Street food

Street food is ready-to-eat food and beverages sold on streets and in other public areas for immediate consumption. It is often prepared in booths, food trucks, or carts by the vendor, and is frequently eaten as a snack or a quick workday lunch. Street food is typically a regional or local dish. Examples of street food include hot dogs, tacos, fish and chips, chai, pickles, and kebabs.

The appeal of street food lies in its flavor, low price, and convenience. It is often ready made, although some types can be adjusted to the buyer’s taste preferences with more or less heat, choices of ingredients, or addition of toppings. For example, hot dogs may be garnished with ketchup, mustard, onions, relish, chili, or any number of local favorite toppings.

The street food tradition is centuries old and is the original fast food. In modern times, however, some chefs have elevated street food to fine dining in their restaurants by offering their own interpretations of budget, on-the-go dishes.

Background

Street food has an ancient history and is often linked to the poorest residents of civilizations. It typically develops in cities, where the high population density provides plenty of potential customers for a vendor. These customers are often laborers and other low-paid workers. In increasingly hectic modern times, street food is valued for its speed and ease of access as much as for its quality and low price.

The earliest known example dates to ancient Greece, where vendors sold small fried fish on the streets. Street food was essential to the poor people in the cities of ancient Rome, because they lived in multilevel tenement homes that lacked hearths and ovens. The only cooked food they could get was what they purchased from street vendors. Street foods in ancient China likewise served the poor, however, the wealthy city dwellers recognized the quality of street foods and sent their servants out to buy it for their masters’ snacking enjoyment at home. Many parts of Asia and later Europe were familiar with chestnuts, which were free for the collecting in forests, and enterprising vendors often sold roasted chestnuts in cities.

Street foods in North America date to the emergence of cities, well before the founding of the United States. New York City, then known as New Amsterdam, recorded the first regulations pertaining to food sales from push carts in the streets in 1691. The nineteenth century saw chuck wagons serving up beans, meats, biscuits, and coffee to cowboys and wagon train travelers on the prairies. Meanwhile in the East, sausage vendors, mostly immigrants, began selling from carts parked near student dorms at universities including Yale and Harvard during the 1870s; students began calling the carts dog wagons. The biggest name in hot dogs, Oscar Mayer, put the first hot dog cart on the streets in 1936.

Later in the twentieth century, a number of other beloved street foods arrived on the scene. Food trucks began serving construction workers during the 1960s. The first taco truck in the United States rolled out in 1974 after owner Raul Martinez converted an ice cream truck to suit his business.

Overview

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, street food is a vital source of affordable nutrition for many of the world’s low- and middle-income people in urban areas. The street food industry is an important source of income for many people with limited education or skills, and in some parts of the world, it is one of the few business opportunities for poor women. Some negative issues include exploitation of children and sanitation problems. The latter includes concerns such as waste collecting in the streets and clogging drains. Another concern is congestion in already crowded streets. Pedestrians are at risk if they cannot safely navigate streets when vendors are blocking the sidewalks with food carts. Finally, some vendors infringe on private property, or set up in public spaces without proper permits or licenses.

Street food culture is particularly important in India, with its many varied cultures. More than 2.5 billion people are estimated to eat street food every day in India. Many families rely on their pushcarts and dhabas, or roadside restaurants, as their source of income. Indian street food is influenced by many cultures, due to the country’s history. These include the British Empire, which ruled India from 1858 to 1947, and the Mughal dynasty, which ruled most of northern India from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Street food is so valued in the country that the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) organizes an annual National Street Food Festival in Delhi. Vendors from all areas of the country bring their regional favorites to the event.

Some travelers avoid eating street food for fear that it is unhygienic and carries food-borne disease. However, the World Association of Chefs Societies reported that street food fare is usually safe, and studies showed the hygiene of food preparation by the street vendors is comparable to restaurants. While NASVI acknowledged the problem of finding potable water and following good food handling practices with some vendors, the organization has educated members about food safety.

Groups in various countries have formed organizations to promote street food. The National Food Truck Association was formed in the United States in 2014. In New York, home to a robust street food scene, the Street Vendor Project began a street food competition in 2004. The winner received the Vendy Award. The project and competition were launched to raise the profile of street foods in the city. The competition continued for fifteen years, ending in 2019 when the organizers said it had achieved its objective. They attributed this in part to the increased use of social media, which helped people learn about and locate local street food vendors. Competitors for the Vendy Awards served a wide range of foods, including Ethiopian, Mexican, Indonesian, Italian, Afghani, and South Asian dishes and a number of specialty carts serving banana pudding, Greek pastries, and breakfast foods.

Bibliography

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