I’m a microbiologist and here’s what (and where) I never eat

I've been violating just about all of his rules, all my life (and I'm in my 70's) and have never gotten food poisoning as far as I know. Well, except for once at a restaurant, but that dish was brought to me straight out of the kitchen, so I don't know how that happened. Problem solved by never eating at that restaurant again.

According to Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, rice turns bad pretty fast at room temperature. Here's from "Keeping Rice Safe" (p. 475):

"Cooked rice turns out to be a potential source of food poisoning. Raw rice almost always carries dormant spores of the bacterium Bacillus cereus, which produces powerful gastrointestinal toxins. The spores can tolerate high temperatures, and some survive cooking. If cooked rice is left for a few hours at room temperature, the spores germinate, bacteria multiply and toxins accumulate. Ordinary cooked rice should therefore be served promptly, and leftovers refrigerated or frozen to prevent bacterial growth."

I've always taken that to mean that it's fine to reheat rice as long as it hasn't been standing around for too long before refrigerating the first time around.

I don't understand how Malays regularly eat nasi lemak for breakfast (rice topped with prawn sambal and pickled cucumber wrapped in a banana leaf) without getting sick frequently. Vendors would have them pre-prepared and stacked in a pyramid on a table in the street which just ticks off every box of what not to do.