Foreign husbands bring big changes to Isaan

[thaibook]

Where in the heck are these people getting cheese burgers and pizza in Issan? I didn't see any Pizza huts or Micky D's on the side of the dirt roads we bounced down for 40 mins to get to my wife's home village in Chayiaphum.

The point that is trying to be made is that you should, or at least in my opinion, should prevent this from happening. I am starting to see it already in places like Ubon Ratchathani and its sad to see that these children will suffer....

[thaibook]

If the food is so unhygenic, then how can people eat it? How have these people survived in these conditions for hundreds of years without the area being wiped out by a disease? God knows what happens in your local supermarket to the meat, etc. That have been frequent cases of meat falling to the floor and placing it back into the mix, uncleaned surfaces, etc. The food prepared in Thailand is unhygenic in OUR WESTERN concept of hygenic. To them, they do not see it as unhygenic.

As per kid eating crisps and things - that is only crisps and believe me I see if alright. Imagine you add the crisps with all the other garbage, what is going to happen to them now? A small bag of crisps plus a few hamburgers for dinner - you are going to have a serious problem. I see it already by where my father lives! There are those few children who are abnormally large and what do they have in their hands ALL THE TIME?

In the case of not liking something in an area. There are tons of things you can choose from there. I mean you are not subjected to eat a dinner of solely Som Tam. I am sure that with the will of adapting, you can be suprised to how much your taste buds change. Maybe Thai is an aquired taste, who knows...

I never want a country to stay in the "dark ages" because in this day in time, it is impossible. There is no way, unless a dictator supresses his country from foreign influence, that things will not change. School term, "Cultural Diffusion", BUT what I merely want to get across is that I do not want the Thai culture to diminish in the hands of the Western Culture. It seems to be going down that path and I do not wish to see it happen...

[Peterg]

All I can say about the matter is: I have now been in Thailand for a couple of weeks and I cannot say I haven't enjoyed a meal.

Just this lunchtime, had Som Tam, Lab Moo, Mushroom soup and various green fodder; hot basil, pak bung thai, and cabbage and it was delicous. Will be off in a minute down to the water front to have some kind of seafood with vegetables.

How one can say the crap you get at a burger place or at KFC tastes better is beyond me. But there you go, it all boils down to personal taste, there is no "best", there is no "worst", it all depends on the individual.

And as someone has pointed out already, there are no legions of people being killed off with food poisoning so it can't be that bad. So let's leave it at the point where it depends on an individual's personal taste and aknowledge that everyone is right.

[FaranginPhetch]

Thaibook, There you go again, double talk,

I never want a country to stay in the "dark ages" because in this day in time, it is impossible. There is no way, unless a dictator supresses his country from foreign influence, that things will not change. School term, "Cultural Diffusion", BUT what I merely want to get across is that I do not want the Thai culture to diminish in the hands of the Western Culture. It seems to be going down that path and I do not wish to see it happen...

The world is getting smaller so accept it, or move to Burma, they have your dictator type of govt.

If the food is so unhygenic, then how can people eat it? How have these people survived in these conditions for hundreds of years without the area being wiped out by a disease? God knows what happens in your local supermarket to the meat, etc. That have been frequent cases of meat falling to the floor and placing it back into the mix, uncleaned surfaces, etc. The food prepared in Thailand is unhygenic in OUR WESTERN concept of hygenic. To them, they do not see it as unhygenic.

As per kid eating crisps and things - that is only crisps and believe me I see if alright. Imagine you add the crisps with all the other garbage, what is going to happen to them now? A small bag of crisps plus a few hamburgers for dinner - you are going to have a serious problem. I see it already by where my father lives! There are those few children who are abnormally large and what do they have in their hands ALL THE TIME?

We live far away from any farang food joints[300 KM to nearest McD], we also have a lot of fat[abnormally large] people, that have never seen a McD so how do you explain that?? and if you wish, I can take some pix and send to you so you can see for yourself.
As to the hygienic foods, why is it that a lot of farang tourists end up with food poisoning or a damn good case of the skidders?, bacteria in the food that they have no defense against that Thai and most locals do have and it is an acquired thing,
The same as what is called "touristas" or Montezuma revenge in Mexico,Not Clean sanitary food, and clean sanitary dishes and the same reason that I have had Hepatitis and cholera over the years and both contacted in SE ASIA.
Why can a buzzard eat rotten meat with no ill effects, why can dogs eat things that would kill a human, why do some dogs in certain areas get sick and die from eating a salt water fish that has returned to fresh water while other dogs in other areas eat them all the time??,, because they have an acquired immunity to the bacteria that is in those fish.

Now that is why a Thai can eat any damn thing he wants to and a farang, if he has any sense will not try.
But just as I said early on, when I was your age I ate and drank anything I wanted where I wanted and never much of any ill effects, except hepatitis and cholera. damn near died from both..

The food prepared in Thailand is unhygenic in OUR WESTERN concept of hygenic. To them, they do not see it as unhygenic.

And you are correct, by my standards it is nasty, and I am the one that has to eat it, I never said a Thai can't eat it.
But by the same token my dog eats stuff in ways that I think are dirty, but I am not a dog and don't have to eat it her way.


Peter

How one can say the crap you get at a burger place or at KFC tastes better is beyond me

I don't think anyone said BETTER But Different,,variety is the spice of life, you just came from GB or US, throw your ticket away, move up to a small village away from all farang stuff, and just see after a few years if a hamburger would n't taste OK.

[thaibook]

OK rather than start WWIII here, which is not my intent to do, I will slow down on the conversation a bit. I will leave it what I had to say because frankly that is all I really have to say on the subject. One last comment to leave you with, maybe I have an abnormal immune system to most but yes, the first time in Thailand I got the skids - only natural to when the body's not accustomed to the food. Since I have been going back there, no serious problems whatsoever. Don't know if that will change as my age does. Making the similarities between dogs and humans are beyond me and I have a bit of a better outlook on people from other countries than referring to them as "dogs"? Two very different organisms...

(BTW, please don't take my arguements personally. I mean it solely as a debate and respect other's views on it but it is just that I have my own as well. If you ever meet me, I am quite a friendly person and not always as radical or what some would call pessimistic/optimistic as it sometimes seems through conversation)

[FaranginPhetch]

No problem, I am too, but I have traveled all my life and have seen what happens
As to the dogs being brought into this conversation, they have enzymes and bacteria that humans do not have but just the same it is food in a living stomach and it will make some sick while not others that are used to eating such things, as with what is called Salmon poisoning, a mis nomer because it only get into them after they come into fresh water and all fresh water fish can have it, but once and then if they live thru it they never get it again.
And with a youth and his immune system, they should very easily get sick once and never again after you have the means to offset the bacteria where an old man will not.
But just as I have said before,,what might be clean cooking and clean healthy food to a Thai will not be clean to me, and I am the one that has to eat it.
I used to eat daily in a food shop close to my house and then I didn't have to cook, one day in my Pad Thai I got a cooked fly and so I didn't eat any of it as I noticed it before I ate any, the owner lady came and looked, shrugged her shoulders and walked away. I paid and left and have never been back, now that might be SOP for a Thai, but not for me,
I have seen the cook petting and playing with a cat in a shop at Khao Kho and we sat down, she took our order and went right to work with her catty hands making my grub, no thank you and we left.
I looked in the kitchen of a Very Nice place close to us here and there were 3 cats walking around eating on the cook tables, we have never been back there either.
The only animal in my house is my parrot and he is always on his cage and never in my grub.
My Thai wife even sees a fly in the house and she goes ballistic, different than when I married her..

[thaibook]

I might sound a bit abnormal, forgive me on this, but I am one of those lads who willingly eat the insects on the street (not he ants walking on the pavement but the ones on carts to clarify haha). Hell, if the fly was cooked, doesn't cooking really kill off the germs and bacteria? I guess I just take things as they are when I am there and that is just my preference - regardless of what others think but I respect your preferences. What I like about Thailand is that you can see those things that people do in the kitchen (on a fair amount of the places in rural areas). Now in Western countries, you typically DONT see what they do and that worries me. I talk from experience of working in a restaurant and will not even begin to tell you what things happen in the "back kitchen". The thing is that you really typically don't know the difference when the food is all cooked and ready to go...

[FaranginPhetch]

My youngest son, who is now dead, was a very fine chef, so I do know something about kitchens, I myself have cooked for more folks than just myself.
But I have standards as to what I think is clean and what is nasty,What the Thai eat doesn't interest me in the least but it is to nasty for me,
when I was young, I was hardly ever sober but sober or not, I ate a lot of stuff that I wouldn't eat today, and bugs are one of them, but I never really ate bugs, but did taste them, but can see no reason to eat them for a meal if you have other things to eat because they sure as hell will never pass a rib eye beef steak.
I have eaten meals in some Viet hooches that were so nasty that I wouldn't sleep in em, but hunger and youth do have a way with ya.
I ate everything on the streets of PI,Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan, Korea and never gave it a thought, But I have never really liked any Thai foods and to me the spices and flavors are all the same. I like the country, the people and the climate, but not the food, sure wish they ate Korean here, then I would be more than happy.
But flys are one of the nastyest bastards around, and I sure as hell do not want them in my food. If you just worry about it being cooked or not then you could pick up anything on the street and cook it, but I still wouldn't eat it. specially in the doggie neighborhoods.

[thaibook]

Ok understood. I mean don't get me wrong, I don't make a habit of eating flies and things of that sort. I am not at that point where I am picking things off the street and cooking it but just saying I don't really mind that much. I can't really say, as obviously I am not experienced on the subject, that age has effect on these things - you are more experienced and I will take your word for it.

[FaranginPhetch]

OK, But not all folks eat strange things, My wife does not and never has eaten bugs, Rats or those little black furry things that look like black ginney pigs.
She didn't know that beef could be an enjoyable experience what with never having seen anything but village sold Thai beef.
I don't eat snakes, never have, and even one time in Nam I refused to eat some noodle soup because it was Python and another time because it was dog and I was kinda hungry, Some people at home eat rattlesnakes, we killed them by the thousands every summer in the hay fields, took the rattles and threw the rest away.
I know that some things are not as clean as they could be, but it is still better to have meat from a slaughter house where it is inspected than killed, skinned on the ground and chopped up into pieces and sold, dirt, blood and all and after flies have blown it for hours with out refrigeration.
That might be OK for some, but I will not eat it, that is all I am saying, if you want to eat it, please do so but do not expect me to.
And I do know that ISSAN have some different tastes than Thai over here, There was a guy came thru the other day with a pickup and stopped in front of my house, he had some dogs in a caged back of his rig and offered me a 20 L. plastic bucket for my Thai dog I have in my yard, he said the dogs were bound for ISSAN and some to go on to Viet Nam.