Banana Fritters Fried in Plastic!

This is a TRUE STORY ...and it happened in Perlis, the northern most state in Peninsula Malaysia, at a place called Titi Chai Kangar..the pasar malam (night market) area where goreng pisang (banana fritters) are sold in the afternoon...

This is a witness account of what happened:

"Mom said, my uncle saw the goreng pisang hawker adding plastic straw (for drinking water) into the hot oil (and it melted) before he fried the goreng pisang. That is why goreng pisang, ubi (sweet potato)...etc. all are very crispy for hours.... And when my uncle asked the hawker he just kept quite. Later when my uncle told my mom about what he saw they realized that this is how fried fritters are crispy for a while. My mom said that in Thailand they do the same thing to keep the fried food crispy e.g. ikan bilis (anchovies), fried onions ...which if you leave them in the open air for hours they will still stay crispy..."

Here's another one:

"I was with my family in Cameron Highlands recently and it was 3 pm when we were hanging around a market area. We saw many hawker stalls, and suddenly something attracted my attention...at one of the stalls, there was a big wok of boiling oil with a half 5-litre empty oil bottle in it. The plastic bottle melted slowly in the hot oil. At first I thought it was an unintentional act by a 7-year old girl...but when I looked closely, I saw she was holding a pair of chopsticks and stirring the bottle.. it appears the act was intentional...Oh! my God ... these people are using melted plastic to fry food...so that the tit bits will not go soft when it cooled due to plastic in it!"

So...DO NOT EAT CRISPY FRIED FOOD from the hawkers!..try leaving it in the open air for hours and see what happens...

Plastic when burnt or exposed to high tempertaure causes a very toxic and carginogenic substance, dioxin, to be released. So be cautious of the food that you buy from hawkers.