Street Food?

[NotQuiteCockney]

Is street food a form of Russian roulette nearly everywhere in the world?

I know it's safe in Toronto, and fine in NYC and Boston. It's unsafe in London (from my experience, even iron-guts DH gets sick from street hotdogs here), and I'm told it's unsafe in Mexico.

ive had it in singapore, was delicious! ate it everyday as was a skint student at the time

didnt actually ever fully know what i was eating though, just picked what looked the nicest!

It is really good in Sri Lanka even the most vile looking places IME

Oh, I'd expect it to be fine in Singapore.

Is Sri Lanka somewhere you have to worry about tummy bugs?

I'm quite annoyed it's always so bad in the UK, I'm used to Toronto street hot dogs which are always tasty and safe.

When we were in Hong Kong we chose the cakes to eat

NOT anything with meat in iyswim

And so we were fine

maybe you have to go for the local speciality NQC. Jellied eel stalls in London are fine IME.

I follow the rule that if it is pipeing hot then any little nasties will be killed and it will hopefully be alright...what it tastes like is another matter. I was a bit warey of it in India and china as I was seriously not sure what it was, but in Hong Kong (when it was Hong Kong!)I had some really yummy food, cheap and filling, just what a student on a budget needed.
In the Gambia I had some that made me feel really sick after I had eaten it, not because it tasted bad or made me sick but because of what it was.......Water Buffalow testicles in a kind of garlic sauce.

Hmm, maybe I should have tried that rule in Mexico, there were lots of street stalls, but I was very nervous about stomach bugs (I have a rickety stomach). My dad said that eating places without loos was a mistake, because how would the workers wash their hands?

Ooh! I do love roasted chestnuts on a cold rainy night, just after the shops have shut and the rain is illuminated by the orange of the street lights and the shop windows. You used to get about 12 chestnuts in a bag, you are lucky if you get 4 now for a quid and then they are often not cooked properly..... Oh those were the days!

NQCockney... Your dad sounds like a very wise man.

But there are (some) public loos in the UK, why is street food still gross?

You know, I probably wouldn't be able to tell what was a good jellied eel, because, eww, jellied eels.

I am afraid that it is the 'liqour?', that green pea sauce that I don't like with eels.

Oh, our local pie and mash shops have "liquor". I think it's made with parsley.

But I don't like the fact that the pies are "meat" pies. I'm not vegetarian, but I generally don't eat "meat", I eat pork and beef and lamb, just not "meat".

There was a TV prog a while back that showed London hot dog sellers packing unsold cooked sausages into cardboard boxes at the end of the day to be reheated the next day. That's prob why they aren't v good for you.

Meat Pies in a pie and mash shop...No No No!
I do like eel pie and mash but keeps the sauce.
Where I live now, in the summer months, mainly for the tourists you can buy Cockles and Mussels in a pipeing hot garlic sauce served with a couple of slices of bread. Nice and filling on a cool summer night as you go along the beach.