I have heard many people telling me they are scare to eat street food vendors because they could get sick. So I want to write this post about how I avoid getting the diarrhea and enjoy many many delicious foods. This doesn’t have to be for just when you travel to Vietnam but it can be used to when you travel to other countries you are not familiar with the food. I am from Vietnam but since I haven’t been back home in a while, I also took a lot of precautions. We did not want to get sick (obviously!) and miss out on traveling around.
1. Drink bottled water or boiled water:
One important thing to remember is to drink bottle water or boiled water. I tried doing this whenever I can. This is the simplest step you can do to ensure a happy stomach. Water bottle are cheap there but if you want to save the environment then just make sure to have boiled water with you.
2. Eat in nice looking restaurants that have many customers:
I know that you might want to be adventurous and try out the corner street food when you first get there. But if you are a first time traveler or haven’t travel for a while, you need to let your stomach get used to the food in that specific country. So… try to eat at nicer restaurants for the first few days you arrive, then start venture out to street food. Nicer restaurant means cleaner food (well…not always). Also, look out to see if they have many customers. For me, I would eat at Ngon restaurant a lot while we visited Hanoi, Vietnam. Ngon restaurant is a chain restaurant and they make very good, authentic Vietnamese food. They have a wide range of Vietnamese food to choose from and it is as good as most vendor food. There is always a ton of people eating at the restaurant when I were there, that says alot about the food tasteness and safetyness.
3. Eat street food but stay on the look out:
After you have let your stomach get used to the food, you can start to venture out to street food. But before you go out and eat everything, look out for things that could help you rate the food. Somethings you could do are:
a. Again…look to see if there are many people eating there. This is what I did whenever we would decided to eat at a street food vendor. For me, many people means that it is delicious and probably safe.
b. Judge for yourself. If that vendor just doesn’t look clean and you don’t feel comfortable eating then don’t!
My hub did not get sick once when we were there but I can’t say the same about myself (so sad…). I did not get sick to the point of vomiting or explosive diarrhea, I just had a slight stomachache with a few (small) bathroom trips (…-_-…). So it is not to say you will stay in the clear zone if you follow this guideline but it will help tremendously so you aren’t hugging the toilet bowl the whole time you are traveling.
Also on the side note: I’m not writing this post to scare you off from eating street food vendors in Vietnam. It’s actually the opposite of that! I love love love Vietnamese food and want you to be able to enjoy them also. I would rather show you ways to eat food safely then get sick and never want to eat Vietnamese food ever again. Happy Eating!
-Trang-
