Eating Thai Street Food, Do YOU?

Holy crap, are you serious? OK, yes I’m serious. I ate Thai food from the street all this weekend. I know that I’ve posted before about not eating for you can run into serious problems with your tummy but I have to let you know that all weekend long, not one meal was from a pub or restaurant. Yep, street food.

Now I’m usually at McDonalds a few times during the month because I just need some reliable quick food but I decided that I was going to venture out and really do some damage to my tummy and I was slightly shocked when it all stayed down and digested properly! HAHA

On Friday, I started out with some grilled chicken on a stick. Some call it Satay, I just call it grilled chicken. I see my mototaxi guy eating this all the time and I’ve asked him if it’s safe to eat and not surprising he said it was fine. So, I tried it. I was checking out the grill the whole time wondering if the vendor had ever cleaned it. That was clearly a huge NO! Anyway, it was pretty good. I can usually start to tell if something is going to go bad in my tummy for I start to gear a gurgling sound. This is a sure fire way to know that I’m about to be asking people for Hong Nom, which means toilet. But no gurgling and no need for the nom.

On, Saturday morning, I decided to hit a noodle stall. I had some weird looking red curry. Not only was my mouth on fire for like an hour after, the taste was absolutely disgusting. I will never hit that stall again. But, to my surprise, it stayed down. That afternoon I hit a Tom Yum stall. That was OK too. Although what appeared to be chicken was pork. I’m sure the way it was cooked would have most farangs wondering about it. Either way, it stayed down.

Saturday night, I went to a club down on Sukhumvit road and while at the club, I had, what appeared to be a very large hot dog. Now most Americans would think this was a hot dog but honestly, I have no idea what it was. Some type of sausage on a big piece of bread. Now, 20 minutes after that went down, the gurgling started. Now to my delight, that went away. Not sure if my tummy has acclimated to the food or if it was just a way for my tummy to let me know to slow down on the Thai food from the street.

Sunday was a good day as well. Not too much of a problem. Had some chicken and rice to give my tummy a break from the shocking street food this weekend. Either way, I was prepared. I had tums in my pocket ready to go.

So, in the end, things faired pretty well. I don’t recommend eating street food all the time. I do have some friends that have gotten some pretty bad stomach problems but I think every once in a while you need to venture out and act like a local…

Hi – I will be starting work in Suzhou next year and my wife will be working in Pudong (just over the river). Following our info trip we have decided that we want to live in Shanghai (on Metro Line2) so that she can be closer to the kids.

Does anyone have experience in daily travel to/from Suzhou? Don’t really want to use personal car (for economic and environmental reasons). The train looks ok but not ideal – what other options are there?

Thanks,

I’d skip the commuting gig, Shanghai to Suzhou. Huge P.I.T.A. Getting up early, off to the train station (if you can actually get a taxi), train trip, then wait at SZ train station taxi queue along with rest, a good 20-25 mins on a good day with a stiff breeze.

Then reverse on the way back home at night.

You’re going to one very irritable Laowai in about (tick-tick-tick) 3 days of doing this. Your productivity will probably suffer, along with your home life.

My definite recommendation is “No commuting”. Rent an apartment here for your work time or move to Suzhou.

Not like we have a shortage of Laowais and the attendant camp followers setting up shop to cater to our desire for Brie, stuffed olives, ribs – whatever- it’s all here. Trust me/us on this.

You will be pleasantly surprised. 92.6% of the goodies (food) offered in Shanghai are here and reachable in quick time = minutes.

DON’T COMMUTE. Not an optimal solution ! If you want to go to SH it’s a no-stress train ride (35 min) and play there.

Trust me. I’ve been in Suzhou 6 years, 9 months and 19 days (brief disqualifying trips to Oz excluded).