There are some wonderful places to dine in the world, but there are also some horrors to avoid at all cost and some basic rules to observe if you want to avoid trashing your holiday because of an untimely bout of food intolerance or even severe poisoning.

First on the list of hot spots is definitely the Nile Cruise, which offers a memorable excursion along this timeless river, taking in the sights and sounds of Egypt. I know at least a dozen friends who have taken this trip and out of those twelve at least half have suffered bouts of food poisoning, either during or immediately after the journey.

The secret is not to touch any water served in a carafe, insist on a bottled variety that you can see is delivered unopened. Do not then pour the water into a glass full of ice, as the ice will be contaminated. Do not eat the salad, as the salad will have been washed in water. There are plenty of cooked alternatives and it will not harm you to stick to those for a few days.

Another notorious source of infection is the Jumbo Restaurant in Hong Kong, the colorful floating food palace famous everywhere. The food is not bad in terms of flavor, but so many have fallen sick after dining there and the local health inspectors are rumored to be moving in permanently. I would personally avoid the place, as in a city like Hong Kong there are so many great alternatives to choose from, why risk your health for the sake of a novelty meal?

A good piece of advice is, if you are considering dining at a restaurant on the banks of a river it is a good policy not to trust the water. This is unfair to many establishments who conduct their catering in a clean and healthy environment, but it is better to be ultra careful in these matters.

If you have a particular preference for seafood, order it in restaurants that are certain to have bought fresh daily, such as the Caribbean beach restaurants that specialize in freshly caught fish, or the quayside restaurants in San Francisco where lobsters are served at about a dozen per minute, thus ensuring a fresh turnover. Do not be tempted to order a lobster salad in a restaurant where such delicacies are an obvious menu rarity. If you are traveling in a country susceptible to frequent power cuts it is best not to indulge in seafood at all; salmonella is a particularly distressing and dangerous condition.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 at 5:12 pm and is filed under Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.