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Why is street food so consistently good?

Locut0s

Locut0s

Lifer
It might give you the runs that's for sure, though usually it's still worth it, but as most people who have visited Asia will tell you some of the best food to be had is the stuff sold on the street. Be it street meat of any type, sea food (you are risking it with sea food), drinks or dessert some of the best stuff comes off of dirty little carts.

Why?

Anyone else agree have their own experiences to share?
 
A couple nights ago I had some amazing grilled kebabs in a dirty restaurant. You just picked some kebabs, gave them to a lady who ran the grill, and a guy spiced/brushed them with sauce for you. It was really spicy, but amazing. I had the runs the day after, although that could have been from the cold leftovers I ate earlier that day. Totally worth it in any case.
 
I agree 100%. I miss the days of living in the city and street cart vendors.. their griddles looked like shit but man when those cheese steaks/burgers came off 'em.. nom nom nom.
 
Maybe its something in our genetics about eating outside? To avoid predators we might have had to eat quickly outdoors and our bodies are designed to encourage this by heightening our sense of taste outdoors?
 
Nice knowing you, since you probably contracted the mexican swine flu from those yummy dirty street food.
 
It's because the un-washed grills actually season the food.

If you know the culinary arts, you know never to wash a cast iron pot with soap. You rinse with hot water before and after use. Soap will get into the tiny swirls, scratches, and pores in the metal and contaminate the food. sure the food is "cleaner" but the contamination is of nasty tasting chemicals that do make stuff not taste as good.

This is why those street carts can sometimes taste REAL good, if the owner is doing this compared to a restaurant that scours everything down with soap and a brilo pad.
 
They make a very specific set of food, so the cooking gear gets seasoned, and the cooks get very experienced.

If I made 1000 omelettes a day, I'd make some pretty damn tasty omelettes after a couple of months.
 
Originally posted by: Locut0s
It might give you the runs that's for sure, though usually it's still worth it, but as most people who have visited Asia will tell you some of the best food to be had is the stuff sold on the street. Be it street meat of any type, sea food (you are risking it with sea food), drinks or dessert some of the best stuff comes off of dirty little carts.

Why?

Anyone else agree have their own experiences to share?
Click to expand...

Because it has been carefully tendorized by numerous car tires and shoes!
 
Originally posted by: Fritzo
They make a very specific set of food, so the cooking gear gets seasoned, and the cooks get very experienced.

If I made 1000 omelettes a day, I'd make some pretty damn tasty omelettes after a couple of months.
Click to expand...

There's something there. How good can you be as a cook when you have 100+ items on the menu? I don't eat street food, but I still maintain that the world's best burrito is made in my kitchen. I've perfected it. I mean it's the product of thousands of iterations. And I taste every one before I make the next. Am I tired of it? No!
 
Originally posted by: Muse
Originally posted by: Fritzo
They make a very specific set of food, so the cooking gear gets seasoned, and the cooks get very experienced.

If I made 1000 omelettes a day, I'd make some pretty damn tasty omelettes after a couple of months.
Click to expand...

There's something there. How good can you be as a cook when you have 100+ items on the menu? I don't eat street food, but I still maintain that the world's best burrito is made in my kitchen. I've perfected it. I mean it's the product of thousands of iterations. Am I tired of it? No!
Click to expand...

Well, whip me up a burrito already.
 
I was at the birthplace of Krishna in the middle-of-fucking-nowhere, India, late at night and on a parked bus. A frail old man in a loincloth was pushing a wobbly cart through the potholes in the road and knocked on the window. "Potato," knock knock, "potato" he said pointing at the potatoes sitting next to a skillet on his cart. I tossed him a few rupees and I'll be damned if that wasn't the tastiest potato I've ever eaten.

My favorite in general is the soup in Thailand. Not only did it taste good, but the most Thai I could speak had to do with the type of soup I wanted. A lot of times the cook would be taken aback that I could speak Thai, and try to start a conversation with me.. but all I could do is order soup and beer.

My favorite specifically is this grilled pork found about an hour outside of Bangkok. I used to eat there almost every day and it was the juiciest pork you could imagine, sliced and served with dipping sauce. This stuff was so good, that even after I witnessed the cook drop pieces of the sidewalk and pick them up and put them back on the grill, I could not stop going there (and if I watched him, he would usually drop at least one piece in the course of my eating there).

..and thai sidewalks are fucking nasty
 
Personally, I think its just because the food is fresh and recently cooked. Most of the foods we eat in America comes from a plastic container and doused with chemicals.
 
I visited the local taco truck and wow was it great. I ordered a mystery meat special(heard something like a cat screaming, not 100% sure) anyways it was the best "burrito" I'd ever had. I accidently dropped it on the ground, hell I laughed it off, and continued eating. It was even better after being dropped. I think in landed in some dog fieces but hey the dirtier the venue the better, right?
 
Originally posted by: Muse
Originally posted by: Fritzo
They make a very specific set of food, so the cooking gear gets seasoned, and the cooks get very experienced.

If I made 1000 omelettes a day, I'd make some pretty damn tasty omelettes after a couple of months.
Click to expand...

There's something there. How good can you be as a cook when you have 100+ items on the menu? I don't eat street food, but I still maintain that the world's best burrito is made in my kitchen. I've perfected it. I mean it's the product of thousands of iterations. And I taste every one before I make the next. Am I tired of it? No!
Click to expand...

We're going to need this burrito recipe for examination...
 
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