Street Foods

"Street cooks are magicians: With little more than a cart and a griddle, mortar, or deep-fryer, they conjure up not just a delicious snack or meal but the very essence of a place."
Unknown

 

Viet Nam, street food vendor with Banh Mi sandwiches

Whenever I travel I like to experience the food in the place I am.  Most of the time that means eating at local restaurants.  But it also means eating street food.  Street Food is any food or drink sold in a street or a market area or fair by a hawker or vendor, usually from a portable stall or truck.  Most street foods are also food that can be eaten with your fingers and are cheaper than food you would buy from a restaurant.  Almost any city you visit has street food that is very much a part of that place.  

Banh Mi Sandwich

Some people worry about eating in places such as this, for health reasons, but if you use a little common sense, it is not a problem. If you do not try something that looks good you are denying yourself an essential part of the travel experience.  Go where the crowds are, the locals know where the food is safe to eat.  And if it doesn’t look clean, then go somewhere else.  But try the local foods.

Suman, a street food in the Philippines

We lived in the Philippines many years ago.  I used to go out to the local market to buy fresh shrimp.  They would unload the boats of fresh fish early in the morning, and you could get fish and shrimp right off the boat. The shrimp were still alive and jumping. If you waited until later in the day, then it was no longer fresh, as it would have been in the open with the heat of the day, and the flies covering it.  I never went to the market later in the day.  But while there I quite often would also buy some of the Suman which is a sweet rice that was wrapped in banana leaves and cooked there in the market.  They were delicious.  I never got sick from eating there, but like I said, I got there early in the day when things were still fresh.

That was my start on street foods.  Over the years I have tried many more versions of street food.  Each country has things they are famous for.  When we visited Istanbul, Turkey, I noticed that there were many carts selling fresh corn-on-the-cob.  I love corn, and I bought and ear one day and ate it as I walked down the street.  It tasted really good.  The other street food I had in Istanbul, was simit.  Simit is a bagel style sesame bread.  I enjoyed that also.

Simits in Istanbul

Corn on the Cob in Istanbul

While in Germany we had bratwurst on a bun, cooked on a grill.  It came with onions and green peppers.  Another German street food is the pretzel, big doughy pretzels with salt or mustard.  We have some that are similar here in the states, but somehow they just tasted better there.
 

George with our friends Bonnie & Pete
Having pretzels at the Christmas Market in Germany

Baguettes in Paris

In Paris we purchased long sandwiches with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil in a baguette from a street vendor, and ate them in the park.  Another Paris treat is a crepe made with nutella. 

 



Frites in Belgium

Another place known for street foods – Belgium where you can get the crispiest, freshest fries (frites) served in a paper cup, or waffles from a street vendor.  For those who do not know, the Belgiums are the ones who originated what we now refer to as French Fries.

Israel is known for falafel balls served with pita bread.  Viet Nam has their Banh Mi sandwiches which are baguette bread filled with grilled pork and pickled vegetables.  Mexico has street tacos. 

 

We saw some really interesting street food in China.  There were scorpions on a stick and some drink that had smoke coming off of it, which seemed to be quite popular with the locals. 

Street Vender in China

Drink in China, Never found out
what it was

 

Singapore Street Food

And Singapore probably has the safest street food, and some of the best.  The government enforces health standards at all places that serve food.  Singapore is so clean, you could probably eat safely off the sidewalks.  And they are famous for their food stands, and food carts.  We went to a place that was famous for serving the local food.  It had probably 20 carts in an area with tables set up.  The tables had numbers on them, and you would order the food and they would deliver it to your table.  My mistake was that I didn’t know they had 2 sizes of plates.  I had seen little plates being delivered to the table, so I thought that is what I was ordering.  I decided to order a variety of food.  I wanted to try a little of everything.  When I realized that I was getting large plates of food, it was too late.  We had enough food to feed a small army.  We did waste some of it, there was no way we good finish it, and I’m sure the local people were laughing at us.  But everything we ate was good, and even though we ordered alot, it was cheap, so we didn't break the bank.

Hot Dog Vendor in New York

Even here in the states we have street food.   And I don’t mean all the fast food restaurants, that is not street food.  Food trucks are becoming quite popular all over the states, and many of them are now serving ethnic foods.  I know the Vietnamese Banh mi is becoming quite popular here because of the food trucks.  And if you go to New York or Chicago, you will see the hot dog vendors on the street corner, they are an institution. 

So when you are exploring a new place, make sure you take the time to also try some of the local favorites and get a taste of the place you are in.  Use common sense, yes, but be adventuresome.  Look for the crowds, and see what they are eating.  Sometimes the street food is really the essence of the place you are visiting. 

 

 o