Street Food... why is this a thing?

[unclebilly]

Restaurants seem to think it impresses younger people to advertise 'street food'...

Why would anyone want that?

When I hear street food, I think of the vendors who set up in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Tijuana, and other places.

The food is set out in the morning and the sun and heat is not kind to it, everything is washed in the same plastic totes with the same water, there are flies everywhere...

Who would want this? Maybe if you were really constipated...

[stevej37]

I prefer road kill...there's nothing like a good squirrel pie.

[Alan A]

Backlash on pretentious foo foo places that cost $200 a head and you leave hungry.

[70SATMan]

Originally Posted by stevej37

I prefer road kill...there's nothing like a good squirrel pie.

Hey, don’t mock a good pan fried squirrel and squirrel gravy!

[GH85Carrera]

Like food trucks everywhere. I don't want to eat standing up, and sure as hell not gonna eat in my car.

We have some pretentious restaurants that the clients brag about spending stupid prices for meal. We don't go to any of those.

We have lots of great restaurants that serve great food, for reasonable prices and great service. Street food have zero appeal to me.

[jyl]

Street food, at its best, is freshly cooked, inexpensive, very tasty, unpretentious, and totally authentic. You’re eating what the regular local people in that country eat, and it’s great.

I guess it can be old and fly-picked, but the locals don’t eat that stuff and if you pay attention, you won’t either.

[ben parrish]

Originally Posted by jyl

street food, at its best, is freshly cooked, inexpensive, very tasty, unpretentious, and totally authentic. You’re eating what the regular local people in that country eat, and it’s great.

I guess it can be old and fly-picked, but the locals don’t eat that stuff and if you pay attention, you won’t either.

this

[Bill Douglas]

The good thing about street food is it makes you immune to just about everything going.

I did a lot of traveling in my teens, 20s and 30s and never got ill. I put it down to eating out at dodgy places in my teens. Plus surfing back in the day when sewage overflows always seemed to be at the best surf spots

[Gogar]

The "street food" started here during the Brewery craze,

Food trucks would pull up in the parking lot and the brewery didn't have to acquire a license and open a kitchen. A good arrangement for all the parties involved.

[Rick Lee]

Best meal I ever had. About $3 in a dingy alleyway in Zhejiang, PRC. Total Anthony Bordain kind of place, cheap plastic stool, outdoor place. I am going back to find this place in December. Give me street food any day.

[cstreit]

Best tacos of my life were from a lean-to in Baja. Gambled, but worth it.

[Tishabet]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

When I hear street food, I think of the vendors who set up in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Tijuana, and other places.

Yes!

Originally Posted by unclebilly

Who would want this?

Ha, guess that leaves more for ME!

[911 Rod]

Gotta like the sausage carts!

[David]

Not being Thai, its hard for me to describe the difference between street food and restaurant food but it comes down to simple dishes that can be made at a street cart vs a full kitchen.

We were in Bangkok earlier this year and it the first time I really ate a lot of street food. Partly because we stayed near a good street food area and partly because they've become cleaner so I wasn't really worried about getting sick.

One thing that seemed odd is coffee is now very popular in Bangkok where it wasn't first time I went 12 years ago. So now you can find a $3 coffee right next to a $2 bowl of rice porridge and pork or whatever your food of choice is.

There's a good (used to be great) Thai restaurant in Houston called Street to Kitchen. They opened during covid by a trained gourmet chef who happened to be Thai and her farang (American) husband. At first it was next to door to a gas station with plastic chairs and tables. Food was more like Thai street food dishes but with great and varied ingredients. Now she's got a Beard award and moved to a better building. I think they lost the street food charm

[pksystems]

It's just like the third world countries, so it feels like home to some.

I've had street food in Karachi, and sometimes it's sketchy as hell. LOL

The pani puri's from port grand were much better then the ones out of a cart.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Gogar

The "street food" started here during the Brewery craze,

Food trucks would pull up in the parking lot and the brewery didn't have to acquire a license and open a kitchen. A good arrangement for all the parties involved.

That’s a great venue for it. I’ve been to multiple brewery type places that have a rotation of food trucks so there’s always something new to try. But they also typically have seating so it’s not really “street food” per se. Also a nice food truck is way more legit than a dude selling food from a cart on the sidewalk. Though I will say that some of the best Mexican food of my life came from a trailer on blocks along the side of a dusty AZ highway, maybe 20 miles north of the border. I gambled and won that day.

[WolfeMacleod]

Try eating street food in the Philippines.
Now that's some scary stuff.
And they are *everywhere*

[vash]

my best meal ever in my memory is a bowl of Laksa in Kuala Lumpur. it blew me away. eyes rolling back, facing the sky good.

street food to me is about the little unknown cooks out there hawking their foods. no culinary acadamy training. just generational skills. the little guys with mad skills. it is the opposite of snobbery. I argue USA fast food will kill you faster.

2nd fave was down the block.

[70SATMan]

Due to the nature of my work, I’ve enjoyed street food in Malay, Indo, India, PI, Hong Kong, Korea, Aus, Kenya, SoAf and probably some places I’ve forgotten. The key is to mingle with the locals, ask where their favorite places are. VERY rarely disappointed.

I’ve eaten some great food at little hole in the walls in the US too.

Never eaten at a Mich starred restaurant.

[vash]

I lost my wife immediately in Bangkok. I found her teaching an old lady how to high-five. she ate some of the ladies braise pork trotters and love them. it was my first landing there and my first encounter with a person cooking on a sidewalk. the old lady tried to give me a piece and I declined. politely.

the next day, I was grubbing everything.