In general understanding, street food is a quick meal or drink sold in a street or other public place, such as a market or fair, by a vendor, often from a portable stall or a push cart or basket. Street foods are often regional, though many are not, having spread beyond their region of origin. Tourists and locals alike often flock to these roadside vendors because it gives people a closer connection with the food, culture and tradition of a region. Besides, they are cheap.
The street food culture is found all over the world but particularly prevalent in the continent of Asia. If you love traveling and eating street food, you will enjoy this fascinating picture gallery.
Enjoying a watermelon at the bazaar in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, 400 kilometers east of the capital, Riyadh, on May 16, 2008. AFP/Getty Images
Even in the midst of violence in Ivory Coast, locals shopped at markets in Abidjan’s Koumassi district on April 12, 2011. SIA KAMBOU/AFP/Getty Images
A Palestinian youth sells strawberries on Feb. 16 in Jerusalem's Old City Muslim quarter. MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images
A Nepalese vendor sells food from a roadside stall in Bhaktapur, some 12 kilometers southeast of Kathmandu on Feb. 16. PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP/Getty Images
A fruit seller stands by his roadside shop in Mumbai on Sept. 16, 2010. PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP/Getty Images
A Thai food vendor sells meat skewers to train passengers in Bangkok on Dec. 1, 2009. CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP/Getty Images
Women sell fresh produce at a street market in the old town of Hoi An, Vietnam, on Feb. 8. Matthew King/Getty Images
A young family queue for ice cream on Ainsdale beach on April 19 in northwest England. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Nepalese vendors wait for customers at a vegetable market outside Kathmandu on Feb. 16. PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP/Getty Images
Afghan women buy grapes from a street vendor in Kabul on Aug. 26, 2010. SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images
A dry goods vendor holds out handfuls of corn at her stall in a market in Beijing on Dec. 2, 2009. PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images
A Palestinian man sells fresh-squeezed orange juice in the refugee camp of Beddawi in the ancient coastal city of Tripoli, north of Beirut, on Aug. 17, 2010. JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images
A Georgian vendor sells suckling-pigs for the traditional New Year meal at a street market in Tbilisi on Dec. 29, 2009. VANO SHLAMOV/AFP/Getty Images
Young Afghan boys eat ice cream in the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province on April 9. PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images
A Kashmiri roadside vendor prepares snacks at a market during a cold evening in Srinagar on Jan. 10. TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/Getty Images
Women sell cereals and nuts on the main road of the Abobo neighborhood of Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast, on Jan. 13. SIA KAMBOU/AFP/Getty Images
A peanut vendor in Rio de Janeiro passes the time a day after general elections in Brazil, on Oct. 4, 2010. Dilma Rousseff, wearing red in the newspaper, would later win the presidency in a run-off vote. ANTONIO SCORZA/AFP/Getty Images
An Indian vendor sells marinated potatoes at a roadside stall in preparation for Muslims breaking their Ramadan fast at sundown in Mumbai on Aug. 19, 2010. SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images
An onion vendor attends to clients at the Okhla Mandi wholesale vegetable market in New Delhi, India, on Jan.8. Maral Deghati/AFP/Getty Images
A lime vendor takes a nap at a wholesale market in Kolkata, India, on July 29, 2010. DESHAKALYAN CHOWDHURY/AFP/Getty Images
A man sells hotdogs amid the rubble of the commercial center of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 22, 2010. THONY BELIZAIRE/AFP/Getty Images
A man sells roasted chestnuts on Oxford Street on Dec. 14, 2009, in London, England. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Iranian stall owner Sajad Moradi watches over heads, leg, and liver of calves, at the bazaar in the city of Rasht, in northern Iran on March 24. BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images
A street vendor de-scales a carp for a customer at a central Prague market on Dec. 21, 2009. MICHAL CIZEK/AFP/Getty Images
A hawker walks with her goods crosses a street in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on April 11. HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images
An Indian vendor separates the seeds of a pomegranate at a roadside stall in Mumbai on Aug. 19, 2010. SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images
A hot dog vendor outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Jan. 8, 2009, in New York. DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images
As protests against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak raged in Tahrir Square, women ate late-night snacks from a street vendor on Feb. 7, 2011, in a Cairo neighborhood. Chris Hondros/Getty Images
A Burmese family buys paan, a ground-up mixture of betel nuts and other spices wrapped in a betel leaf, from a street vendor near the Botataung Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, on Dec. 6, 2010. Drn/Stringer/Getty Images
A self-employed woman sells food at a stall in the doorway of her home, on April 15 in Caimito, Cuba. ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images
A food vendor waits for customers as people gather to watch the Jan Baz Circus on July 21, 2010 in Islamabad, Pakistan. Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images
A child enjoys a meat skewer in Beijing on Feb. 15, 2011. PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images
A food vendor serves customers at the Gwangjang market in Seoul, South Korea, on Jan. 13. SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A man sells pretzels in front of the Reichstag, the seat of the federal government, during celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of reunification on Oct. 3, 2010, in Berlin, Germany. Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Villagers sell food and drinks at dawn to Hindu pilgrims delivering their offerings as part of the traditional Kasada religious ritual at the crater of Mount Bromo in East Java, Indonesia, on Aug. 26, 2010. AMAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images
[via Foreign Policy]
It's amazing how "street" food is really the only form of grocery shopping in third world nations. The fact that it can sustain so many is why first world cities have such fantastic street food. Even many European nations have fantastic street food, like Belgium's waffles and Austria's pastries!
ReplyDeleteI'd rather buy that than the irradiated vegetables we get here! Even outdoor markets in America only sell irradiated produce! (Not to mention chemicals...) And all we have in supermarkets is 4 kinds of meat! Chicken, Turkey, Pork & Beef! Supermarkets in Europe have so many other choices! Plus people drive to SMALL farms (always 1 nearby!) and buy live animals killed on the spot and cut up for you. Not to mention that veggies & fruits here are plucked so early, they have no juice, and NO TASTE!!! Since most Americans eat at restaurants in other countries, no one is aware of what they're missing! I grew up in Europe and I do miss the taste, freshness and quality of the food... No one can do my work here, so I just travel a lot in between... By the way, did you know that US hotdogs are legally allowed 11% RAT MEAT!?! No kidding! Including hair, teeth, bones, poop... They get into the machinery and nothing can be done. Check it out. And switch to KOSHER! LOL
ReplyDeleteWow! Awesome pictures but nothing to read I got somewhat bored:/
ReplyDeletePictures are so nice....
ReplyDeleteThe pictures are awesome. However, the column would have been more interesting if there was more text giving information about what the pictures are about.
ReplyDelete