street food .. yay or nay ?

[jellysundae]

6 hours ago, acmerasta said:

I thought chlorinated water was standard in most places where tap water is supposed to be safe to drink. What kind of water do you have in Holland and the rest of Europe? How is well water treated to ensure it's safe? Or is it just filtered? 

I'm interested about well water, and Dutch water! lol.

Maybe the tap water taste thing is about the level of chlorine? Though I'd have thought it would be the same amount used wherever, so...hmm...maybe it's something to do with water hardness? A lot of UK water is pretty hard (there's a joke about London water being so hard it can walk the dog itself. "hard" being a UK term for street-tough and aggressive). Maybe the dissolved limestone in the water acts like salt in food and bringing out the flavour of the chlorine?...Maybe I'm talking utter nonsense?

I spent a weekend in Cornwall (which has granite bedrock not limestone) and the water there is SO soft! SO much lather when you wash your hair it's like OMG, am I ever gonna be able to get rid of all these bubbles!!! xD But - and now I'm going to Brit-out in the extreme, be warned - OMG THE TEA IN CORNWALL TASTES SOOO AMAZING!!! I can guarantee that any hotel in a soft water area will get through 10 times the amount of teabags of those elsewhere. Every morning at breakfast we'd be like "can we have another pot of tea please? " couldn't get enough of it. xD

[balloongal247]

Chlorine is often used as a treatment to get rid of other stuff in water to make it safe.  The amount of chlorine in water can vary widely, generally based on what they had to kill in the water.  Theoretically, it should be safe levels, and you can drink it.  It just tastes nasty.  I keep a giant Pur pitcher so that I always have filtered water.

Well water is typically in rural areas, away from major contaminates (hopefully).  I haven't had one as an adult, so I'm not sure about maintenance, I guess as someone mentioned on the first page, you are supposed to test the water fairly regularly to make sure there isn't anything bad.  It just comes directly out of the ground to your house.  So, there would be local differences in mineral levels and everything, and maybe a few more microorganisms, but it's the way people have gotten water for millennia, if you don't live next to a body of fresh water that you'd just dip a pail in.... But, because it's different by the locale, then if you go to a drastically different local, the well water could have drastically different microorganisms and stuff, and your body won't be used to them, and it might make you sick.

[charelan]

10 hours ago, acmerasta said:

I thought chlorinated water was standard in most places where tap water is supposed to be safe to drink. What kind of water do you have in Holland and the rest of Europe? How is well water treated to ensure it's safe? Or is it just filtered? 

Well water isn't necessarily treated - it comes from a naturally clean source underground. Like you say, then it gets filtered. What does happen though, is whenever a home with a well is sold the water must be tested. Sometimes you might discover the water has some trace amount of something undesirable - then they will recommend you "shock chlorinate" your well. You basically dump a jug or 2 of bleach in it and run it through all your lines then flush it out. A further retest will come up clean. But a person could test their water as often as they like - the test is fairly inexpensive. If you want to add other treatment options you can, but unless a well's integrity is compromised nothing more than a water softener is usually used. But once you own a house with a well, the safety of the water is pretty much your own responsibility. Here anyway.

As for "city water" (that's what we call it where I live) - it is definitely treated, though it is supplied from various lakes and places like that. As a kid they always added fluoride to the public drinking water supply too, but I'm not sure if that's common practice throughout Canada anymore. 

[Nielo]

21 hours ago, jellysundae said:

Doesn't EVERYONE make fun of Belgium?

Poor old Belgium, it's certainly the butt of a lot of British jokes, mainly about how dull it apparently is. Maybe we're just relieved to find a country more boring than us?

I guess being an ass towards your closest neighbouring country's better than throwing bombs at them.

Hmm!!

Now that makes me wonder...just how different the UK's attitude towards the rest of Europe might be if we were actually attached and couldn't be quite so aloof. Our food would probably be better for a start!

Lol, we don't actually call the Belgians dull though. We call them dumb, which is even more ridiculous, as they're obviously not dumb at all. (There is an annual spelling test that's aired on TV, with contestants of both countries, and the winner is usually Belgian.) It's funny how even our stereotypes are different. XD

14 hours ago, acmerasta said:

I thought chlorinated water was standard in most places where tap water is supposed to be safe to drink. What kind of water do you have in Holland and the rest of Europe? How is well water treated to ensure it's safe? Or is it just filtered? 

I actually had to Google that, as I had never really thought about it. Thankfully, Science Magazine ran an article on drinking water last year, and specifically mentions a few countries - including Holland - that don't use chlorine. Apparently our pipes are quite new and well maintained, which means there are less leaks, and therefore less ways for bacteria to get in. There is apparently also a difference between using surface water and groundwater, the latter of which is already filtered by the ground itself and will enter the water treatment system while already relatively clean. (According to some other (Dutch) sources I found, we also use many different steps to treat our water, each meant to filter out different things.)

[jellysundae]

Yeah I should have realised that the chlorine levels would be dependent on the amount of yuk in the water, shouldn't I!

It would be nice if eventually all countries find ways to make water safe to drink without having to chlorinate it. The swimming pool in this town (which used to chlorinate the water so heavily that I came out of it feeling sick and with sore bloodshot eyes) uses a UV filter now, I wonder if that kind of method's too expensive for tap water.

[balloongal247]

I think city water, especially larger cities, do use a multi-step process, and I think UV is one of the steps.  At least, I think it was on an episode of Elementary where someone infected the water supply with a superbug that would make it past all of the filtering steps.  So the exact methods would also depend on the budget of the place doing the water treatment.  I think chlorine is one of the cheapest methods.  There are also filters that some places use after chlorine to filter out the chlorine.  

Groundwater is what wells tap into, which is why they generally don't need so much effort, so long as your neighbors aren't using all kinds of chemicals that poison the ground.

All depends.  The city water I have here has pretty good water, but I still use a water filter pitcher that I keep in the fridge to have cold water as long as I remembered to fill it up.  I've had the biggest size one since college, because when I got to college the town had HORRIBLE water (like, when I went for orientation, I kept refilling my water, because I thought that I'd gotten some yuck from using bathroom faucet vs water fountain, etc), apparently there was some farm or something in town that did not properly manage its runoff.  It was bad enough that while I was there they started putting in filtered water bottle filling stations all around campus, because very few people were willing to drink the water, and that was mostly people who grew up in town and were just used to it.  When I showed people around, I made sure to point out bottle filling stations because it was that important to me.

[Angeló]

a friend sent me this today

Portland's best food is on wheels.

These wheeled restaurants can be found all over the city and serve up a wide variety of delicious snacks.

[jellysundae]

On 8/28/2017 at 6:14 PM, balloongal247 said:

At least, I think it was on an episode of Elementary where someone infected the water supply with a superbug that would make it past all of the filtering steps.

OMG I LOVE Elementary! I want to live in Sherlock's house, too, lol. xD Annddd I'm making a big effort to get back on topic now!

 

Oh, now filtering out the chlorine once it's done its job is nice! Would be GREAT if that became common practice.

*eyeballs taco stand* I'd very much like one of those, right this second...*belly grumbles*

[balloongal247]

I think food trucks are getting much more popular in the US.  They also give more capacity for refrigeration and cooking and maybe even running water (washing hands) than a food cart does.  Often even established restaurants will get a food truck so that they can go out to office buildings or somewhere and get customers they wouldn't otherwise.

[jellysundae]

14 hours ago, balloongal247 said:

Often even established restaurants will get a food truck so that they can go out to office buildings or somewhere and get customers they wouldn't otherwise.

Yeah that's a smart move on their part, isn't it. I did a course once in a center on an out-of-town business park, and there was a little sandwich truck that parked outside every lunch time, it played music like an ice cream van so you knew it was there! I didn't check it out because pretty decent free food was provided with the course, but taking your food to where you have a captive audience of office workers pretty much guarantees good sales.

Especially if you're savvy and offer healthier options to net you more female customers! The average guy will quite happily chow down on a burger every day for lunch (sorry, not sorry for that sweeping generalisation ) But most women want to include something that used to be growing in their lunch.

And while maybe a LOT of office workers feel they really should make their own lunch...yeah, if there's good food being made FOR you, and the price is something you can justify, most are gonna use that food cart!

[acmerasta]

On 8/28/2017 at 4:49 AM, jellysundae said:

I spent a weekend in Cornwall (which has granite bedrock not limestone) and the water there is SO soft! SO much lather when you wash your hair it's like OMG, am I ever gonna be able to get rid of all these bubbles!!! xD But - and now I'm going to Brit-out in the extreme, be warned - OMG THE TEA IN CORNWALL TASTES SOOO AMAZING!!! I can guarantee that any hotel in a soft water area will get through 10 times the amount of teabags of those elsewhere. Every morning at breakfast we'd be like "can we have another pot of tea please? " couldn't get enough of it. xD

That reminds me of the water in NYC. It comes from up in the mountains and they boast it's the best water ever. It really does taste different and is always cold out the tap. Someone even tested it for taste. They compared pizza dough from NYC vs Chicago that was made with local water and NYC won the taste test... yeah not very scientific lol. But it has to do with the minerals dissolved in it I guess. But there is some chlorination of that water. When there's a leak and the main is repaired, they do a chlorine flush as well. So for about 12 hours the water is white and strongly smells and tastes of chlorine.

That's interesting about not chlorinating well water.  I think one of the greatest developments of modern times is sanitation and potable drinking water. It saves us from typhoid, dysentery and a lot of other bugs that literally devastated us in centuries past. Our water is chlorinated and treated with fluoride. Municipal supplies come from rivers and artesian wells. We also have a desalination plant to supply some areas. I've tasted well water in an area that sits on oil and natural gas deposits. That water tastes like petroleum! 

[jellysundae]

49 minutes ago, acmerasta said:

We also have a desalination plant to supply some areas.

OH! That reminds me of the holiday I had in Lanzarote, that island HAS NO FRESH WATER. Not a single drop! Also, it hardly ever rains there. It blew my mind when I found out. There was a desalination plant just up the coast from our hotel, but ALL the drinking water is shipped in across the Atlantic.

Also, somewhat insanely...there's a Coke bottling plant there That seems completely loony on an island with no water!

That's so interesting about NYC water, I'd kind of assumed that the water there would be especially horrible! Not even sure why I thought that though, lol.

[Angeló]

5 hours ago, acmerasta said:

Our water is chlorinated and treated with fluoride.

fluoride is really bad for the health though !!! 

[acmerasta]

On 8/30/2017 at 3:42 PM, Angeló said:

fluoride is really bad for the health though !!! 

It's supposedly within the recommended quantities .... who really knows? My mom says that treating the water has resulted in the population having better teeth though. 

[Mouseykins]

Here in Canada our water is treated with chemicals and I"m not entirely sure what all they are. I know one is fluoride.

But here's an interesting tidbit when you think about it...

When my husband was driving a highway truck throughout the US, he got a puppy for his travel companion. When he got her he was filling up her water at different places along his route and noticed she wasn't drinking much. He had to get bottled water for her. The different tastes and whatnot of the water were not appealing to her. Definitely shows that water in different places tastes different.

Some places in their taps have what's called non-potable water, meaning it's not safe to drink. They have to get water brought in that's bottled in those 5 gallon jugs.

In our house, the water is drinkable, but is better if ran through additional filtration. We have what's called hard water and it's full of limescale deposits. My in-laws have their own well water on their farm. There's goes through filters as well, but it's still not drinkable. It won't kill you, but may be upsetting in larger quantities than what you need for brushing your teeth. So instead they have distilled water.

So the water differs from place to place. When/if we do any traveling I won't drink the tap water regardless of how safe it is.

Now as for street food, we are VERY picky on what types of meat we buy and tend to not go to food fenders. Mostly because there really isn't the culture for it in my area, unless you're in the city at some of the festivals. I would choose foods that are thoroughly cooked and freshly prepared in front of me then those already packaged from a street vendor.