I ate street food, while sitting on rickety plastic chairs on small metal tables, covered in noise and moped fumes in Penang, Bangkok and Ha Noi among other places.

I ate a lot of it and never, ever got sick.

Here's my golden rule from which I never deviate:

  Make sure that you see how they cook the food on premises 
  It needs to be well visited, preferably by locals

As I said I never got sick (or even felt slight discomfort) and I had a number of memorable meals under such conditions.

Would a western health inspector tolerate the setup? Hell; no!

But, so what?

Sure, you can stick to the hotel restaurant of The Intercontinental in Bangkok, but you'll be hardly any safer than eating on a wobbly table in some small soi in the area.

But man, will you be missing out...

Do you eat with plastic utensils when you go anywhere but a food truck festival?

I have yet to see evidence that individually packaged plastic forks and knives are more hygienic, or that any poorly-cleaned utensil ever made anyone sick.

> Disposable plastic > poorly cleaned reusables.

FUD from germophobes, IMHO.

Metal straws are very popular in upscale bars in financial cities such as New York, London and Hong Kong. It’s usually a sign you’re paying way too much for your drink!