Street Food- Yay Or Nay?

Out and about, I usually pass by numerous food stalls along the dusty streets.

Full of color and textures, the array of food laid out in the trays is varied and attractive. The smells are enticing for sure. Frying, sizzling and clinking fill the air. I'm almost tempted to try a bowl of something. Street food.

But I realized I've lost the adventurous streak where food is concerned. I'm so conservative, or rather stubborn when it comes to putting things in my mouth. I've always been finicky, just more so nowadays. I wouldn't dare to try many new or old food, for that matter. Strange food turns me off. Put me on Fear Factor and I won't last 5 minutes in the food challenge. Tsk.

There is no way I'd dare to slurp up the street food in Cambodia- not about to risk getting the runs. I'll stick to smelling them. Even in Singapore, I don't really eat at eeeky hawker centres much. I do eat at others where the stalls are clearly cleaner. Grime, grease and smells can be a little, off-putting. I rather eat a tasteless sandwich from the convenience store than sit at a 'popular good food' hawker stall next to the drain with cockroaches and rats running around.

As Phnomenon so aptly puts it in this post,

"6. Don’t eat stupid things – A good guide to judging the stupidity of a food is that if the locals believe primarily that a food will give you strength or vitality in the pants department rather than chiefly eating it because it tastes appealing. Some foods stay as provincial delicacies for one of three reasons: they’re either shit, endangered or they kill you. If snake’s blood was really that delicious, McDonald’s would have a cobra-flavoured sundae. I’m all for eating new and random (but not endangered) things but remember to keep your expectations very low and your bowels at maximum readiness, because when you do discover something that is loosely edible, it will taste like the food of the gods."