Playing With Fire -- or at Least Heartburn

I probably qualified as a suicide bomber last weekend when I passed through security to get on that cruise ship. It was the end of our day in Ensenada, Mexico, and while ashore I had been foolishly turning myself into a prospective human explosive device by eating freely from the sidewalk food carts. Four fish tacos, complete with raw lettuce, onions, tomatoes and ample ladling from the big vat of chili sauce. Ay caramba, were they good! But talk about your major Ka-BOOOM potential.

But nothing happened, other than not being hungry again for about 15 hours. Montezuma took no revenge on me, and I was able to take my rightful place in the conga line on the Lido Deck with the Pepto Bismol and the Immodium untouched.

I'm not sure why, but in a lifetime of foolish street noshing, I've never been felled by an intestinal cataclysm. It's probably just luck, but it has made me more and more cavalier about eating from market stalls and sidewalk carts. There was a time when I stuck cautiously to hotel dining rooms and sanctioned tourist restaurants. But finally, nearly blinded by blandness, I stumbled out into the glorious high-risk world of Bolivia's fried plantains, Vietnam's roadside pho, Hong Kong's dumplings (and how about a brief shoutout to the sopapilla of Navajo country and the pina colada snow cones of Ocean City).

I don't have a death wish, or a love of men's rooms. But my experience has been overwhelmingly positive: Eat with the people and you'll eat well. That's the main rule I follow -- get a little local guidance before you ingest. At best, that means picking up specific tips from local eaters. (In Mexico, some Ensenadans I befriended took me to what they dubbed the best of the town's many fish taco outlets and vouched for its tastiness and, uh, sanitary-ness). In any case, watch were they go, which stall has the crowds and which has the groaning bodies crumpled all around it.

My other loose rules for colonic happiness:
-Avoid raw vegetables, unless a trusted local person tells you the place is safe for salads.
-Avoid ice cubes, unless a trusted local person...ditto. (Almost everybody drinks bottled water almost everywhere these days, so ordering water is easy).
-Fruits and veggies that can be peeled are better than those than can't.
-Fried food may be fatty, but it's also cooked at germ-killing temps (LOVE that street chicken in Guatemala!).
-When you first arrive, eat some locally made yogurt with live cultures to give your gut an introduction to the local microbes. Okay, I don't know if that's true, but I heard it in a hostel in Tanzania and have chosen to believe ever since. Hey, I like yogurt.
-Do not take a flyer on steak tartar or other raw meat delicacies in the developing world. In fact, don't even eat it at Morton's. It's disgusting. (I did once eat ceviche in Nicaragua during a cholera scare, but only because I hadn't heard about the cholera part.)
-Avoid the fermented mare's milk in Mongolia. It's disgusting too.
Other than ate, bon appetit. The world is your oyster. Eat it.

By Steve Hendrix |  January 19, 2007; 5:57 PM ET  | Category:  Steve Hendrix , Tales from the Road , World Cuisine
Previous: Haitian Vacation? | Next: Cheap Bus to NY: Phishing Scam Alert

View or post comments

Posted by: korm | January 22, 2007 7:49 PM

Posted by: jessica | January 29, 2007 10:49 PM

Posted by: ilnqmbu idgnkvc | February 16, 2007 6:31 PM

Posted by: ilnqmbu idgnkvc | February 16, 2007 6:32 PM

The comments to this entry are closed.