- Thread starter frank recktenwald
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The reputation of food in the DR
I have not seen this in my years here....I guess you have more experience with this stuff.
btw
http://www.healthywomen.org/condition/yeast-infections
Why there is no cases of cholera in Switzerland?
Like I said....the water here.
two pills for 600 pesos( private pharmacy) to treat parasites. That's a complete treatment. There are much cheaper options at the public hospitals and government pharmacies. You must be talking about the poorest of the poor because most poor Dominicans will go to the public clinics and receive medical care. I don't eat street food for exactly that reason- servers not clean enough, nor the prep area. None of that food is good for you even if prepared properly. There is a local Dominican restaurant down the road from me. Stainless steel sinks and prep area, all staff wearing hair nets and white clothing. Very clean. Many of these people, at least where I am , have worked in the USA, or Europe in the service industry and learned a thing or two. See how easy it was for you to post the above post, being critical without being nasty.
If you live here for months on end and are relatively healthy, your immune system adjusts the best it can. One can't help but be exposed to the germs that are everywhere in the DR. Just about every aspect of daily life offers countless ways for germs to survive and thrive.
Even in the developed world, we hear case after case of listeria tainted products being recalled and slaughter houses that are not following all of the rules all the time. Can you imagine a slaughter house in this country?
Fecal matter is all around us in the DR. There are cows and horses wandering down the street all the time. Some places have better sewage treatment than others. Where I live I see (and smell) the big tanks on the side of the hwy in the middle of town and can't help but think they are not big enough for every toilet that gets flushed. Toilets, not everyone has one, so where do they go I wonder?
The water is not safe. Sit at many of the bars in this country and watch as the glasses are washed in the stream of unheated tap water draining into the sink at the end of the counter - I have yet to see an automatic glass washer that heats it's own water to 160+ degrees.
The point is we all get sick. I'm not talking Dengue sick, but food poisoning sick. Sometimes, the symptoms are mild and we shrug them off. Sometimes, we know we are ill but it passes in a day or two. Over time our bodies can take on a lot of these germs and win before we feel like death has arrived. Sometimes, our bodies can't. Some parasites are really good a living inside you without making their presence known or much of an inconvenience. Residents and tourists alike can still contract hepatitis, all the mosquito diseases, cholera, typhoid fever, tetanus even rabies if we are not careful and keep our vaccinations up to date. Everyday we are all exposed to someone not washing their hands, or a cross contaminated food preparation surface, a barber's dirty scissors, or the damned water. Everyday we get just a little better at fighting off the common germs.
The tourists on their first trip ever to the DR don't have a chance unless their resort purifies it's own water supply and strictly enforces hygiene standards and practices and they remain on the resort. Even then, some employee is going to bugger things up probably because they are lazy and don't think about how their actions or lack of them could affect an ivory white tourist who has just arrived, consumed a pile of alcohol, is dehydrated and a prime candidate for microbes they just don't encounter with the same regularity where they come from. Go on a tourist excursion and have a lunch provided at one of those beach shacks without running water...I shake just thinking about fried fish from who knows where.
Of course lots of tourists get sick. Of course they complain in a positing on a travel site. They come to a foreign country are exposed then leave before their bodies can adapt. When I first moved to Germany, I got sick. I think from the trap water. Not dying sick, just the upset stomach, and the trots. It passed and never came back.
Many times it's the tourists themselves who arrive with an ongoing illness. Not sick enough to be denied access to the plane, not sick enough to cancel their travel plan but sick enough to infect everyone on the plane and everyone they sit next to at lunch. Tourists probably wash their hand less than the staff. Yuck, just think about the bad aim of an inebriated tourist the next time you touch that flush handle on the urinal. Take sixty seconds to watch any public bathroom. 10 people come in, 6 exit without washing their hands. It's not always the local conditions and the local people that cause us to get sick. We often do it to ourselves when we gather together en mass. I stay away from sniffling/coughing tourists during "the season" because I know I'll get the flu or a cold from them. I have now been in the DR long enough that I am susceptible to common diseases brought here by people from back home. I haven't had the flu in a few years. When I do catch it, it's probably going to be nasty.
It doesn't matter where you travel to, there is a really good chance that you'll get mildly sick in the first few weeks you are there. Different environment, different germs. I still won't drink a glass of tap water here, but the glass that my beer is served in doesn't seem to be a problem anymore, for me. For my guests, however, I give them a mug to take to the bar when we go out carousing. Because I know...and they don't.
Even in the developed world, we hear case after case of listeria tainted products being recalled and slaughter houses that are not following all of the rules all the time. Can you imagine a slaughter house in this country?
Fecal matter is all around us in the DR. There are cows and horses wandering down the street all the time. Some places have better sewage treatment than others. Where I live I see (and smell) the big tanks on the side of the hwy in the middle of town and can't help but think they are not big enough for every toilet that gets flushed. Toilets, not everyone has one, so where do they go I wonder?
The water is not safe. Sit at many of the bars in this country and watch as the glasses are washed in the stream of unheated tap water draining into the sink at the end of the counter - I have yet to see an automatic glass washer that heats it's own water to 160+ degrees.
The point is we all get sick. I'm not talking Dengue sick, but food poisoning sick. Sometimes, the symptoms are mild and we shrug them off. Sometimes, we know we are ill but it passes in a day or two. Over time our bodies can take on a lot of these germs and win before we feel like death has arrived. Sometimes, our bodies can't. Some parasites are really good a living inside you without making their presence known or much of an inconvenience. Residents and tourists alike can still contract hepatitis, all the mosquito diseases, cholera, typhoid fever, tetanus even rabies if we are not careful and keep our vaccinations up to date. Everyday we are all exposed to someone not washing their hands, or a cross contaminated food preparation surface, a barber's dirty scissors, or the damned water. Everyday we get just a little better at fighting off the common germs.
The tourists on their first trip ever to the DR don't have a chance unless their resort purifies it's own water supply and strictly enforces hygiene standards and practices and they remain on the resort. Even then, some employee is going to bugger things up probably because they are lazy and don't think about how their actions or lack of them could affect an ivory white tourist who has just arrived, consumed a pile of alcohol, is dehydrated and a prime candidate for microbes they just don't encounter with the same regularity where they come from. Go on a tourist excursion and have a lunch provided at one of those beach shacks without running water...I shake just thinking about fried fish from who knows where.
Of course lots of tourists get sick. Of course they complain in a positing on a travel site. They come to a foreign country are exposed then leave before their bodies can adapt. When I first moved to Germany, I got sick. I think from the trap water. Not dying sick, just the upset stomach, and the trots. It passed and never came back.
Many times it's the tourists themselves who arrive with an ongoing illness. Not sick enough to be denied access to the plane, not sick enough to cancel their travel plan but sick enough to infect everyone on the plane and everyone they sit next to at lunch. Tourists probably wash their hand less than the staff. Yuck, just think about the bad aim of an inebriated tourist the next time you touch that flush handle on the urinal. Take sixty seconds to watch any public bathroom. 10 people come in, 6 exit without washing their hands. It's not always the local conditions and the local people that cause us to get sick. We often do it to ourselves when we gather together en mass. I stay away from sniffling/coughing tourists during "the season" because I know I'll get the flu or a cold from them. I have now been in the DR long enough that I am susceptible to common diseases brought here by people from back home. I haven't had the flu in a few years. When I do catch it, it's probably going to be nasty.
It doesn't matter where you travel to, there is a really good chance that you'll get mildly sick in the first few weeks you are there. Different environment, different germs. I still won't drink a glass of tap water here, but the glass that my beer is served in doesn't seem to be a problem anymore, for me. For my guests, however, I give them a mug to take to the bar when we go out carousing. Because I know...and they don't.
I went to Ethiopia in 1986 to do Famine relief work. Myself and one other guy are the only two in our group that didn't come down with a serious case of the Hershey squirts, and I think it's because we lived off German beer, Italian wine, and Dutch pound cake and cheese for six weeks while everyone else ate in the local restaurants. Everybody in my Dominican family has got an internal parasiste at one time or another. My MIL had parasites so bad that his kidneys almost stop working and he was knocking at deaths door. I think a few germs actually are good for you but you sure as hell don't want them to be the wrong ones that will kill you. I notice my banker always covers her water after taking a drink- smart lady.
They had staff giving a squirt of hand disinfectant both at the bath exits and the dining entrance at the Rui Merengue when we stayed there.
They had staff giving a squirt of hand disinfectant both at the bath exits and the dining entrance at the Rui Merengue when we stayed there.
This is for my education, not to be argumentative. I regularly buy peppers labelled as scotch bonnet and product of RD. Your opinion? This is what I bought this morning. Usually the peppers in the package are varied colours of red, yellow, orange and sometimes green. Packages this week seemed to be all red, and the peppers more uniform in shape than usual.
Edit: Dang, the 2nd picture had one cut open but it got cropped out.
This is for my education, not to be argumentative. I regularly buy peppers labelled as scotch bonnet and product of RD. Your opinion? This is what I bought this morning. Usually the peppers in the package are varied colours of red, yellow, orange and sometimes green. Packages this week seemed to be all red, and the peppers more uniform in shape than usual.
Edit: Dang, the 2nd picture had one cut open but it got cropped out.
a real scotch bonnet is called that because it has the shape of a Scottish tam o shanter hat. these things in the picture are plain old habaneros. they say scotch bonnet on the label, but do not have the nutty flavor that real scotch bonnets have, and are all heat and no taste.
Hopefully that "nutty flavor" is nut a byproduct of the cook hand wiping his sweaty balls as mentioned earlier
This past winter, spent 6+ months in Punta Cana, eating in local restaurants at least 2-3 times a week. Never, ever had the Santo Domingo Quickstep the entire time I was there. Returned to the States and 4 days later prostrate in the bathroom with fulminating diarrhea due to eating at a local restaurant in Tennessee that I've frequented many times before, without problem. I think my immune system must have totally adapted to the D.R. scheme of bacteria and parasites.
Why are we talking about Switzerland?Why there is no cases of cholera in Switzerland?
In winter we do have viruses and infections which are easily spread. It's super cold and no sun at all... Trams are packed with people and viruses spread easily as well. Whoever says Switzerland doesn't have people with contagious problems! I have some examples if you are interested. The best thing is that the water is pure and drinkable but we all have skeletons in the closet. Coming back to DR food issues. Nothing beats the problems faced in an AI here in DR.
I have lived on the island for 5+ years, but been to only one hotel for 1+ weeks. It was supposed to be 3+ stars hotel, but it was there I felt strange due to the food. The rest of the time eating 100 % in barrio and two different campos (between Puerto Plata and Santiago, and close to the capital), never gotten sick of anything I have put in my mouth. We haven?t exactly eaten streetfood, but we do frequent on a few food stands more or less on the street, where we have been eating for years, again, no issues whatsoever.
The only thing in particular my wife is strict and makes no compromises, is where we buy our occasional pica pollo. We do not purchase fried chicken from just any place, only from known/recommended vendors.
I haven?t seen one dirty private kitchen nor dirty serving cutlery. The people I know (in barrio and campo) are rather strict of hygiene... Even in the campo they even mix a bit of cloro to get the cutlery clean. I have helped a few times doing the dishes, and my wife complains every time that they are not sufficiently clean (and I clean them as I would back home), as there weren?t cloro to kill every germ in the water...
As said also by others, with drinking water we make no compromises, what comes out of tap, does not go into mouth in any form, boiled or filtered or not. We also know nobody who would be drinking anything other than water from botellon (and the cap has to be visibly and properly sealed, if not from a familiar vendor).
On the other hand I have heard less than nice stories of a few AIs, but again I have also heard horror stories from even the EU country I come from, they have recently had a wide-spread bacteria infection in a cruise ship, which infected thousands of people, and they could not even find the source immediately.
As a summary, I would always be cautious eating in larges establishments, in particul in buffets, no matter where I am. On the other hand, I have eaten in private homes in various countries (tropical and non-tropical, hosted by people from all continents), and never seen one single doubtful thing...
The only thing in particular my wife is strict and makes no compromises, is where we buy our occasional pica pollo. We do not purchase fried chicken from just any place, only from known/recommended vendors.
I haven?t seen one dirty private kitchen nor dirty serving cutlery. The people I know (in barrio and campo) are rather strict of hygiene... Even in the campo they even mix a bit of cloro to get the cutlery clean. I have helped a few times doing the dishes, and my wife complains every time that they are not sufficiently clean (and I clean them as I would back home), as there weren?t cloro to kill every germ in the water...
As said also by others, with drinking water we make no compromises, what comes out of tap, does not go into mouth in any form, boiled or filtered or not. We also know nobody who would be drinking anything other than water from botellon (and the cap has to be visibly and properly sealed, if not from a familiar vendor).
On the other hand I have heard less than nice stories of a few AIs, but again I have also heard horror stories from even the EU country I come from, they have recently had a wide-spread bacteria infection in a cruise ship, which infected thousands of people, and they could not even find the source immediately.
As a summary, I would always be cautious eating in larges establishments, in particul in buffets, no matter where I am. On the other hand, I have eaten in private homes in various countries (tropical and non-tropical, hosted by people from all continents), and never seen one single doubtful thing...
I wish my immune system was as robust as my dog's. I've seen what it routinely eats when left to his own devices. Back in the day, kids were allowed to play outside rolling in the dirt and eating mud pies. Nowadays we in the first world live in semi-sterile bubbles and are losing our natural ability to fight of common bacteria as effectively as we could in the past. It's our own fault. Heck we can't even get everyone to agree that a vaccine to prevent mumps is a good idea for everyone.
Don't wish to be exposed to the bacteria and viruses in the DR, stay home and don't come here, you're only option. Here is not the same as where you come from and you can have no reasonable expectation that it is.
Don't wish to be exposed to the bacteria and viruses in the DR, stay home and don't come here, you're only option. Here is not the same as where you come from and you can have no reasonable expectation that it is.
I've been in-country for just over a year. The first 60 days were a gastric roller coaster, but after that I've been good to go. Every week, we eat lunch in the campo cooked over a fire in the campesinos' house without issue. Bought chicharrones off the side of what passes for a road up there as well. I'm sure at some point we'll pay a price, but for now I'm loving the cooking....
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There is bacteria and then there is bacteria. You body requires bacteria to help it with the food processing. What do you think happens to meat after a couple of days.
Much of the problem with bacteria is the over uses and improper usage of antibiotics creating resistant bacteria. We could be facing some major plagues in the future with nothing left to treat the patients that works. There are already bacterial infections that are almost impossible to treat.
Very true, and IMO might be worse in DR, because you can walk into any farmacia and buy antibiotics. At least in the US you need a prescription and doctors won't prescribe for viral infections.