[mike_asia]

Had it 3 or 4 times around Asia the last one a couple of weeks ago. Nasty shit no pun intended. Never had it in the USA or Europe

[The Tongue]

mike_asia, on 17 July 2011 - 10:43 AM, said:

Had it 3 or 4 times around Asia the last one a couple of weeks ago. Nasty shit no pun intended. Never had it in the USA or Europe

The worst case of food poisoning I ever had was at Garfunkel's in Leicester Square in London, eating their 'Gujons of Plaice" had me taking a trip to the hospital. Asia does not have a monopoly on badly prepared food!

[Irish boy]

When i was up in Buriram for 4 or 5 days last Month, i brought loads of bog roll, expecting the worst, not a problem at all, and this was the sorta stuff i was eating mostly...........

 CIMG0458_640x480.jpg (37.38K)
Number of downloads: 4

 CIMG0683_640x480.jpg (56.93K)
Number of downloads: 0

Came back to Patts, fancied some farang food, had 'Bangers and Mash'..........was on the toilet all night :wallbash: :wallbash:

[STARGAZER]

90% of "food poisonings" here in Thailand actually have nothing to do with the food, but rather dirty ice!

Also many many people instantly blame food poisoning on the last meal they ate. Fact is most food borne illness takes between 18-24 hours to gestate meaning it was more likely the meal you ate two, three meals ago that is the culprit.

Plenty of rancid food to be found in these parts but normally rancid food will taste so rancid you spit it out immediately or don't eat enough for it to make you sick. Now the ice on the other hand....a tasteless and silent killer!

[Plakapong]

I normally get a good 24 hours worth of puking/shits when I visit Samui and I blame it on the water there.

I found it ironic that in the beach side bar/resto I was frequenting, they made a big thing about how their food is prepared to western standards and only sterilized water is used for washing the salads, then while I was having a piss one of the cooks was stood at the next urinal, when he finished pissing he just wiped his hands on his apron and walked back into the kitchen. Priceless! and often you will see them sitting around outside the kitchen having a fag and picking their noses (Ancient Thai Tradition).

[timorno]

STARGAZER, on 17 July 2011 - 03:48 PM, said:

90% of "food poisonings" here in Thailand actually have nothing to do with the food, but rather dirty ice!

Also many many people instantly blame food poisoning on the last meal they ate. Fact is most food borne illness takes between 18-24 hours to gestate meaning it was more likely the meal you ate two, three meals ago that is the culprit.

Plenty of rancid food to be found in these parts but normally rancid food will taste so rancid you spit it out immediately or don't eat enough for it to make you sick. Now the ice on the other hand....a tasteless and silent killer!

I have to disagree here. I think food is the problem not ice. There is often no proper cooling chain if you go away further from Bangkok, thats why people tend to get more sick on the islands then mainland. Then Thais have no clue on how to store products. Minced meat has to be consumed the same day, yet here they make burgers out of chopped meat that wasn't properly cooled for days.
Over the years I studied the cases of food poisoning that were reported on the boards and it was mainly farang food. That might have something to do with the lack of natural antibiotics and germ killers like chilli and basil or with some just being more sensible to heat like a Sauce Bernaise that got me really sick once.
Almost all business get their ice daily from the factories and yes, sometimes they don't store it right, but for the most part its alright.
Thais consume alot more ice then we do, the national desert consists of shaved ice, so if your ice theory is right they must be filling the hospitals every day.

Meat does not have to taste rancid to be full of Staphylococcus toxine which causes the most food poisonings.

[timorno]

Plakapong, on 17 July 2011 - 04:10 PM, said:

I normally get a good 24 hours worth of puking/shits when I visit Samui and I blame it on the water there.

I found it ironic that in the beach side bar/resto I was frequenting, they made a big thing about how their food is prepared to western standards and only sterilized water is used for washing the salads, then while I was having a piss one of the cooks was stood at the next urinal, when he finished pissing he just wiped his hands on his apron and walked back into the kitchen. Priceless! and often you will see them sitting around outside the kitchen having a fag and picking their noses (Ancient Thai Tradition).

The water in Samui is bad indeed, but have a look at the Cornetto ice cream in every 7-11. You won't find one that isn't deformed, while in Pattaya they look perfectly nice. Cooling chain is just not working there.

[bluestu]

I saw a TV program a few years ago about supposed holiday food poisoning and they put one of the main culprits down to the unhygienic food served up at airports. They went round a number of airports and sampled the different food outlets and found a shockingly high number of nasties in the freshly made sandwiches etc on sale. It certainly put me off eating anything cold and uncooked at airports ever again.

[rabid beaver]

mike_asia, on 17 July 2011 - 10:43 AM, said:

Had it 3 or 4 times around Asia the last one a couple of weeks ago. Nasty shit no pun intended. Never had it in the USA or Europe

don't eat the chicken wings bro, lol

[blackscull]

i had it on my last trip.I needed carried out off the rockhouse as my whole body shut down.The ambulance had blocked the whole off soi LK. £320 for 12hrs, nice room and all.My mate was with me and he was drunk, the doc sent him to the 7/11 to get me some food as it was 2am and the hospital didnt serve at that time. He arrived back with 6 beer and had picked up a hottie, no food at all he had forgot. Another friend arrived in sometime after.Theres me laying with machines all around me not moving.My two friends having a party with 5 hotties lol. Ah well what are friends for lol

[Pedro]

Sometimes the sickness you get on holiday is purely the shock to your system of the new diet. Bangkok belly is not so much food poisoning as much as your body having to handle a lot of unusual stuff.

The worst I've had was in a Thai place in Singapore. I was hallucinating for 2 days. That put paid to that business trip. The hotel wouldn't even call me a doctor and when I dragged myself to the local clinic, they were impressed I'd made it.

Second worse was some partially cooked oysters at the Teppanyaki place in the Equatorial in Penang. That was a case where I knew it when I ate them but for some reason thought it was just a local delicacy (duh!).

Last night I went to Banana House in Silom for dinner - used to be a nice place. I bit into a chiken leg and it looked like I'd bitten into an artery - never seen so much blood come out of a chicken part.

Seems to me they are out to get you all over here.

It'd be nice if the restaurant staff washed their hands after the toilet too. Ugghh..

[tommy dee]

timorno, on 17 July 2011 - 04:23 PM, said:

I have to disagree here. I think food is the problem not ice. There is often no proper cooling chain if you go away further from Bangkok, thats why people tend to get more sick on the islands then mainland. Then Thais have no clue on how to store products. Minced meat has to be consumed the same day, yet here they make burgers out of chopped meat that wasn't properly cooled for days.
Over the years I studied the cases of food poisoning that were reported on the boards and it was mainly farang food. That might have something to do with the lack of natural antibiotics and germ killers like chilli and basil or with some just being more sensible to heat like a Sauce Bernaise that got me really sick once.
Almost all business get their ice daily from the factories and yes, sometimes they don't store it right, but for the most part its alright.
Thais consume alot more ice then we do, the national desert consists of shaved ice, so if your ice theory is right they must be filling the hospitals every day.

Meat does not have to taste rancid to be full of Staphylococcus toxine which causes the most food poisonings.

actuall he is right mate. its called fecal contamination in most cases and is a result of not washin yer hands aftergoing to the bog. BTW H&S did a survey of ice a few years ago in the uk.. ready for this.... 80% plus of the ice they took from a ton of cafes, restaurants and pubs had fecal contam in it too. combine that with not cooling food here and you got the trots.

[mike_asia]

Pedro, on 17 July 2011 - 10:10 PM, said:

Sometimes the sickness you get on holiday is purely the shock to your system of the new diet. Bangkok belly is not so much food poisoning as much as your body having to handle a lot of unusual stuff.

The worst I've had was in a Thai place in Singapore. I was hallucinating for 2 days. That put paid to that business trip. The hotel wouldn't even call me a doctor and when I dragged myself to the local clinic, they were impressed I'd made it.

Second worse was some partially cooked oysters at the Teppanyaki place in the Equatorial in Penang. That was a case where I knew it when I ate them but for some reason thought it was just a local delicacy (duh!).

Last night I went to Banana House in Silom for dinner - used to be a nice place. I bit into a chiken leg and it looked like I'd bitten into an artery - never seen so much blood come out of a chicken part.

Seems to me they are out to get you all over here.

It'd be nice if the restaurant staff washed their hands after the toilet too. Ugghh..

saw the same thing last night. Girl ordered fried chicken and rice and the chicken leg comes out of the kitchen with blood on it. WTF.

[STARGAZER]

tommy dee, on 18 July 2011 - 08:37 AM, said:

actuall he is right mate. its called fecal contamination in most cases and is a result of not washin yer hands aftergoing to the bog. BTW H&S did a survey of ice a few years ago in the uk.. ready for this.... 80% plus of the ice they took from a ton of cafes, restaurants and pubs had fecal contam in it too. combine that with not cooling food here and you got the trots.

Thanks! At end of this post is a video link that highlights the "handling" problem in first world countries.

As far as Timoro's claim that most establishments here in Thailand get their ice from the factory....he is right! And that fact just adds a whole new dimension to the "handling" problems found in other countries. In the US, UK, Aussie, etc one most assume health and safety standards mean that the ice in it's raw form is clean.

Timoro...in the factories here do you think there are any standards or laws that require the water used to make ice is properly filtered and sanitized prior to freezing. Do you think there are any standards where they are required to use Blast Freezing to insure the water passes thorugh the danger zones as fast as possible when freezing. Do you think there are any standards requiring the blades used to cut the cubes are properly sanitized in between uses. Do you think there are any standards to insure the pouros non woven PP bags used for holding and transporting the ice are properly sanitized between uses. Do you think there are any standards that the trucks used to transport the bags of ice are sanitized and the compartments carrying the ice are at kept are temperatures below the danger levels (40 degree F)...

So, add all these factors, ie, the water used to make the ice is not properly filtered, the freezing techniques are not up to standard, the storage and delivery compartments are not sanitized and what you have is alot of contaminated ice being delivered to the establishments from the factory before the individual establishments and employees even have a chance to mis handle the ice.

As far as answering the question why aren't the hospitals full of thais who eat the National Dessert (????)...that is simple. The human body is an amazing and adaptable piece of machinary. Over hundreds of years the locals have developed more of a resistance to the particular bacterias found in dirty ice....same as they have developed a resistance to the bacteria that grow on pork and chicken after sitting out on a food cart all day in a 45 degree sun.

Many forms of food poisoning but without question the #1 instigator of food borne illness is ICE. Both here and in first world countries. Just follow around any local Health and Sanitation offical on their daily rounds in the USA and you will see they pay more attention to the ice machines in a commercial kitchen than any other piece of equipment. (meat slicers are second, and refrigeration units 3rd)

Again, here is a video link highlighting just the handling problems in first world countries. Here those problems are miniscule as compared to the actual manufacturing and logistical problems ice entails.

http://www.msnbc.msn...-make-you-sick/