Most people agree that one of the best things about traveling to new places is sampling new foods and eating out. But what I miss most about Asia and Latin America isn’t “eating out” in restaurants, it’s “eating out” on the streets.
Long before Anthony Bourdain was doing his No Reservations TV show—which introduced viewers to exotic and delicious delicacies of foreign cultures—many of us were tromping around the globe doing our own tasting. And many of us were backpacking, which meant that we were young, or adventurous, or semi-broke, and usually all three. Street food, the kind that’s served up in a mobile cart, a stand, or a roadside hut, with prices equivalent to pocket change, made economical and logistical sense. But even better, it was the most interesting and flavorful food to be found.
In Thailand, as in many low and middle-income countries with less sanitary red tape than ours, variety, mobility, and an entrepreneurial spirit characterize the street food scene. Sometimes the food comes to you, as it does when a vendor selling mango, pineapple, green guava, and papaya (with or without chili), wanders by. In Oaxaca, Mexico, bellowing hawkers tout their tamales and elotes (corn on the cob covered in cheese and spice) as they wheel them by. Inevitably, the mundane becomes exotic, and it’s not unusual to see fried cockroaches the size of your hand, pig parts, or small mammals being sold as edibles.
More stationary but still non-permanent are the stands that set up shop to cook pad Thai or banana pancakes on Khoa San Road, or baleadas (beans and salty cheese melted between two tortillas) in Honduras, or Bun Cha Gio (spring rolls) in Vietnam. These vendors are there during the day and strategically placed at night, to catch the late night revelers.
And then there are the more established set-ups, the sidewalk shops, wooden shacks, or comedors. In Guatemala, taquerias serve tostadas with mounds of guacamole, while in India you can sit on the street and munch on pakoras (deep fried meat or vegetable) and samosas (potato, onion, cheese in a fried pastry shell) while drinking a mango lassi (yogurt drink).
