Íæż½ã½ã

My experience has been...

Don't eat meat and everything will be okay.

I have had a bad stomach 3times and the common denominator has been meat.

.

Whenever I eat from outside, try to go a rush shop where 'old items' finished soon by others
Instruct them to cook more time.
Yeah, vegetables are good, even raw you can eat
If you are hurry/busy, do not order meat food. Especially pork and beef.
Avoid eat from out mornings (usually they serve old items morning).
Tailpiece: Always I try to eat from home
It's good sometimes we clean our stomach by eating out!

.

My first trip the only thing that upset my stomach was the anti malaria pills, the second trip it was the hotel food, evry single day and I stayed at the Kingston in dist 1 HCMC, none of the street foood did it ( apart from the chilly, and we all know what that does)

Last time I was in Saigon the only time I got the runs was after eating at the Hard Rock Café.

.

jimbream wrote:

jakejas wrote:

Last time I was in Saigon the only time I got the runs was after eating at the Hard Rock Café.

Yeah. That place gives me the sh*ts!
On the very subject of street food and meat products,
check this out.

Translating the article's title and subtitles pretty much tells the whole story without all the rancid details.

Những món ăn hút khách được làm từ thịt thối tẩm hóa chất => Nearby dishes made ​​from rotten meat soaked

Da bẩn, thịt thối làm giăm bông => dirty skin, rotten meat used to make ham

Thịt dạt, hóa chất độc hại làm giò chả => Washed meat, hazardous substances used to make sausage

Patê = Gan lợn chết + mỡ thối => Patê = livers from dead pigs + rotting fat

Nem chua làm từ bì thối = Sour sliced meat made from rotten meat

I think I'm going to go vegetarian. 

That's why I'm planning a trip to Dalat
So can see directly how organic they are...

But I think now our stomachs are prepared for Saigon foods. If we change to Veg all of a sudden, may be again problem
I like and can eat bitter gourd too much than others. But problem is after that stomach not easy

Street food is not safe by all means. And if you don't get to run to the bathroom after eating, that doesn't mean the food is safe either. There's stuff in there that will hurt you in the long run.

THD you are a sick, twisted and funny man

Exactly how I feels THD ....  Three days now .... oh my tummy!

Well...sorry to hear about your not so pleasant Welcome to Việt Nam.  Hope you make it back to Vancouver B.C. in one piece.

I eat street food everyday.  Eating where Vietnamese eat.  Never been sick from the food.  Now that snake wine is another story.

ancientpathos wrote:

I eat street food everyday.  Eating where Vietnamese eat.  Never been sick from the food.  Now that snake wine is another story.

For those that are familiar with the local crusine, the stomach enzymes have adjusted.  For new arrivals, tourists, visitors, eating Vietnamese food is alot different from Western foods and it'll cause digestive problems.

After being here for a while, I ran across a KFC for the first time and thought...you know, I kinda miss a little American food.  So in I went to try some of those "finger lickin' good" morsels.  Well, my stomach didn't agree with my fingers and I had to go make tribute to the porcelain king el pronto.

Yah, I'm sure you wanted to know that... 

Locals who are used to the unsanitized food have stomachs of steel and can eat anything.  Congratulations on achieving such strength!

ancientpathos wrote:

Now that snake wine is another story.

My brother in law gave me some of his homemade snake wine to bring back to my friends in the states. We drink it, but very sparingly. He tells me that it cures back pain. It tastes like bad medicine, so hopefully it cures something.

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

ancientpathos wrote:

I eat street food everyday.  Eating where Vietnamese eat.  Never been sick from the food.  Now that snake wine is another story.

For those that are familiar with the local crusine, the stomach enzymes have adjusted.  For new arrivals, tourists, visitors, eating Vietnamese food is alot different from Western foods and it'll cause digestive problems.

After being here for a while, I ran across a KFC for the first time and thought...you know, I kinda miss a little American food.  So in I went to try some of those "finger lickin' good" morsels.  Well, my stomach didn't agree with my fingers and I had to go make tribute to the porcelain king el pronto.

Yah, I'm sure you wanted to know that... 

Locals who are used to the unsanitized food have stomachs of steel and can eat anything.  Congratulations on achieving such strength!

THD,

You're funny as he!! I wander what kind of things you say when you're drunk.   

Well. I think it based on your place you eat. But the fact is that when you change from one place you used to live  ( I think you from Vancouver) to a different place . The first time you will have a stomach like I used to have when I live in US and then visit Sai gon about 3 months at first I ate food on the street and I got stomach. But about 1-2 week I can familiar with this ! Hopes you will be fine.

My theory about street food:
1.  If its a crowded place it must be good.
2.  If the food is served hot, where you need to wait 20 minutes for it to cool enough to get past your lips it is germ free.
3.  It is proably your drinks that are making you sick, notice how they handle the ice.  Some will have the ice in a cloth bag and poor it into your class.  Others used their unwashed hands.

Wow you mean common sense applies if VN too? I can live with that

ancientpathos wrote:

My theory about street food:
1.  If its a crowded place it must be good.
2.  If the food is served hot, where you need to wait 20 minutes for it to cool enough to get past your lips it is germ free.
3.  It is proably your drinks that are making you sick, notice how they handle the ice.  Some will have the ice in a cloth bag and poor it into your class.  Others used their unwashed hands.

Would a guy smoking a cigarette with the ashes flying around while SERVING you your noodle soup make the list?  How about a lady picking her nose just before serving you your rice?

I have generally with street food. I love it and it supports mostly those, who need most their small margin. Never caught anything.

My tips for those who are afraid of street food:

- Eat there, where the locals and a big variety of customers (people with suits, uniform..) eat
- The place should be busy during serving times
- Take for the drinks only as much as you really need
- A drink is either boiled or opened (fresh, clean)

!!!!!!!!!! and not to dirty (yes, that is the real challenge).

may be vegetables was not clean, so you shouldn't eat any vegetable at the street food, have a nice day, sir ^^.

We always breakfast on the street, usually banh mi thit, banh mi op la, or soup. Never got sick even when the banh mi included pate. Often eat lunch on the street as well, usually an com dishes. Dinners are usually at a one or two star local restaurant, occasionally a 'thousand star' sidewalk restaurant if it's been previously tried.

In Hue we ate Mam Tom Hue for almost every meal at the restaurants just across the bridge where you turn for the citadel. My wife's Anh Hai loved the food there so much he tried to convince the old lady who owned the restaurant to marry him. He was approaching 80, she was in her early sixties, and she was polite enough to decline graciously despite his earnest claims that the size of his rice paddies could support them both.

I saw him three more times before he passed away, and his face would light up every time and he'd mention the Mam Tom Hue and the "lady who wanted to marry him" but had to stay back in Hue to run the family restaurant.

Before I visited Vietnam, I took probiotics and grapefruit seed extract for 1 month. I continued this during my entire trip (3 months). I never got sick and I ate and drank pretty much everything that I thought wasn't dodgy. I didn't even get any jabs before I left. Maybe it worked for me or maybe I was lucky but I'd like to think it was the former.

jokertrjcky wrote:

may be vegetables was not clean, so you shouldn't eat any vegetable at the street food, have a nice day, sir ^^.

Could be vegetables, meats, or utensils ... take r pick, but feeling better now after a week.  Anyway, I would like to return back and have a few words with the owner, but hell, he would not understand a word I am saying. There are probably no food regulations or agencies that I could report to prevent this from happening to others, so I am stuck. However, the thought did crossed my mind of inviting the owner over for some of my own home cook meal.

oh, that unfortunately if you can't eat any street food. but maybe better with you now, probadly you were unlucky:D, haha. Let test some delicacies when your stomach come back with powerfull, haha.

Huge tip is don't brush your teeth with the water out of the tap. I got sick on my first 2 times to Vietnam and blamed the  food, but after I stopped brushing my teeth with the tap water and used bottled it all stopped. Also had the reverse culture shock when I went home especial with fresh milk.

I never eat fresh water fish/shells/ shrimps etc. (E.g Tilapia). Mekong river is within the top 5 of most polluted rivers in the world. Even Swiss government fore bit fish-import from Vietnam.  The percentage of scizofrenia around Saigon is among the highest in Asia, (due to the high percentage of Acids in the waters, even in the soil.) So I only eat sea fish from the sea.

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

ancientpathos wrote:

My theory about street food:
1.  If its a crowded place it must be good.
2.  If the food is served hot, where you need to wait 20 minutes for it to cool enough to get past your lips it is germ free.
3.  It is proably your drinks that are making you sick, notice how they handle the ice.  Some will have the ice in a cloth bag and poor it into your class.  Others used their unwashed hands.

Would a guy smoking a cigarette with the ashes flying around while SERVING you your noodle soup make the list?  How about a lady picking her nose just before serving you your rice?

Happens in the nicer places too the smoking and nose picking. Just part of living anywhere. How about a nice looking lady picking her nose, she is interested in you.  Do you tell her no I can't date you because you pick your nose or do you overlook the nose picking?

I eat street food on a regular basis and only have had a upset stomach 2 or 3 times in 11 months.

ancientpathos wrote:

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

ancientpathos wrote:

My theory about street food:
1.  If its a crowded place it must be good.
2.  If the food is served hot, where you need to wait 20 minutes for it to cool enough to get past your lips it is germ free.
3.  It is proably your drinks that are making you sick, notice how they handle the ice.  Some will have the ice in a cloth bag and poor it into your class.  Others used their unwashed hands.

Would a guy smoking a cigarette with the ashes flying around while SERVING you your noodle soup make the list?  How about a lady picking her nose just before serving you your rice?

Happens in the nicer places too the smoking and nose picking. Just part of living anywhere. How about a nice looking lady picking her nose, she is interested in you.  Do you tell her no I can't date you because you pick your nose or do you overlook the nose picking?

Nose picking is an ugly tradition here in Vietnam. It took me courage to tell my friend that, and after that she stop. Hope she has the courage to pass it on to the rest of her family.

awayland wrote:

ancientpathos wrote:

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

Would a guy smoking a cigarette with the ashes flying around while SERVING you your noodle soup make the list?  How about a lady picking her nose just before serving you your rice?

Happens in the nicer places too the smoking and nose picking. Just part of living anywhere. How about a nice looking lady picking her nose, she is interested in you.  Do you tell her no I can't date you because you pick your nose or do you overlook the nose picking?

Nose picking is an ugly tradition here in Vietnam. It took me courage to tell my friend that, and after that she stop. Hope she has the courage to pass it on to the rest of her family.

I guess by tradition you mean it is handed down from generation to generation. I guess that word will work as good as any!

Solo1 wrote:

awayland wrote:

Nose picking is an ugly tradition here in Vietnam. It took me courage to tell my friend that, and after that she stop. Hope she has the courage to pass it on to the rest of her family.

I guess by tradition you mean it is handed down from generation to generation. I guess that word will work as good as any!

HaHa .... good one! "handed down" (or up)

awayland wrote:

Solo1 wrote:

awayland wrote:

Nose picking is an ugly tradition here in Vietnam. It took me courage to tell my friend that, and after that she stop. Hope she has the courage to pass it on to the rest of her family.

I guess by tradition you mean it is handed down from generation to generation. I guess that word will work as good as any!

HaHa .... good one! "handed down" (or up)

Just as long as it is not on the tip of your tongue!