Phuket - Eating skewers/satay sticks and food poisoning

ruby123 · #1 03-04-2006, 14:55

I've always wondered if anyone has gotten food poisoning from eating those skewers/ satay sticks where you can order chicken, pork beef etc cooked on a stick on those carts attached to motorbikes that come out in the night?

I noticed that the various meats just lay in the heat in the open air at night and are not refrigerated. I don't know how long the meat sits there but I always think the longer the meat sits out in the open like that the higher the chances of getting food poisoning or something.

I have tried them a couple of times when drunk and had no bad after effects but just wondered what other peoples experiences might be?

LivinLOS · #2 03-04-2006, 15:14

Never had food poisoning from them !! And have eaten a lot !!!

I have had minor level food poisoning from oysters.. I love Thai oysters but am really nevous about eating them (shellfish plus all day sun ?!?!) and now only eat them from high volume places I know well.. I have heard of people having poisoning from KFC and other western resturants.

I have had 2 'proper' food poisoning doses here (the kind that knocks you to hell) and both times it was just an any chance (think it was a market mushroom, and a mussle) event.. Shit, as they say, happens

Personally I think the hygene of most open kitchens is perfectly fine you just need to give yourself a little time to adjust to the different bacteria..

fun2have · #3 03-04-2006, 15:20

i have had a couple of minor stomach upsets over my trips.
never bad in patong, 1 place up on the sai nam yen the worst, told the bg i was with the food smelled great so lets eat there. did not hear the end of that decision for the rest of out time together. "i am thai this thailand i know what ok for farang"
worst case though was in papua new guinea, a real shocker case, thought i had typhoid.

sishow · #4 03-04-2006, 15:28

Been all around the world and the only place I seem to get food poisioning is los. But I think its more likely from western restaraunts that i eat in when feeling rough the next day due to singha overdose than the street stalls.

The advice I was given by a more respected los traveller was that give the stalls an hour after rain before eating from them, as high temp is needed to cook the food properly.

alibaba · #5 03-04-2006, 15:41

I use the vendors and small Thai food outlets a lot when I'm there. I also buy a lot of fish, shellfish and meat from the markets and cook for myself.
I can honestly say I've never had even a slight problem.
The only time i did have a problem was with some mussels I bought from Tesco Lotus. I bought them the day before I was due to fly home and ate them that night. I was in agony the next morning but after buying some medicine from the pharmacy it settled down for the trip home.

aussie dollar · #6 03-04-2006, 15:48

havnt had any trouble from roadside food vendors but tend to look for ones whos equipment looks clean.
only time ill was from shellfish (i think) from savoy,but eaten there without problems plenty of times.

LivinLOS · #7 03-04-2006, 15:53

Good rule of thumb is look for the places that are with Thais.. One thing they rarely get worng is food quality and price !!

I think an open kitchen gives a better inspection potential..

stevem · #8 03-04-2006, 16:23

Well I was sick after eating KFC the other night, never been sick from eating street vendor food.

Hep · #9 03-04-2006, 16:26

Never had any problems with eating from the street vendors or other open kitchens and have done it loads of times. The "meat on the sticks" is really delicious and I enjoy eating them.

Last week I was with my gf in Bangkok and bought some from a vendor. I just ordered the ones I thought looked good and my gf gave me a weird look asking why I liked "ass chicken".. I was puzzled but turns out that one of the pieces I orded was apparently chicken asses on a stick.. lol, well they looked good but I reveresed the order for that one though.

The only problem I have ever had in Thailand was when I was stupid enough to eat western food from a restaurant in Chiang Mai. Damn that one had my pay the price big time - that grilled chicken with mushroom sauce and french fries sure got to me. After that I have never eaten western food in Thailand again.

Bobby · #10 03-04-2006, 16:30

I was sick 2 times: one time in Samui, probably with a hamburger that I bought in the street and one time in Patong with a fish from a restaurant in the open air area next to Tiger.

georgelondon · #11 03-04-2006, 16:30

i eat from the foodstalls all the time and never had any ill effects. guess there is always a first time tho!

Crunch · #12 03-04-2006, 16:52

Only ever had gastroenteritis once, that was in germany of all places. Total and complete agony, out both ends same time, in hospital and got knocked out for 2days.
In LOS i ate a fair bit of thai food, carts, small stalls outside houses (pretty much let the gf choose where) but it does tend to go through me like a hot ballbearing through runny butter after a couple of days.

Never go commando in LOS imo, dont lose that first line of defence...

jimholio · #13 03-04-2006, 17:23

Nothing better then a chicken on stick and some som tam for lunch.

Latino4life · #14 03-04-2006, 18:02

I was also a bit reserved about eating food from the street vendors and my tummy was a bit upset last time eventhou I didn't eat from the food from the street vendors but it lasted only for a couple of hours... By 9 pm I was ready and good to go

I'll certainly treat my self with a pork-stick or beef if they happen to have...

lucky2 · #15 03-04-2006, 18:15

They cook it right in front of you while you wait. Any "cultures" will be destroyed. I think the problem is waiting too long to eat after cooked. That happened to me on an Air New Zealand flight at the start of an around the world tour.

floppy · #16 03-04-2006, 18:31

Ive never had any problem with them I will eat anything..1 night had a fella from the UK with me he ate the same thing and was sick as a dog for 2 days but I dont blame the food just him, think he was use to eating mushy peas and black pudding...

butterflyblonde · #17 03-04-2006, 18:40

All of the food poisoning cases I have heard about have invloved farang food.

jimholio · #18 03-04-2006, 18:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by butterflyblonde

All of the food poisoning cases I have heard about have invloved farang food.

Well that and seafood, never heard about food poisoning from thai meat. I spoke with 2 guys that had a 2 day marathon to the bathroom (Sharing hotel room those 2) So i guess that couldnt have been very nice. But they had been eating crab both of them.

syeatman · #19 03-04-2006, 19:05

rarely have any problems, but don't eat meat so only shellfish is an issue for me.

Just 3 weeks ago had a mate over and popped to Phi Phi, first place we went in just had a seafood soup and some veggies, The resulting poisoning ruined the rest of my mates stay, I was pretty bad with it too, so not just friend getting used to the new germs out here.

I tend to stick to the same places in Patong as you can trust the food, as well as knowing the staff and getting treated as a regular.

dizbuster · #20 03-04-2006, 19:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevem

Well I was sick after eating KFC the other night, never been sick from eating street vendor food.

Tee hee that'll learn you to eat that muck !!

There's far more appropriate words than "chicken" that can be substituted for the "C" in KFC !!

As for the street vendors, I have never had a problem but then I only use them when my TG orders the food.

Devman · #21 03-04-2006, 19:28

I have only had food poisoning once that I'm aware of & that was in Oz at an expensive restaurant that served me rare steak & I only eat well cooked meat, not something that should still be running around in a paddock. But on this ocassion I was a bit p*ssed so I ate it. The next morning I thought I was really going to die;I called myself an ambulance as I was so ill.
It took me three days to physically recover & from then on if anything looks dodgey, might be dodgey or initally good food that hasn't been stored properly i.e. hot food not kept at a high temp or cold food not kept cold enough or not cooked properly I won't touch it.
So I personally wouldn't eat from from the roadside kebab "restaurants". Not that I couldn't get crook elsewhere I would just want to minimise the possibilities.

mars · #22 03-04-2006, 19:30

Only been ill once and that was last April on my last night.

The only meal i had all day was a steak at the hotel on sawatdirak rd opposite the entrance to the set of bars is that seapearl?

There was one place on bangla where i went for a couple of chicken pieces and they were fine but a cpl of days later i went to get some more when i was with a bg and she said no Puk oh shu or something similar which i took to mean dirty, which she said a few times when I never washed my feet when getting back to the hotel room after going sometimes for the shortest of walks.

sishow · #23 03-04-2006, 19:39

On my last trip in December, i was down by the beach at that Karlsons restaruant, when something kicked in from a previous meal! I had to pay as quick as possible after spending about 20 min in their toilet. The walk from there to the C&N took ages (Too tight to pay over the odds for bloddy tuk-tuk.). I had to stop at nearly every other restaraunt/beer soi to go the toilet. If I can recall, one of the bg's at MTB said i looked very white on the way through!

Didn't drink for the next few days as it would kick it off again! I think Nicke and Geir was dissapointed that their takings were down

alibaba · #24 03-04-2006, 21:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by mars

Only been ill once and that was last April on my last night.

The only meal i had all day was a steak at the hotel on sawatdirak rd opposite the entrance to the set of bars is that seapearl?

There was one place on bangla where i went for a couple of chicken pieces and they were fine but a cpl of days later i went to get some more when i was with a bg and she said no Puk oh shu or something similar which i took to mean dirty, which she said a few times when I never washed my feet when getting back to the hotel room after going sometimes for the shortest of walks.

Possibly what she said was "SOOK A POK", Dirty.

steve@thaib · #25 04-04-2006, 03:11

I once spent a couple of days with the proper stomach-cramping squits, I was so ill I did not drink beer for a day and a night.

I've said this before here and no-one wanted to believe me, but I'll say it again anyway at the risk of getting some more stick. The Pharmacist I went to said don't eat food after it has been rained on as the rain water carries the bugs.

I find the street stalls irresistable and pretty much always eat from them, the chicken liver kebabs are the stuff of dreams, but when it has rained I steer well clear now. Works for me.