Street vendor in Taipei selling food

[stylinexpat]

Originally Posted by Eeighty8

Makes me appreciate Singapore. They have a grading system for all their street vendor food.

I really wish they did the same out here in Taiwan. Until or unless someone really gets sick or dies no one really gives a crap out here about hygiene.

There is a good side to this and a bad side to all of this. The good side is that the locals have stomachs like garbage disposals that can pretty much digest anything they consume lol.. While the bad side is for us used to clean food we get sick every time we eat something like this. Locals will eat this and nothing will go wrong while if we eat this get ready to puke after and sit on the toilet with the runs for a couple of days.

[boymonkey]

LOL why do you even stay there if you can't stand it?

[stylinexpat]

Originally Posted by boymonkey

LOL why do you even stay there if you can't stand it?

Every country has it ups and downs. There are many good sides to Taiwan but hygiene is not one of them which is not to say that clean places can not be found or do not exist because they can be found and do exit (just that you have to search hard for them).

PS: Last but not least no one ever said I could not stand it here.

[asdflkijd]

omg, thats disgusting... makes me wonder about the chicken and rice stands in nyc.. shit is so good though!

[ChrisMT79]

Where in Taiwan is that? My wife is from Taoyuan but the only street food I eat is grilled or fried for the most part, an of course the dragon fruit is always good. I usually stick with the restaurants. Spend most the time in Taipei as well but there are some good restaurants in Hualien thats has great sea food.

[Year's_End]

Originally Posted by stylinexpat

This one I will never forget. This guy washes his vegetables in the bathroom sink that they use to wash the mop in which they wipe the bathroom floor with. Taipei is a city which leaves you with many memories.

cool pun, bro

[stylinexpat]

Another meal another day.. Today I they send me my dinner box in Taipei with a hair in my vegetables and a big worm in my green beans. Would be nice if this city would one day implement health inspectors to go around the restaurants to check on cleanliness,hygiene and a bunch of other stuff.

[f=ma]

sucks bro, I'm Taiwanese-American. I go to Taiwan multi times a year. In fact I'm in Taiwan right now. And I never get that problem. I know where to and where not to get food.

[Gregxi]

Looks like an eyelash, you should make a wish

[Alpine Whiteboy]

This thread is fuckin GROSS!! I get REALLY grossed out and turned off/loss of appetite by the littlest things in my food. I would STARVE over there.....

[infinitekidM2C]

this thread is making Spool hungry

[michaelthepsycho]

Hahaha... Welcome, my man. Come down to Kaohsiung. Taipei's notorious for crappy food and imbeciles who don't know any better; standing in line for food that's shittier than prison (I've had both).

As for the hygiene... I don't give a fuck. If I don't see it, it don't exist.

[///Mandy]

The worm adds extra protein though!

[PINeely]

Originally Posted by stylinexpat

Would be nice if this city would one day implement health inspectors to go around the restaurants to check on cleanliness,hygiene and a bunch of other stuff.

The modern restaurant evolved directly from the street vendor and the concept that more customers = more money. At first they sold a pretty basic fare like potato soup to poor people. It wasn't special and the rich of course had nothing to do with it but the vendors discovered that if they maybe added some salt or a carrot or served a different meal then they might make a few cents less per sale but that they'd bring more customers. Capitalistic competition. The ones who succeeded made enough money to open their own restaurants. On the other side of that coin, vendor X may use gutter water to make his soup while vendor Y uses clean water. Suddenly a bunch of vendor X's customers don't come back because they were made sick or killed by his food. Vendor X, humiliated and unable to keep in business because of his new reputation, is forced to either close shop or change how he does the dishes and try to save face. Either way he no longer poses a problem. When there are simply regulations in place or health inspectors coming around you can bet that vendor X will do what he has to to meet regulations but not exceed them since he has no big incentive to. With regulations in place many people assume that all existing places are safe to eat and don't consider that their food may be better elsewhere. Without them people are forced to look out for themselves. It's kind of like the gas price regulations where the station owner can't severely undercut the price of his neighbor's gas due to regulations, if he can afford to sell cheaper gas then he should be rewarded for it with more business. Street vendors receive more business for better tasting food and on the other front are rejected by the public if their customers all get sick.

Yes I agree that health regulations are necessary in most places today because most people refuse to take responsibility of their own safety. The history lesson just begs the question, how free is the food we eat? Something to think about.

[number335]

Originally Posted by ///Mandy

The worm adds extra protein though!

This. People in Taipei pay extra for worms in their meals. You should be grateful.

[sanf]

how did it taste though...

[Express]

spool was here.

[Spool]

damn, this makes me want to vomit

[immiketoo]

Originally Posted by NYCGP

Could also be a nasty ass street cart selling rat meat in Taipei.

You make your assumptions... I will make mine.

LOL! I will ALWAYS assume the worst when it comes to food. Just ask Spool.

[NYCGP]

Originally Posted by Spool

damn, this makes me want to vomit

Yes!!! Laugh of the day..

[stylinexpat]

Originally Posted by sanf

how did it taste though...

I called them up to complain as this was delivered to my shop. Manager apologized and refunded me my money. This is typical in Taiwan. Sorry when a customer complains and then business as usual turning a blind eye to everything. The majority of the locals are used to stuff like this so most do not complain and turn a blind-eye to this themselves.

I kept the worm for the when the owner came back to pick up my meal and I asked her if she would eat it and accept worms in her meal along with hair? As other Chinese here said she told joked and said it was protein as this is what all Chinese will tell you when you see worm in your meal and no I did not eat the worm

I did show all my neighbors at the shop this worm and hair though. What will happen now is that for a few days they will not call up and order food from this person and after 4-5 days they would have forgotten this ordeal and all start ordering again. This is how things go here in Taipei.

[TMNT]

I've been to third world countries in Africa with 10x better hygiene than that