Now, being educated in the health sciences in Australia I'd be the first to say one needs to be careful with one's food choices in the streets of Bangkok but it's interesting to note that in 3 years in Bangkok I've only been ill once following a huge public celebration a Nonthaburi Pier when many new food vendors descended upon the event. The regular folk are very attuned to the need for food safety because they know what they are doing and their business depends upon returning customers. Anyway, whatever the toxin was, it was a heady one and I was sick for a month. In comparison, I was in Rockhampton, Australia, last year for six months and was sick from restaurant-food 5 times although only for a few days to a week each time.
The 'great poisoning' in Nonthaburi happened when about a million of us; yes, a real million, crowded down in very narrow streets with out any crowd-control etc, and for awhile we, in the middle, were carried along for 100 metres with our feet off the ground, pressure packed together. It was only when the real crush-peril dawned on everyone in this remarkable multi-way procession that kids were hoisted up on shoulders to stop them from being crushed and asphixiated. At the same time, interestingly, this is when everyone started to smile. Somehow the smiling made it all bearable and 'de-tuned' the panic. It was only when I got home that the food poisoning set in and that was me for a month; actually sicker than I've been before. I think the small black crabs often crushed into seafood meals for added flavour are sometimes not so fresh.
Still, when you think about it, that was only once in 3 years of relatively reckless eating in Bangkok streets, compared with 5 times in 6 months in well-regulated 'first world' Australian restaurants.
No comments:
Post a Comment