The food stalls at night markets are almost always packed and very popular. While people enjoy eating and drinking to their heart's content, they often overlook health hazards. These stalls frequently lack hygiene facilities such as dust-proofing, fly-proofing, rat-proofing, and refrigeration, leading to dusty environments, flies, and contaminated ready-to-eat dishes and cold salads. Taking the most popular foods at these stalls—lamb kebabs, spicy crayfish, drunken shrimp, drunken crab, and Malatang (spicy hot pot)—as examples, let's examine the numerous risks and how to prevent food poisoning and intestinal infections.
Barbecue: The biggest producer of carcinogens
Foods to be wary of: Lamb kebabs and chicken wings from roadside stalls. In an interview, Xiao Zhao, who once worked at a roadside stall, revealed the shocking truth about the barbecue business. To cut costs, stall owners always cut corners on the meat. "First, the meat is cut and skewered, then set aside casually. In the summer heat, if business is slow, the meat quickly goes bad. At that point, they just wash the meat, add tenderizer powder, and it looks fresh again," Xiao Zhao said. If the meat is spoiled, adding tenderizer powder and beef essence makes the grilled taste almost identical to fresh meat.
Faking lamb has also become an unspoken rule in the industry. "Many lamb kebabs are actually duck kebabs," Xiao Zhao said. He had always wondered why the owner soaked the "lamb" in lamb fat until he learned the truth. "Duck and lamb are easy to tell apart by taste, but if you soak it in lamb fat or even sheep urine, and then add lamb essence when grilling, no one can tell the difference." Bamboo skewers used for grilling are often reused by vendors, becoming a medium for spreading germs. Furthermore, lamb kebabs prepared on the roadside are contaminated by vehicle exhaust and dust, with no guarantee of a hygienic environment.
When grilled over an open flame, chicken wings produce large amounts of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which can accumulate in the body and trigger cancers like stomach and colon cancer. Another carcinogen, heterocyclic amines (HCAs), have been shown in animal experiments to cause breast and colon cancer. The fattier the meat being grilled, the more carcinogens are produced. The charred skin contains even higher levels of carcinogens than the meat itself, a risk most evident in grilled chicken wings. Additionally, chickens are given six or seven vaccines during their growth, most of which are injected into the wing area, making the wing tips most likely to accumulate hormones, which is unhealthy to consume in large amounts.
Solutions:
First, always choose clean and hygienic places for barbecue; it's best to avoid stalls and roadside vendors.
Second, try not to eat the fatty pieces in the grilled meat, and remove the skin from chicken wings.
Third, wrap the food in aluminum foil to prevent excessive smoke containing carcinogens from coming into contact with the food.
Fourth, ask for extra cumin when eating grilled meat. Research from Kansas State University shows that cumin and curry can significantly reduce carcinogens produced by high-temperature cooking.
Raw/Salad Dishes: Most likely to cause poisoning
Foods to be wary of: Cold-dressed kelp shreds, lotus root slices, dried tofu, and enoki mushrooms. In the processing and sales of cold salads, a common practice is "renewing" them. This means when salads have been out for a while, they are washed, tossed, and resold. In this process, some are simply rinsed with water and then re-seasoned with salt and MSG, while others require special "preservatives" to restore freshness.
For example, when kelp shreds sit for too long, they become soft, sticky, and develop a strange odor. To restore their original texture and color, unscrupulous vendors often add chemicals. The cold-dressed lotus root slices we see in restaurants and stalls are often snow-white, but in reality, lotus root turns brown quickly after slicing due to oxidation, and blanching it in boiling water won't make it very white. To achieve that white color, chemical agents like sodium hydrosulfite are used. The same can be true for dried tofu, seaweed, and packaged enoki mushrooms. Furthermore, most cold salads are raw and uncooked, so without proper hygiene practices and disinfection of utensils and equipment, they can lead to bacterial cross-contamination.
Solutions:
In addition to ordering fewer cold dishes when dining out, pay special attention to their appearance, color, and smell. Be cautious of any salad whose color is unnatural, overly vibrant, or has a strange odor. In the summer, if cold dishes are not refrigerated and are left at room temperature for an hour, bacteria will multiply. Whether eating at a stall or making cold dishes at home, it's best to add some minced garlic and ginger, as they have antibacterial properties. Boiled edamame and peanuts are relatively healthy and safe options, but edamame should be eaten in moderation—a small portion is enough.