Street Food- what is the safest?

Hyderabadi

camelgirl

I'm generally a cautious person about most things, particularly food most anywhere. But I've observed something I can't explain.

I know two very elderly (87 & 94) women and they are two of the slobbiest people I've known (one is my aunt). Both don't take any care about hygiene, their own kitchens & utensils are filthy, they are careless about food and eat anything they like. A lifelong diet of meat & starches and hardly a vegetable. They are both in excellent health and barely get a cold.

OK, OK it's got to be their genes but it always puzzles me that they aren't laid low with all kinds of food poisoning. It's almost like all the filth has made them immune! Eating with them always makes me anxious, especially one of them who thinks she's a good cook (awful cook & dirty kitchen & uses her dirty hands to touch everything).

I'm not willing to try this method, however!

I also enjoy Anthony Bourdain...sometimes I want to punch him when he's showing off how cool he is, but it's a great show. Nice to see a real expert who loves the street food of the whole world! Andrew Zimmerman is also fun to watch, but he often makes me queasy with some of the more bizarre (culturally unusual ) stuff and I have to turn the channel.

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Aishah

I had to laugh at your story of your aunts, camelgirl. I think we can be too fussy sometimes, too. Yes, I reckon they have great immune systems and not a worry in the world - good on them. I had one dear friend whose eyesight was failing and her kitchen and cooking was much the same as you describe. She was never ill either - only the bother with glaucoma.
Living here you would drive yourself nuts if you are super fussy re hygiene. I think my stomach is cast iron - very rarely any food related problem and I eat the sweets that have been personally handled and put into the box by the boy who hasn't washed his hands for a long time! Nobody uses tongs here for anything.

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kristinm

If they did you'd be worried what else the tongs were used for knowing the Indian propensity to maximise the usefulness of everything!

puchoo

i though the location of that joke was an english restaraunt...

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Uncle_Martin

If my memory serves me well, it was the UK and it wasn't a joke. It was the result of a properly conducted analysis of those little dishes of salted peanuts left out for drinkers in bars where beer costs much more than £2 a pint. Contamination by urine, impure bodily fluids (shades of strangelove here) and other nasties .... or perhaps the journalists who referred to this item were taken in by a modern myth ... has anybody heard the one about the cat eating the chiwawa? ..... So wash yer bl**dy hands, when you've bin OK

SitaParityaga

Apparently we've touched on a world wide phenomena.

I went to the snopes website (the one that debunks urban myths) to see what they have to say about this! Make sure to scroll down to the bottom for the quote by Johnny Depp, who lives in France, commenting on peanut cleanliness:

http://www.snopes.com/food/tainted/mints.asp

Aishah

Your post,Sita, reminds me of the aniseed supari offered in restaurants here at the end of the meal. It is a good digestive as well as leaving a nice taste in the mouth. But when you see how it sits openly at the counter with all and sundry breathing over it, and the same bowl(s) are delivered to many tables I think this is as bad a health hazard as the peanuts in the bars one.

puchoo

Ah....We aren't thinking of the same thing...

kristinm

Puchoo was referring to my flippant comment about multi-tasking with serving tongs!

vandy

I had quite a few samosas from street stalls and
survived,same goes for Pani Puri and Indian Sweets

I'd be amazed if any Bug could survive the spices
in the Pani Puri water,Drank heaps of Chai on the streets as well,no Problems at all,Maybe I was just Lucky.

vandy

kristinm

Do you know what I'd like - I'd like someone to identify the street food I ate, sadly I only have pictures of a few and I assume that anything in that triangular shape is a samosa.. I asked every time, but found it hard to understand the answer and forgot half the time anyway. I'd love to know what it was that came with the stuffed paranthas or the kulcha - curry? Dal? it was different each time. Let start a guide to street food thread and everyone can post pictures and identification and what's in it!!! - Good idea?

puchoo

Sure, good idea!! Though many members, me included, might find it a bit hard to go through a thread full of yummy snaps and not rush to the nearest stall..!!

shashank.aggarwal

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dlesli

Fantastic idea!