01-17-2008, 05:58 AM
Bear and I have spent a LOT of time in Thailand (two dozen trips,) Indonesia, India, and Mexico. We found eating with street vendors to be especially cheap, safe, and convenient. The deal with street vendors is that often you can see the whole cooking process from start to finish, so you know that fresh ingredients were used and the food was cooked to a sufficient temperature to kill pathogens. We always tried to choose vendors who cooked on the spot rather than served pre-cooked food, unless a trusted local friend told us it was OK. This was generally easy in Thailand and India, as most of the vendors there did not want to take a risk on pre-cooking a lot of food and then not selling it. Some of those nice looking restaurants with clean, modern dining rooms have kitchens that are sanitary horrors, as I discovered once in Bangkol by taking a wrong turn on the way to the toilet which turned out to be cleaner than the kitchen.
Pam, if you are still in Chiang Mai, there is a wonderful lady who sets up a noodle stand every evening on the street that makes a T junction outside the plaza in front of the eastern gate to the old city. She is usually on the first corner east of the plaza, and she has the most wonderful spicy noodles and noodle soups, all boiled up and cooked right there. Mmmmmmmm.
Cheers and bon appetit!
Jerry
Pam, if you are still in Chiang Mai, there is a wonderful lady who sets up a noodle stand every evening on the street that makes a T junction outside the plaza in front of the eastern gate to the old city. She is usually on the first corner east of the plaza, and she has the most wonderful spicy noodles and noodle soups, all boiled up and cooked right there. Mmmmmmmm.
Cheers and bon appetit!
Jerry
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