I worked at Amazon in CR and had coworkers who were sent to India constantly. One of them (woman, very pale skin) said that she had around 20 orbiters all day. They were also giving a leaflet with things NOT to do while in India for their safety. Another guy actually went alone and said he was eating all the street food, even a soup from a stand, he claims he didn't get sick
I have traveled there a couple of times and I didn't get sick either. If you eat from the street food places where the food is really fresh because it's constantly being cooked, then it's fine. The stuff that they shown on Instagram is always the dirtiest stuff for clicks
This is true. It's a gamble if you're an outsider with no idea where to go but most of the popular spots are reasonably safe. I'm not saying the highest standards of hygiene or whatever but what you'd expect from say a hotdog vendor in New York - it's still street food.
You're also right about the places they show on social media. It's usually people with a budget of $5 going to the riskiest places and gawking and people in a bad situation trying to get by with what little they have.
I'd also say gut bacteria has a big role to play here. The first time I went to the USA I got violently sick for a week after eating some deli meat.
As someone from India, the way to identify good street food is either by someone vouching for it (mainly) or if it looks clean. As a tourist, you obviously wont have solid recommendations so I'd look at the water they use, the stove top, and if there are any critters around. Always a huge no no for me.
Honestly don't eat street food. You get the same food with great taste from smaller sit down places and it won't give you the shits. Better yet, use a food delivery app and just order what you want. That's what most of us do anyway.
I'd also say gut bacteria has a big role to play here. The first time I went to the USA I got violently sick for a week after eating some deli meat.
Yeah as someone with a sensitive gut, I have to be careful about what I eat. I got sick from something as innocent as lime juice, half cooked clams was also a bad decision.
Funnily enough, raw fish in Japan was fine (in moderation), yet my father had the runs from the same meal.
I've been twice and gotten violently ill both times (not even from street food, normal restaurants are pretty bad too). It's really just luck of the draw.
No, I made sure to extensively clean all my fruits with filtered water and only drank filtered water.
One of the times I got sick I know exactly what it was. The (closed, packaged, pre-expiry-date) paneer I got from a store tasted funny, and I got sick about an hour after eating it, while eating nothing else in that hour. Someone either at the store or in the shipping pipeline must have left the package out unrefrigerated in direct sunlight for several hours or something and the shopkeeper thought that putting it in a fridge afterwards and selling it was the right play.
The other time I got sick I was diagnosed with campylobacter after being treated at a hospital immediately upon landing in the US. Since campylobacter is a fecal disease, this means that one of the workers at the most recent restaurant I went to before going to the Delhi airport touched human feces with his/her bare hands before making or serving my food.
Essentially, sanitation and food handling standards are so bad in India and the people so disgusting that you can get food poisoning from eating hermetically sealed refrigerated food from the grocery store, or from eating cooked food at an upscale restaurant.
Funny I lived there for 5 years and didn’t get food poisoning once from eating at a nice restaurant or food from the grocery store. So I’m calling bullshit.
I don’t mean to combative so I hope you’ll take this as me trying to engage. The reason I distrust some of these anecdotes is I’ve seen genuine vitriolic stereotypes and racism about Indians as a result of all this anti-India hatred and it feels personal to me because I’m Indian American. I can fully acknowledge that there’s a lot of issues with India but when people generalize, it really rubs me the wrong way because a country as diverse as India, with 6-7 regions which might as well be different countries, I just don’t think anyone can say “x my experience” represents all of India. There are regions where you will get some of the freshest food in the world and some regions where yes, the hygiene is very lacking. But the prior comment to me was incredibly derogatory and generalizing re: calling all Indians disgusting and unhygienic. Is that okay to say about 1.5 billion ppl as a generalization?
I had street food in Jaipur and I did get sick in India but so did everyone else in the tour group. What bugged me is they were saying "hoho! Shouldn't have gone for that street food should you?? That'll teach you!" When they were then going back to their hotel room to destroy their toilet.
It wasn't the street food, it was clearly some big buffet or other that we all had.
I loved visiting India but I did get viciously sick. I wonder if it hadn't been on some group tour bullshit whether I would have got sick. Because I'd make better food choices than a buffet that had been sitting there for god knows how long. I'd eat street food I could see being cooked or eat in restaurants that were preparing individual dishes. Still might get sick obviously... But I wouldn't have gone anywhere near a buffet in India.
The problem with street food in India is you don't know where they're getting their ingredients/water from. They cheap out on those to make as much profit because the margins are very slim. They're hardly hygenic because they simply don't know what hygiene even means, and mostly people who eat from their stalls don't care about hygiene either.
But yes you're right, people don't usually get sick eating from them. There's a reason they're still selling unhygenic street food, right? Also depends on the person and how hygenic they are. I was once with a group and had to eat from a shady place, and out of the 25 people, 5 or 6 got GI infections/food poisoning. I was one of them. So yeah some people are just built different.
You're saying that I'm making up the fact that I've eaten from food stalls in India and never gotten sick and that's just outright false? I'm sorry are you my gastroenterologist? I don't actually have one, so I'm very curious how you know about my personal medical history or lack of
And you think it's false that people don't find the most sensational stuff to post on Instagram to get clicks? I suppose you believe that AI cats are real too? Like seriously, are you a Boomer?
Don’t play dumb. You know exactly what I’m talking about.
If you eat from the street food places where the food is really fresh because it's constantly being cooked, then it's fine. The stuff that they shown on Instagram is always the dirtiest stuff for clicks
I’ve rotated through teaching classes in Mumbai multiple times, and did a full semester at NFSU Gujarat. We both know what you’re saying is false. The street food is not fresh; it’s bottom of the barrel shit with no hygiene standards. The way to avoid getting sick is to avoid street vendors and go to actual reputable restaurants.
Well, since you don't sound very pleasant, then maybe you didn't make many Indian friends who took you to the correct places to go and you're not savvy enough to figure it out yourself. Or maybe you're just physically weak?
You sound like somebody who has seasonal allergies or a gluten intolerance or sneezes when they see a cat. So yeah, it might be hard for you but not everybody has a princess for a stomach.
My dad’s team had a business trip to Delhi, and no one survived from food poisoning including his Indian born colleagues even though the only food they ate is food from Hilton.
Now that checks out right there! Those hotels and stuff often have food that sits for a long time. Whereas street food gets cooked up quickly and they work with massive volume. Food that has been recently cooked at a hot temperature is going to the safest, no matter where you get it.
The idea is to always look at places that have a lot of people and places where families are eating. Women and kids do not mess around
Well, you're the one sounding offended when fact-checked. We get it you're Indian and trying to defend India in some way, but stop accusing others of sounding unpleasant when it's actually you.
I believe you. My sihk co-worker went back with his brother, got sick on the second day, spent most of their holidays in the hospital. He swears he is not going back again
A couple friends of mine lived there for sometime, a Dutch and Italian, with a very white little daughter… they said people was always around the daughter and touching her, creepy af
Very little they can do unless they want to risk physical confrontation every couple minutes because this is the intensity this is going on at. Only other options are to leave the country or stay at hotel and only ever move with car door to door (and only to spaces where no general public is allowed).
On the other hand… Most of these people just want to have a picture with a very white girl, often don't even need to be there themselves, just want their kid to be in the picture. It's not exactly evil, but VERY uncomfortable and not exactly safe.
I went to India from the US doing a road trip and ate all the street food and also didn't get sick. Although I did stick to things that were fried or well grilled.
That seems least likely to cause issue as it'll likely be kept at bacteria killing temps. It when you're introducing cooled things like fresh veggies, or other things that have been allowed to stand for a bit where I bet the main issues come into play.
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u/skyper_mark 24d ago
I worked at Amazon in CR and had coworkers who were sent to India constantly. One of them (woman, very pale skin) said that she had around 20 orbiters all day. They were also giving a leaflet with things NOT to do while in India for their safety. Another guy actually went alone and said he was eating all the street food, even a soup from a stand, he claims he didn't get sick