Hi,

I usually have a really strong stomach and can handle quite heavy BBQ-food or food prepared in bad hygienic conditions in the countryside. Thing is that I have been on the toilet constantly from Saturday till now, even had to call in sick today. A friend of mine who had exactly the same food has the same problem. We are just trying to figure out what caused this. Morning and lunch was all at home, couldn't have been the problem. First we had dinner at Feiyang teppanyaki, and I know for sure that there was nothing wrong with their food. We ate a big meal and felt really good. Afterwards we had a carrot cake with cream purchased at the Wicker Basket beichen xiaoqu. We actually strongly suspect the cake... Is there anybody with the same experience?

Got these tasty, 'eggy' burps? If yes, it's giardiasis - will go away after a while or you can take meds. Enjoy! ;)

Sometimes you can get the wog from nothing in particular - for example the water you use to brush your teeth can sometimes carry bacteria as they don't sterilize it here (chlorinate).

Never had a prob with wicker basket - and as for the carrot cake - as long as they baked it at about 140F or above for at least 10-15 minutes - that should eliminate most bacteria - such as salmonella.

Even you wash your hands frequently - one is never sure if the water you're using is sanitary - we use the high polluting non-green baby wipes everywhere we go.

Back "in the day", foreigners could get food poisoning from eating salad and the ice cubes in cold drinks.

Other sources are pollution - example someone decided to burn rubber tires near your apt, weather - the Oz Wog usually comes with tropical weather changes - airborne bacterias and viruses. Pollution from construction dust - the other day this big old hunkin stinky open bed construction truck zoomed past us in traffic - seems he'd just finished dumping a load of something that smelled worse than a sewer...

Then there's the "sick apartment" syndrome - where the wallpaper glue reacts with the humidity to create some kind of toxic mold.

Did you check all your pots, pans, and dishware for cockroach poop...

We spray that incredibly toxic roach killer in the kitchen drain every 3-4 months - then wash everything in the kitchen...including inside the cabinets...(3-4 months equates to season and weather changes).

When I worked for the military - there was a base in Korea - almost everyone who transferred in to that base (and Korea) got the wog (coming out of both ends) for the first week.

Often times Food poisoing comes from Street food (usually shaokao), or foreign food. The lack of experience cooking foreign foods, often leads to problems.

Side note, I have been served rotten milk at Wicker basket before, so it is possible.

Really, if it is an overworked Chinese employee making anything that is not standard daily Yunnan food, it is possible that they overlooked something. They are not doing it on purpose. Huang lian su (berberine) is very cheap, very healthy (good for your liver), widely available, and I keep a small bottle of it in my bag wherever I go.

i dunno, i think i'd rather point the finger at Feiyang. a bunch of us were there for a group dinner recently and several of us reported troubles after. that said, you never really know... i hear it can take days for some ailments to show symptoms.

another couple of notes: i think the time of year is relevant - temperatures go up (ok, maybe not today) and food producers need a little while to work out that their food's not going to keep so well any more... also, water quality is at its lowest, due to being at the end of the dry season.

Any baked cake is pretty safe. But you said you had cream with you carrot cake.

As aaronb said: "The lack of experience cooking foreign foods, often leads to problems."
If they are not too familiar with western products, maybe sometimes the cream will sit outside for a while and not beeing put in the fridge right after they used it.

I got some mayonaise somewhere else which turned bad a while ago.

Hygiene is still not too familiar for many people around.

Hope you will feel better soon!

@Ian_Kunming, exactly! Flengs and I got the "eggy" burps, what are the most common sources of giardiasis?

Yes, Ian, I had those "eggy" burps. They went away now, and fortunately I'm feeling much better. It might have been the cream, but it's still difficult to clearly point any fingers. Maybe it was water. Maybe it was the swimming pool we went to.

Anyway, thanks for all those friendly thoughts, and I'll look into that Huang lian su!

You get giardiasis from a parasite - fecal-oral transmission, if people don't wash their hands after a visit to the bathroom and then handle your food. It's quite nasty but will go away, I've had it twice and never took any meds.

There's another threat with some med recommendations:
gokunming.com/[...]

Good luck!

Probably NOT any specific food.

I've been in China: Guizhou and Yunnan, for nine years. In that time I've had an upset stomach just three times. Two of those have been in the last ten days.

The last occasion was Saturday: mild diarrhoea accompanied by severe aches. All I could do was lay down and drink water. It was all over in less than 18 hours, but the bout several days ago lasted two or three days. I'm now perfectly OK

I live in the very north of the city and rarely go downtown but I've friends in other parts of the city and as far as SonMing who've experienced stomach upsets and diarrhoea in the past week or so. I've not eaten any of the foods mentioned above in the other posts.

In answer to the original question posed by 'flengs': yes, it would appear something unusual could be going around at this time.

Alternatively it could be a case of 'massive coincidence' rather than mass food poisoning. Still, it would be interesting to see what this thread throws up.