One of the best things about traveling is eating different foods. We feel so blessed to live in Asia where there is such variety to be purchased so conveniently and cheaply. Street vendors are everywhere, selling ready to eat snacks for cheap prices.
a fruit vendor in Bangkok, Thailand
I often get comments to the effect of, “Do you eat from street vendors?” or “Do you eat at those restaurant stalls?” Many of you have been warned about eating from street stalls and carts, so it’s hard to understand why we eat from them.
I understand the confusion. When you travel overseas for a short term trip or for a vacation, you don’t have time to adapt to the various “bugs” in the food. And you certainly don’t want to spend two of your ten days in bed with a stomach virus! That makes sense.
But remember we live in China. Sure, we get stomach virus a few times a year since the sanitation standards are not as high as many other places in the world. But we also are more used to it, so we don’t get sick as often or as seriously as a visitor would. When we travel to other countries in Asia, we would hate to miss out on the great local food. So we look for relatively clean places and enjoy! (I do want to say that Thailand compared to China is very clean. We’ve never been sick from eating street food here.) Below is a photo of my absolute favorite Thai food.
Papaya Salad
This is made serving by serving when you order it. It’s an explosion of flavors — peanut, shrimp, chilis, onion, garlic — sweet, sour, and spicy all together — in a crunchy texture. I love it! And I can get it from street vendors for about $.75 (for one serving). Cheap and good — my kind of food! (Now remember what you tell your children, “You don’t know you don’t like it until you try it!” I promise; it’s good.)
