Street Food

This is pretty horrible.

Never Ever Ever Eat Shanghai Street Food! Ever.

I am not one who is easily put off food, and I have happily munched on Shanghai street food in my time. However, what I saw tonight has definitely put an end to that.

Sabrina and I were walking home from Huahai Rd and were cutting through the back streets near Xintiandi when we saw two people standing in the middle of the road with a man hole cover removed from the sewer. I didn't pay them any mind at first because it is a common site to see people cleaning out the traps in the sewers with buckets on long poles.

However, I soon realised that it was dark (7.30pm) and they weren't in the normal sanitation workers blue uniforms.

As we neared I saw it was woman reaching down into the man hole with a long handled pole. The man was standing over watching. Neither were in uniform.

This piqued my curiosity so I watched what they were up to. She pulled the long handled pole up out of the hole and I could see the the small bucket on the end filled with a thick whitish semi solid gloop. It was after the second bucketful that she pulled out when the horror of the situation hit me - they were scooping fat (oil, lard whatever) out of the sewer!

Where we were was in an area awash with small street eateries. These eateries would have large amounts of oils & fats go down their sinks everyday during cooking and cleaning. Where this man hole was positioned was a grease trap that prevented the oils from moving further into the sewerage system (where it could block pipes).

So after this realisation I figured they were scooping out this oil to be reused - what else could possibly be the explanation. But so as not to be unfairly judging them, I watched as they finished cleaning out the grease trap, replaced the man hole cover and then walked over to their 3 wheel bike thing. They then poured the oil into big metal buckets that oil gets delivered in. That was the clincher.

I have no doubt in my mind that these people were removing waste oils from a grease trap (mixed with waste food, everybodies spit, cockroaches, rats turds, rust and every other nasty thing you can think of) and were collecting for reuse. Whether its for their own restaurant or for reselling I don't know - but I am not taking any chances. Sabrina told me she remembers reading a story from a few years ago where the same thing happened, the people doing it were selling the oil to the street food stalls - its cheap!

So, no more Youtiao or other foods from street vendors for us. Also, I'm sorry to have to deliver this news if you are a Shanghai street food aficionado, but it had to be said!

I don't eat street food any where - I see the delivery guys hauling the food in on their mo-peds. Nothing about the process looks sterile. The food sits out there in the sun all day and I have no idea what the turnover is.