My Hong Kong | Travel expert Jim Kitchen is wrong about avoiding street food on trips. Food tells people’s stories better than words, like cart noodles in Hong Kong

Kitchen’s comment in a recent interview about not eating street food for fear of illness showed a remarkable lack of adventure for someone who has been to space

Food not only connects people from all walks of life, but it also tells the story, both the highs and the lows, of its home country or city

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A man cooks kway teow noodles at the Kimberly Street Food Night Market in George Town, Penang, Malaysia.

Published: 1:45pm, 21 May 2022

Social entrepreneur Jim Kitchen – who prides himself on having travelled to “all 193 UN-recognised countries” and to space – is the last person I would have expected to dis local street food. I would have thought his palate would be equally adventurous.

I am baffled that someone who is willing to take a risky space flight – he was on the civilian manifest for Blue Origin’s fourth human space flight in March – would not spare a fraction of his tenacity to dive into far less life-threatening street foods.

His comment in a recent interview of “I want to de-risk anything as much as I can” regarding street foods was oxymoronic against the backdrop of his recent 10-minute space flight.

Kitchen admitted that his biggest fear while travelling is getting sick, which is why he avoids eating most food that is for sale on the street, no matter how tempting.

Jim Kitchen (right) tries to catch family photos loosened from his passport as he floats upside down during the apogee of the capsule of Blue Origin’s rocket New Shepard during their suborbital flight over Van Horn, Texas, US, on March 31, 2022. Photo: Reuters

However, he admitted that he had made the occasional exception to this rule, and I can’t help but wonder what those exceptions are and when they apply.