Keeping the street in streetfood

DSC01055.JPG, originally uploaded by noodlepie.

I hope Vietnam never goes the route of other Southeast Asian countries and put the street vendors in mall like hawker centers. I appreciate hygiene just like the next person but I've never fallen ill from Vietnamese street food (knock on the baby plastic chairs that you sit on!). Hawker centers in Singapore are convenient but there's some soul missing. link

Amen to that Angela. And no, this is not some soft, poncey white faced, western, rose tinted spectaled look back at Vietnam. You take the food off the street and you just have street. You do not have street food. Recent developments do not bode well. The crux of the problem, as far as I can see, has nothing to do with conehead aesthetics it has to do with food.

The best street food in Vietnam comes from family run, front of house stalls. Take the food off the street and it stays behind doors, clear the streets and all that nosh steps back inside the porch and inaccesible to all us hungry dietary explorers.

More on all this from the excellent Gastronomy. Just to throw in my own two dong, it'd be a very sad day when great women like this take their soup indoors.

Comments

[Robyn]

We're on the same page on this. The irony here is that Singapore is known throughout the world as having 'Asia's best street food'. Not sure how the folks who adhere to that opinion define street food, but seems to me putting Singapore's food centers and Vietnam's pyjama ladies in the same category is stretching things a bit....

[Robyn]

Also, curious - how would you define 'street food'? Been quizzing a few folks, including Andrea, on this...

[Graham]

Good question... Not easy to define at all, is it? I guess at its source you're talking homecooked food made for retail and sold out of doors. That kind of encompasses everything.

I always thought of the best streetfood stalls as the families front living room that happened to be on the street or in the alleyway and that sold food.

What happens if you ban this kind of food is it just retreats indoors or ends up a sad, crappy version in some designated mall. All the best stuff stays behind doors - not for public consumption.

I think it is inevitable. I'm not sure I trust the discering Vietnamese palate is strong enough to withstand that kind of progress. I hope I'm wrong though.