‘Eats on the Street’ become respectable

Street food and sidewalk dining now influence mainline cuisine

Street food, usually seen as ‘food for the poor’, is now conquering cities worldwide and radically changing the way we approach eating out. Beside traditional street food – the New York hot dogs stands or the aromatic Thai massaman curry food trucks – migration has brought with it new and now widespread products such as the kebab. Guides to the best dishes and street vendors are filling the shelves: in October 2012, Lonely Planet published The World’s Best Street Food: Where to Find It & How to Make It, while the VirtualTourist website has ranked the cities with the best street food: Bangkok is first, followed by Singapore, Penang (Malaysia), Marrakesh, Palermo, Ho Chi Minh City, Istanbul, Mexico City, Brussels and Ambergris Caye (Belize).