dodgey food

when i was in moroco i ate some really dodgey food. steet meet, snails cooked in a huge pot on this side of the road, corn on the cob cooked in a fire next to where ppl walked in the madena.
whats some dodgey ass food you have ate while traveling?
did you get sick? i sure did...

In a regional part of Szechuan we had dog in some kind of rich sauce. The next day we went down as if we'd been poleaxed.

And one time my Dad really freaked me out. He came out late at night while I was watching TV, which was unusual. When I said something to him he didn't reply. Then I spoke again a few minutes later and he just stood in the kitchen looking at the ground. I didn't know what to do, so I went over and he just shook his head. Turns out he had got food poisoning from some fish he'd eaten that day, and his jaw had completely locked up, not to mention he was in agony.

Just a tip for any of you BnA ers that may come to London.

Do not, under any circumstances, buy a hotdog or burger off any of the roadside stalls in Central London. Their record of giving people food poisoning is appalling. They are actually a rip-off price wise anyway. Do NOT do it.

A couple of times my friend and I got really, really dizzy and light-headed right after eating street food in Vietnam--she thought maybe it meant they'd added too much MSG. Is that possible? And by the way, oh but is Vietnamese street food ever worth it, it is so, so delicious.

quote:

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Originally posted by thebigfella:
Just a tip for any of you BnA ers that may come to London.

Do not, under any circumstances, buy a hotdog or burger off any of the roadside stalls in Central London. Their record of giving people food poisoning is appalling. They are actually a rip-off price wise anyway. Do NOT do it.

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I went to a "café" across the street from Kings Cross Station and had a veggie burger. The only reason I did that was because it was so cheap. It ended up being a congealed pattie of what looked like vegetables and oil. It was absolutely disgusting and the chips were really greasy too. So my advice: don't buy any burgers in London that cost less than 2 quid!

Bigfella: I saw some news expose sort of show talking about those vendors. Wow...it was..disturbing. Besides the fact that you'll probably end up passing your kidneys if you eat them, they're all apparently run by some sort of mob.

Sure London street vendors are the dodgiest of dodgy, and most are disgusting, but thats what makes them such a culinary adventure. I'm quite partial to the sausage and onion roll vendors just outside the Brittish museum.

If you are a visitor to Poland, especially Torun or Bydgoszcz, avoid the Sphinx chains. I'm waiting for the writ when they discover I've been slamming them here on BnA. They are seductively decorated, with apparently good food, but many people, including myself, have had food poisoning from there.

haha i will defenatly rember about the food in london, im sure i will travel there a ton more times.
haha you ate dog borderland?!?! thats crazy, bad one on gettin sick though. what it taste like, chicken mabey?

I've heard that dog tastes a bit like stringy beef... it's served in Korea, and I have yet to decide if I will ever try some or not. Apparently to find restaurants that serve dog is harder than I had thought - most of them are off the main streets, and they can't have signs in English, in case unsuspecting tourists wander in.

Dog tasted gamey and was stringy.

I also had camel and quite liked it till I bit into some fat. Then I thought 'hump' and couldn't go on. Witchety grub was nutty. Kangaroo is tasty but over cook it and it goes like leather.

I've eaten a lot of food in strange places, and have only gotten food poisoning three times as I recall. It could have been more, since low grade food poisoning can show up 48 hours after eating and can appear to be a simple stomach bug.

The ones I can mark as food poisoning were three.

1. Bratwurst in Vienna. At least it seemed that way since the symptoms hit me 12 hours after eating it. Headache, vomiting, the whole deal.

2. Chinese food left in a fridge after a camping group stayed in my campground. It had two days to get really toxic, and had me trailer bound for about four days of general weakness and stomach upset.

3. There must have been a third, but I forget it.(VBG)

I usually follow a rule that has stood me in good stead:
Boiled
Fried
cooked
Fresh and Unpeeled.

What not to eat if you have a sensitive stomach
Ice
Salads washed in local water

Personally, I don't bother much about this rule. My stomach can take the milder sorts of invasions, it seems. I usually drink without ice if possible.

Others I've known have gone down on salads and such.

What not to eat under all but the best circumstances.

Shrimp not in a shore town
dairy products roasting in the sun.
Dead lobsters and shellfish being sold for the cooking pot.


I couple this with a simple observation:
Even people with stronger stomachs get food poisoning, and they know which stalls are safest. They line up for the ones that have the best food.

I look for the lines!

I hope this helps

I crossed the border into Tachileik, Burma for an afternoon. I tried some goat curry that some guy was selling in an eatery (the other choice was stewed chicken hearts). For the following week I needed to be constantly within easy reach of a toilet...

these are defenatly some gross stories.
keep them coming lol.

I ate at shrimp at a Cajun restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio, and now faithfully adhere to Tortuga traveller's rule about No shrimp if the town isnt near a shore... hell I avoid seafood in landlocked places, just in case. It was terrible. I thought I was gonna DIE in Cleveland. Depressing!!

Also got sick in Havana, but not sure if it was ice/water or (I suspect) dodgy cheese pizza from a street vendor... I also learned why diaharrea meds are sketchy. You want to get that isht OUT, not hold it in