat street food. Perhaps if I was faced with those meaty delicacies of the North I might, but mostly I'd so much rather have a table and chair and, hopefully, a bit of peace and quiet while I eat. Just my way; I don't like take-away sandwiches in London either, I'm a sit-down meal man.

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shashank.aggarwal

A sit-down meal is what it sounds like a meal...however the street food is a snack..and you cannot enjoy it sitting down..

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chAos

Speaking of regional street food... ...what's the scene in Hyderabad? I was there for only a short time, but I didn't really see many street food vendors at all. Our driver said they don't exist, but I have other reasons not to believe everything he said, so I'm hoping this is another. Being used to Mumbai, I'll be very disappointed if there aren't any. Are they not common or was I just in the wrong place at the wrong time?

capt_mahajan

Hyderabad, like any Indian city, has a lot of street food.

From mirchi bhaji to Biryani to chaat, to dosas and idlis in some places...

Aishah

Thanks spaceb. and Captain for pointers to those tabs. Will check with medical stores and see what I come up with. I hadn't heard of them before.
One very popular street food stall here, patronized by both tourists and locals produces a kind of crispy, flat golden coloured wafer-like 'plate' on which is dobbed chopped onion and some yellow chutney stuff. I don't know the Hindi name for this - it's located near the Fort gate and does a roaring trade.

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puchoo

Nope...thats wrong...street food is accessible and eaten by everyone... if i was not allowed i would consider giving up my 'devout brahmin' status....

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chAos

Know many people who would agree! hmmm, maybe we need a new deity, for the devout street food worshippers.

Khandoma

Sidharth !

Something simple about choosing a street stall hasn't been mentioned to my surprise :

Avoid stalls that have just opened for business.
The frying oil will not be hot enough. The chai water will not have boiled for long enough.

Not that my case is proof of anything, but the only time I was sick in India was with chai from a stand that was in the process of opening. The lady hurried up the process for me. Maybe she was afraid I'd take my business elsewhere.
Otherwise, I eat street food most days (veggie though), and I could kill for train food.

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the opoponax

I don't have a problem with hand sanitizer! I just have a problem when tourists use it in rude ways. Using it to wash your hands before eating street food is NOT rude, in fact if it was widely available in India I'm sure plenty of Indians would do the same.

The reason I thought that couple in the Golden Temple langar was so awful was because they had it sitting there in front of them the whole meal. Also, there are sinks right outside the langar to wash your hands - they even have soap!

The arrivals area just outside the Mumbai airport is famous for being a mosquito hotspot, due to stagnant water in the parking lot. Guidebooks warn travelers to be advised of this and put on repellant ASAP if they're not already taking an antimalarial.

I drank chai anywhere and everywhere, sometimes paying attention to cleanliness and sometimes not. There were several occasions where some servant (of the shop I was in) went off to get the chai, so I had no chance to inspect. Never got sick, though obviously your mileage may very -- I'm known even at home to have a strong stomach and a strong immune system.

Can't speak for Mexico, but I abandoned bottled water brushing after a few weeks (just couldn't bring myself to do it in front of my friends!), to no ill effect. Now that I think about it, almost every time I played fast and loose with potentially unsafe water, it was for reasons of social pressure. Hm, good thing I don't have any crack addict friends...

puchoo

very valid points....nothing worse than having to wait around for your 'tikki' to be ready and simaltaneously stand in a puddle of water resulting from all the drooling...

shashank.aggarwal

You are in top form dude !! Its your moment of life..

PeakXV

Certainly from what I've read in the Rough Guide & LP - they give seem to give a carte blanche to all of it. The Rough Guide does have one proclaimer stating "make sure that it is freshly cooked" which is at least a bit of good advice. While LP seems to blend the 'street stalls' in with all the rest of their budget food reviews. So it is easy to see how this food gets into the favourable mindset of the budget traveller.

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Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

Gardener972

Just wanted to share my experience with "traveler's diarrhea" as it's referred to by the various health organizations. I'm not into taking antibiotics at all and would prefer to do/heal things naturally. When we came back from Mexico throwing up w/diarrhea I was determined to knock it out naturally and did grapefruit seed extract, acidolphillus & activated charcoal. By the end of the week I still wasn't able to eat or drink w/o it all coming back out immediately and was at that point CRAWLING to the bathroom from weakness. OK, I took one Cipro and within 24 hrs. was 75% better. I only had to take 3 of them but I really believe that had I not taken it, I would not be typing this today. Cipro is the drug of choice for e-coli which is the worst of the bacteria. My hubby had to have an IV of fluids but apparently had a strong enough immune system that he didn't have to take Cipro.

the opoponax

Oh, the guidebooks drove me crazy with all that playing fast and loose with street food! Especially because they'd throw out things like "eating bhel puri is an essential Mumbai experience" -- except of course that bhel puri in mumbai comes topped with diced raw vegetables, which are a no-go.

I think I saw similar recommendations for nimbu pani, which on the streets is obviously made with tap water.