bacteria in fluids

A friend who studied biotech upon seeing me watch videos of bacteria multiplying and swimming about on the surface of fluids told me in college they once bought sugarcane juice from across the school and analyzed a sample under the microscope. She hasn’t been able to drink the juice since. But since we haven’t heard of anyone getting food poisoned from sugarcane juice we decided Vietnamese people’s stomach are pretty tough.

That reminds me of one summer, a day after coming home from a year in Japan I got seriously food poisoned after going out for breakfast with my cousins and brother. We ate the exact same food at a place we go to often. Everyone was perfectly fine except me. My uncle shook his head and said, “Your stomach has degraded, no longer good.” The real problem was my stomach not the food.

In any case, I’d still drink sugarcane juice on the street, especially since these day they always make sure to place a sign “nước mía sạch” – “clean sugarcane juice” next to it. And clips of bacteria under the microscope are fascinating! They move in such erratic manner but on the whole create different currents spinning in and out.