Far East Travels Video Podcast

Is It Safe To Eat At Food Stalls/Humble Joints In Asia?

I often see travellers, mostly from Western countries gravitate to what I call the stainless/glass joints across East Asia and Southeast Asia. Some of it is familiarity, they look alot like places back home where they're used to dining. Also because many food/travel guides or bloggers recommend them because they may be a little more foreigner friendly, flavors, and English speaking staff. 

Venture out into the more local places, the food stalls and humble family restaurants and you are certain to get more authentic flavors and feel more like a local and less like a tourist or traveller.

In Taiwan where I shot this video there are thousands of places like this one across the island. Simple looking place, basic tables, plastic chairs, but good food at very affordable prices. It's how many Taiwanese are able to eat out 5 times a week or more!

Often Westerners confuse simple places like this with being unclean, and not safe  but this isn't the case at all. Speaking from personal experience I've never been sick from eating at any of these places in East Asia, or Southeast Asia over the course of several years. Even when I lived in the West and would travel here I would never get sick.

South Asia though is a little riskier depending on which city you're in.  Varanasi has a reputation of making foreigners sick with it's street food. But I ate so much street food the last time I was in Mumbai and never became sick.

Just recognize why you are not feeling comfortable with a place. Is it because it really doesn't look like a place that looks appetizing?  Few people around at a busy time? Or is it because the surroundings aren't familiar? 

In some cities in Southeast Asia I really haven't noticed much difference in the food quality from the simple restaurants to the more upscale versions, with fancier dining rooms and uniformed waitstaff. Unless I'm wanting to impress someone or just looking for a place that would be comfortable to linger around for a few hours i was usually disappointed with the food quality considering it was at least twice as much as the humble joint. 

Also these more upscale versions quite often cater to foreign tastes, in some cases leaving out important authentic ingredients like fish sauce.

Along with the food I also want to feel like I'm really in a different place, and if I simply just go by what the person that writes in my language recommends, I might end up dining with a bunch of foreigners and never feel the local experience. Even if there is a language barrier it's very rare that the local people didn't really try hard to be helpful or make me feel at home. And usually there's always someone around that can speak English and help out. 

Get out there, bust out of your comfort zone and really experience the food and dining culture of Asia!

You can support the podcast by becoming a patron! Patrons get access to exclusive content and contribute to production and travels costs with a pledge starting at $2/month. Visit my Patreon page to find out more:https://www.patreon.com/FarEastTravels

Help others discover the podcast by writing a positive in the iTunes Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/far-east-travels-inspired-by-rick-steves-national-geographic/id890305531?mt=2