Street food is one of the great joys of any trip to Asia – but brings with it an associated risk of Delhi belly, the sort of thing that can take days out of any holiday. And, no matter how long you spent looking for travel insurance, you’ll almost certainly find that missing three days’ holiday and spending money on antibiotics and the like will fall comfortably within the policy excess – i.e., you’ll be paying for yourself.

Here’s five simple rules to help you enjoy street food without getting sick.

Follow the Locals

Head to a stall that has plenty of local customers. That means two things: firstly, that there’s a high turnover of food, so it’s not lying out in the sun and flies for too long, and secondly that people who live locally like the food and find it good.

Be Careful With Fish

Exercise extreme caution with fish, and shellfish. Avoid fish that smells fishy. Look for bright, bulging eyes and a natural coloration (it’s not unheard of to inject fish with chemicals to improve their colour): and choose bigger fish over little ones in areas where pesticide fishing is common.

Don’t Eat Salads Until Your Immune System Has Adjusted

Salads can be washed in dirty water, or touched by dirty hands, and because there’s no cooking to kill bacteria, they’re high risk. If you stay off all salad, you’ll likely get sick the second you hit a wet lettuce leaf – but do allow your gut time to adjust to the local organisms before you go for salad.

Ensure Meat Is Cooked Well

Make sure meat is well-cooked. Under-cooked pork or chicken is a recipe for disaster. If something’s not well cooked, discard it straight away.

Eat Food at the Temperature It’s Supposed to Be Eaten At

Don’t eat a dish that’s supposed to be cold when it’s warm – it’s been lying out too long. And don’t eat a dish that’s supposed to be hot once it’s cooled.

And, if you do get sick, focus on rehydration for the first 48 hours. Rehydration salts like Dioralyte are much better than Coca-Cola, flat or otherwise. If you’re not better then, see a doctor: if you’re travelling off the beaten track, travel with Ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic that works on many – though not all – gut infections,