ON AIR ON BYRON BAY’S BAYFM 99.9 ON MARCH 21, 2011

On belly today we hit the streets to check out fast and fabulous street food from around the world.  I was lucky enough to be in the great city of San Francisco recently, & recorded a talk about the street food revolution that has hit San Fran & many US cities recently.

But street food is on the rise around the world, as it gets faster and more urbanised, and is also seen as a way to preserve local food traditions.

According to  www.streetfood.org:

“From Akume in Togo to Pho in Vietnam, street food constitutes up to 40% of the daily diet of urban consumers in the developing world.

Yet, the rich cultural importance of street food is fragile.  Globalisation and urban development threaten these age-old traditions and, despite street food’s vital importance to local communities, there are serious health issues to contend with.

Consumers International (CI) is working to preserve street food life, so that local consumers, street food sellers and inquisitive travellers can enjoy these great dishes safely.

CI is campaigning for safe access to street food.

CI aims to:

Achieve recognition that street vending is a legitimate activity.

Persuade local authorities to improve access to sanitation and waste disposal for vendors.

Persuade local authorities to provide basic, accessible and affordable hygiene courses for vendors.”

So check out the website to find out more about their campaigns, and street food around the world.  They are looking for more content, and encourage schools and community groups to use their information.

And they have recipes!  (well only 3 so far).  I chose this one from Benin in West Africa because it is the first cooked one ingredient recipe I’ve ever seen, and it is vegan yet can’t possibly be good for you – but it sounds pretty delicious.

 

KLUI-KLUI : DEEP FRIED PEANUT BUTTER STICKS

Blend roasted unsalted peanuts until you get peanut butter.

Let it sit at room temperature for a day or until the solids settle to the bottom and the oil rises to the top.

Drain off the oil to use for frying or cooking.

Take the peanut solids and roll into stick shapes and fry in oil.

 

Yum!!!  Probably enough to give you a peanut allergy in a single hit, but it sounds dlish.

 

 

 

CREATIVE STREET FOOD IN SAN FRANCISCO

Is going through a huge boom.  In the last 2 years all sorts of interesting entrepreneurs, cooks, chefs and food lovers have set up anything from a wok on wheels to massive specialised trucks – the food truck builders are going through a boom thanks to specially adapted gourmet fast food trucks costing anything up to US$250,000.

“We’re seeing demand for customization based on specific menus or food concepts, which may mean installing a pizza oven or a baking oven for cupcakes,” said Richard Gomez, customer sales engineer and plant controller at AA Cater Truck, the largest food truck manufacturer in the country. “There’s also a lot more emphasis on marketing and graphics. Trucks used to be just white, but now customers want to make their trucks look like celebrities.”

The people who were nice enough to let me record their talk this February come from a very different perspective.  They are involved with the underground, do it yourself, independent music and art scene.  Tamara writes about it on sfoodie and the feast.  Olivia has a gallery called Fabric8, where she shelters not-quite-fully-legal food vendors, at the same time as providing her punters with food that is vastly superior to the usual gallery opening nibbles.  Roger has a cart business called Soul Cocina,  is a trained chef, and also holds regular parties called Inside Out.  Brian is a curry vendor, his magic curry kart has even been all the way to the desert for Burning Man.

To see a few of the characters involved with the street food scene in the US, check out www.roaminghunger.com

or this episode of a really entertaining web food series by 2 phat boys, that also includes things like the farmers market rapper

 

 

 

And what did I eat from all this feast of interesting stuff? Not much unfortunately, it was a quick visit, but I did have the best coffee I’ve ever had in the States from Curbside Coffee, and a deep fried chicken sandwich from this lot, parked outside the Noise Pop culture club – it was the only meal I needed all day really, lucky SF is a great walking city, but very tasty.

 

 

 

 

I wasn’t sure if this topic would be of interest locally, then a few days after I got back Sue Bennett in the Sydney Morning Herald wrote a story called ‘Sydney’s ready for street food’.  Both the story and the more than 80 comments talked about how much we need more street food, how great it would be to have outdoor good food vendors or markets.  And the barriers to it like regulations, hygiene concerns, traffic, complaints from restaurants and residents.

I’ve just talked to a friend who heard the show.  She’d love to see an evening outdoor market of stalls, a venue for all the creative locals with tasty ideas, we certainly have plenty.  San Francisco is a  city and we are a collection of villages, but in many ways we are similar – lots of artists, musicians, people from all sorts of backgrounds used to thinking outside the square, lots of wild and woolly diy, lots of good cooks too.  But I think one link that really makes it work in SF and could help here is the use of new(ish) technology, the twitter and yelp and facebook that helps the public find and recommend (or not)their favourite food vendors.  I was looking for food and found a whole music/art/underground festival with a few mouse clicks, they go together well.

a taste of the SF street food scene on belly Believe it or not, finally some belly audio on the belly site!  Well I’m excited… Learning all the time

and if you’ve only got a minute, listen to the cookie story sf_streetfood_cookie_story

get a string and start baking now – only problem is, we don’t have any tall buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STREETSAFE SNACKING

A bit of  advice from various government and travel websites on tasting street food without ending up confined to the smallest room.

Where local tap water is not safe:
* only use bottled water to drink and brush your teeth and always check the seal
* do not put ice in drinks – freezing preserves germs, rather than kills them
* avoid uncooked food, including salads and fruit that you cannot peel

* in Africa they say to look for a neatly dressed, clean vendor
* wash your hands before you eat
* go with busy clean, organised places, look & smell
* eat food that is freshly and thoroughly cooked and served hot, not sitting around
* seafood dishes are notorious for causing intestinal problems. Smaller fish tend to be safer.

Obviously all this advice goes for restaurants too, I think sometimes more so as you can’t see the kitchen.  My only bad bug overseas was from  hotel room service.  According to the Australian government, you should also think about immunising against hepatitis A before going to countries where it is prevalent.

Love and chocolate klui-klui, sister T

MUSIC

Mo Horizons, Hit the road Jack/Pa ma estrada

Elvis, Hot Dog

Apricot Rail, Pouring milk out the window

Claude Hay, Get me some

Faux Pas, Chasing waterfalls