Particular caution with food must be exercised at Asian markets
You should eat only in trusted places (preferably at the hotel) and avoid all kinds of dubious establishments. Do not indulge in exotic fruits or vegetables; it is best to give preference to fruits with a peel, which should be peeled only with your own (definitely clean) hands. The safest fruits are pineapples, bananas, and all citrus fruits.
Do not eat raw meat, even if it is offered in the most expensive restaurant. By tasting raw snails, fish (do not be surprised, it happens), snakes, or crabs, you can easily contract worms. Moreover, such delicacies may simply not be digested by a 'European' stomach, and intestinal cleansing is the least that can await you.
For many peoples, seafood is the main source of food (especially in Southeast Asian countries). When eating seafood, it is important to follow some precautions.
Many adventurous gourmets are attracted to dishes made from bivalve mollusks (oysters, mussels). The chef or waiter of any Asian restaurant will long convince their client that the mollusk from which the dish is made is completely harmless and fit for consumption. Indeed, most mollusks are edible. But there is one 'but.' At certain times, many harmless shells begin to accumulate microorganisms harmful to humans from the order dinoflagellates. In the warm season, they multiply rapidly and accumulate in the coastal zone, so that the water takes on a reddish-brown color. 'Red tide' is often observed not only in regions with hot climates, but also in the North Sea and the northeastern Atlantic. During these phenomena, under no circumstances should mollusks be eaten: even culinary processing does not destroy the dangerous poison of dinoflagellates.
The cause of mollusk poisoning can be more prosaic. Shells living in coastal waters are often exposed to sewage from large cities... No comment! Cases of poisoning from edible mollusks have been recorded in France, Great Britain, Germany, the USA, South Africa, New Zealand, and many other countries, including European ones.
The 'highlight' of Asian cuisine is considered trepang – echinoderms that are also called sea cucumbers. Preparing trepang requires careful processing of the product: some glands and internal organs of the animal are poisonous.
Also considered a tasty dish is sea urchin roe, which, by the way, becomes poisonous to humans during the breeding season. Sometimes poisoning, sometimes fatal, is caused by eating certain types of moray eels and even the delicious meat of sea turtles.
One should be wary of eating dishes made from sharks. It is better not to try shark liver at all – it promises nothing good for human health. But even the meat and fins of some shark species can sometimes cause severe poisoning. At various times, poisoning from the meat of reef, polar, sixgill, soupfin (soup from them is a delicacy of Chinese cuisine), and some other sharks has been recorded.
As for various 'coral' fish, such as triggerfish and boxfish, dishes made from them should be prepared only by a highly qualified specialist chef, otherwise the consequences can be very sad. Some fish accumulate the poison of the ciguatera mollusk in their bodies. Entering the body, this poison causes long-lasting (several weeks) and dangerous poisoning, with a high percentage of fatalities.
The same applies to the famous Japanese dish fugu, which is made from pufferfish (the internal organs of this fish contain a dangerous poison – tetrodotoxin). Only highly qualified specialists can prepare fugu correctly using a method specially developed for each type of pufferfish. It is officially forbidden for non-professionals to prepare this dish, but this ban is often violated.