What are considered street foods?

Street food is a phenomenon that by its very nature is difficult to describe. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation defined it as “ready-to-eat foods and beverages prepared and/or sold by vendors and hawkers, especially in streets and other similar public places.” Many different foodstuffs are mentioned in this book—the Greek souvlaki and gyros, the US hot dog, and falafel, sambusak, and samosa from the countries of the Middle East and Asia. The Australian “pie floater” is a meat pie floating face down in a bowel of pea soup, topped with tomato sauce; the “pani puri” from India is a unique “hand to hand” method of serving in which the vendor presses the puffed puri with the thumb to make a hole and dips it into a vessel containing masala pani, handing it over to the customer and repeating the process several times; the Mexican “jumiles” taco contains live insects (triatomas), which may escape from the tortilla and crawl over the consumer's face.

Street food is everything that can be bought at a stall or booth and eaten directly on the street. A Chips, a hot dog or a warm waffle is also street food. Street food is ready-to-eat food or drink sold by a street vendor or seller on the street or in another public place, such as a market or fair. Most street food is also called finger food or fast food and is usually cheaper than a restaurant meal. The types of street food vary between regions and cultures in different countries around the world.

So the populace ate in the street, buying their food from the nearest thermopolium, which supplied nourishing dishes affordable by all. In Paris there were the “pâtés”, or rather “pâstés”, pastry cases enclosing various fillings, usually stewed meat or vegetables, sold for a few pennies to errand boys and labourers so that they could eat while they worked, with no need for cutlery. The very same humble principle as the pies of the anglo-saxon lower classes: a crust made of flour, lard and water containing a cooked filling, eaten by English miners and factory workers during the industrial revolution. British too is the veritable institution of fish and chips, sold on the street and wrapped in newspaper - a legacy of Sephardic Jewish refugees fleeing persecution during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Consider the panino con la milza (bread with spleen) of Sicilian markets, or with lampredotto (tripe) sold at the last of the tripe stalls in Florence. Pizza itself, the emblem of popular Italian cuisine, occupies the same role as the English pie, arising from the need to feed the poor in the streets. Today’s street food culture is taking a markedly different route, focusing on the traditional cultural aspect - sometimes a rediscovery - and investing in the quality of increasingly refined products. Today’s street food culture is taking a markedly different route, focusing on the traditional cultural aspect - sometimes a rediscovery - and investing in the quality of increasingly refined products. In more recent times, we have seen an abundance of vehicles springing up near stadiums and concert venues, fairs and markets - vehicles specially adapted to sell drinks and sandwiches, classically with sausage or roast pork, the Italian version of American hot dogs and hamburgers, which themselves descended from the traditions of poor immigrants from Hamburg and Frankfurt.