Ice pack

This is the 200th iced drink I've downed on the streets of Saigon since 2001. It's Cafe sua da - coffee, sweetened milk, ice. I found it on Thai Van Lung Street in District 1 and it set me back 4,000VD, or around 25 cents.

In 2001 I began cataloguing my street ice intake, anorak fashion. The aim - to provide the first ever scientific proof that every health and hygiene advisory published in a Vietnam guidebook since 2001 was plain barking, cuckoo, woo wah, woo wah.

Freaking folk out over frozen tipples would at last be a thing of the past and Vietnam's ice capitalists could bury their bad rep. and concentrate on cooling palates without foreign media muddying everyone's pants with paranoid poop.

Well, the results are in.

Contrary to popular belief, it appears street ice is actually rather good for you. 0.05% of post-ice movements "noticeably veered from the norm". No shit.

This important first study of its kind concludes; the all important "ice to loose movements" ratio is negligible at worst, positively non-existent at best. And if you don't believe me, I have a double quilted, aloe vera scented spreadsheet smeared with 4 years worth of data which you're welcome to unroll and analyse at your leisure.

Comments

[Lisa]

Love your sense of humor. I'm worried that I'm becoming somewhat of a groupie.

[pieman]

I sometimes worry some folk just don't 'get me' - you do, which is great. Never had a groupie. How seventies. Where's my stretch limo gone?

[azine]

perhaps your stomach is compatible with the local microbiological flora pieman. i know with my weak stomach, i would be hesitant to veer from any tourist reommendations.

heck, i sometimes get sick with the retail food here in california, usa.

what's the secret?

[Lei]

I, too, haven't had as many problems here in Ho Chi Minh City as I had expected. In 9 months, I've had bad food poisoning only 2 times. In Taipei, however, I was sick every month. Hope I don't jinx myself.

[Reid]

Hi Noodlepie,

Cafe sua da is one of my favorite drinks. Somehow it looks better here. I'm glad you haven't experienced ill effects from all of the street food/beverages that you've had. I guess that's a misconception that people have.

[ecr]

Having just recovered from my 8th bout in 2 yrs with some sort or other Saigon bacterium (including a pleasant hospital stay with an e coli variant last summer) I gotta say .... while I support your pooh-poohing of guidebook cautions against street food (after all, if you're not gonna chow on the street food, why bother visiting Asia at all?) ... the risks are definately there.
Under my belt I've got 4 yrs eating everywhere and everything in China, 1 in Thailand, all with nary a problem -- but for some reason Saigon has felled me more than a fair share.
Still, there seems no rhyme nor reason nor pattern to it, which leads me to believe it's more chance or bad luck than anything. I think the best you can advise your readers is to dive in, enjoy ... but best keep some cypro handy bec. sometimes, well (this is so cliche) -- shit happens.

[Viet]

anything in nha trang you like thats my homecity???

[pieman]

OK - you can get a bit gung ho about things and getting sick 2 times in 9 mths or 8 times in 2 yrs is not much fun. The likelihood is I will at some point have another bout, but so far it's never been serious enough to put me off eating anything.

I've only really had 1 nasty bout in 4 yrs in Saigon. And that was nothing to do w. streetfood. The absolute worst was in Hanoi. A French restaurant and duck livers were the kiler combo back then. Although I regularly had 'issues' with the odd Hanoi pho shack.

Sorry Viet, know very little about Nha Trang food. I have to say that place has gone to the dogs over the last ten years. A neon nightmare 'Pattaya wannabe' as I described it in one article. Pleasant beach getaway it ain't no more

[OMIH]

It's strange on the one level I don't seem to have any trouble with the food here (give or take food travelling through me marginally quicker than the norm but not anything you could describe as illness.)

But then again, I reckon I've lost around 20 pounds in five months. So something's making the waistline and little more trim. Then again there was (and still is) plenty to lose.

Cafe Sua Da is my favourite drink too. Except when its already made for you. You need to be able to add your own milk otherwise its invariably too sweet.