There is a reason why salads aren't a thing in warmer countries. The same reason applies to people only drinking tea, not cold water. If it's not cooked, it might be actually dangerous.

> reason why salads aren't a thing in warmer countries

Meanwhile cooked chicken can be safely left on a countertop in Canton for hours? This model needs more variables.

I don't know, but they seem to often marinade chickens, then steam well, then hang dry, and/or keep hot.

Temperature-growth chart for food pathogens is said to show a bell curve peaking at ~35C/95F. Keeping well-flavored food hot(>122F) works to similar effects as refrigerating, just not energy efficient nor good for maintaining flavors.

Not an expert in China, but AFAIK the Chinese are big on eating food right after it has been cooked for this exact reason.

Salads aren't a thing because they're likely to have bacteria in them and they've been sitting out for god knows how long.

Same goes for proteins, if it's still sizzling hot when it's delivered, it was most likely just cooked and thus safe.

Anything cooked should be safer than anything raw. Cooking sterilizes the food.

It's not safe.

If we dig deeper into the norms, some foods were allowed to be taken even after 24 hours (Tamrind Rice, My grandmother always said Tamrind rice tastes better after a day, and it was ok to consume, but would raise a fit if I ate rice that was cooked in the morning).

Some foods were allowed to be taken upto 8-10 hours after cooking.

Microorganisms are harder to grow or sustain below 20C/70F, above 50C/120F, and/or in dry, and/or soaked in salt/sugar/acid/base. Your grandma is spot on about unflavored rice from morning. Not 100% sure about Tamarind rice after a whole day, but that make some sense too(I'd Tupperware and refrigerate immediately or at least reheat occasionally).

There's a good reason why food safety standards of today require things to be reheated last minute and served hot.