Siberian_Viktorya

Won't people get sick eating semi-cooked crabs like this?
The videos were apparently from a seafood festival in
Thailand.

I've been having an argument with my co-worker who is half Thai.
She insists that people in Thailand have "stronger stomach and
don't get sick like the average American tourists..."

But I don't know.... it looks like EVERYBODY, regardless of
nationality or country of residence can easily get food poisoning.

Please help me settle this argument...

Warning, this YouTube video of crabs is very disturbing. PETA
members/supporters should not click.

(note how the "cooks" use the same metal pan for the crabs and
lobster)

BamaVol

Semi cooked crab prepared with rubber gloves? If he won't touch it, I wouldn't eat it.

pnt1

It might be true that people who grew up/spent a lot of time as children from developing countries might have "stronger" stomachs, as they are have been exposed to more types of bacteria than other developed countries.

Sweet Willie

rubber gloves is likely a requirement of food service sanitation law, not how sanitary the food item is.


Perhaps personal prep cleanliness?
i.e. I wear rubber gloves when preparing garden soil so I don't have to super scrub my hands of dirt. I've also thought about it when cleaning seafood.at a number of Korean restaurants, I've had raw crab served with some sesame chili oil, delicious, I've also made this dish at home, although not frequently as Mrs Willie isn't a fan of digging meat from shells.Like pnt1 I would agree with this to an extent, not that Thais have stronger stomachs, but just that the different bacteria they are exposed to gives them the ability to digest food items that might make a westerner sick. i.e. don't drink that water when in Mexico.

That said, I'm guessing a Thai is going to suffer from salmonella or botulism the same as a westerner.

work2fly

My understanding is that traditional som tam preparations include raw river crab.

I have eaten raw salt water crab, most memorably with the poster immediately above, but I don't think you could pay me to eat any raw fresh water sea food.

YVR Cockroach

Agreed. Much more likely to find parasites that will find a host in humans in fresh water seafood, at least for fish and molluscs. Not sure about crabs not that I'd try.

vh_bu98

Looks yummy to me. Then again I will eat rare steak which is basically similar.