Street Food Stall

What is a Street Market?

2010-08-23T11:31:00.000-07:00

A street market in Hong Kong on Boxing Day 2006

A Street market is an outdoor market such as traditionally held in a market square in a market town, and are often held only on particular days of the week. Very similar markets, or bazaars can also be found in large enclosed spaces, instead of on a street. Almost any stuff u can find in here, including street food.

Source: Wikipedia

What is a Finger Food?

2010-08-22T09:25:00.000-07:00

Finger food being served.

Finger food is food eaten directly using the hands, in contrast to food eaten with a knife and fork, chopsticks, or other utensils. In some cultures, food is almost always eaten with the hands; for example, Ethiopian cuisine is eaten by rolling various dishes up in injera bread. In the South Asian subcontinent, food is traditionally always eaten without utensils. Foods considered street foods are frequently, though not exclusively, finger foods.

In the Western world, finger foods are often either appetizers (hors d'oeuvres) or entree/main course items. In the Western world, examples of generally accepted finger food are miniature beef pies, sausage rolls, sausages on sticks, cheese and olives on sticks, chicken drumsticks or wings, spring rolls, miniature quiches, samosas, sandwiches or other such based foods, such as pitas or items in buns, onion bhajis, potato wedges, vol au vents, several other such small items and risotto balls (arancini). Other well-known foods that are generally eaten with the hands include pizza, hot dogs, fruit and bread. Dessert items such as cookies, pastries, ice cream in cones, or ice pops are often eaten with the hands but are not, in common parlance, considered finger foods. In East Asia, foods like pancakes or flatbreads and street foods such as kebabs are often with the hands.

In many Western countries there are catering businesses that supply finger-foods for events such as weddings, engagements, birthdays and other milestone celebrations. For weddings, in particular, finger foods are becoming more popular because they are less expensive and offer more flexibility with menu choices. Gourmet hors d’oeuvres such as quiches, pate, caviar, and tea sandwiches are suitable for a formal event, whereas more familiar food such as sliced fruits, deli trays, crackers, and cookies are preferred at more casual celebrations.

Source: Wikipedia

What is farmers' market?

2010-08-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

Farmers' market in Layyah, Pakistan at twilight

Farmers' market produce is renowned for being locally grown and very fresh. People argue farmers' markets allow farmers to pick produce at the peak of flavor, preserve the nutritional content of fresh produce, and since locally grown produce does not travel as far to get to your table, the difference in mileage saves fossil fuels.

Farmers' markets often feature produce grown naturally or organically, meats that are raised humanely on pasture, handmade farmstead cheeses, eggs and poultry from free-range fowl, as well as heirloom produce and heritage breeds of meat and fowl. In many countries with strict food safety laws, farmers' markets can be one of the few places beyond the farm gate to purchase raw food, such as raw milk.[citation needed]

Farmers' market advocates believe the markets help farmers stay in business as well as preserve natural resources. Wholesale prices farmers get for their produce are very low, often near the cost of production. Farmers who sell direct to the public without going through a middle man get a better price. It can be shown that the preservation of farmland is important for the health of the environment and water supply. According to the American Farmland Trust, sustainable and managed farms conserve soil and clean water and provide a habitat for wildlife. Moreover, modern farmers' markets help maintain important social ties, linking rural and urban populations and even close neighbors in mutually rewarding exchange.

Farmers' markets are a traditional way of selling agricultural and home manufactured products. A weekly market day is a part of normal life in villages and town squares throughout the world. A good way for a traveler to sample local foods and learn about local culture is to attend market day, especially when it coincides with a festival, such as the fiestas in many towns in Latin America. In France and other European countries, there exist street markets, as well as covered marketplaces, where farmers and purveyors sell. Farmers' markets are starting to appear online.

In the U.S. and Canada, due in part to the increased interest in healthier foods, a greater desire to preserve local types of cultivars or livestock (some of which may not be up to commercial shipping or yield standards) and an increased understanding of the importance of maintaining small, sustainable farms on the fringe of urban environments, farmers' markets in the US have grown from 1,755 in 1994 to 4,385 in 2006[2] to 5,274 in 2009.[3] In New York City, there are 107 farmers' markets in operation.[4] In the Los Angeles area, 88 farmers' markets exist, many of which support Hispanic and Asian fare.

New markets appear regularly, and existing markets—some well over a century old—are seeing renewed growth in both North America and Europe.

Some markets are carefully managed, with strict rules for pricing, quality and vendor selection. Others are much more relaxed in their vendor criteria. While the usual emphasis is on locally-grown/produced food and crafts, some farmers' markets allow co-ops and purveyors, or allow farmers to purchase some products to resell.

Some farmers' markets have wholesale operations, sometimes limited to specific days or hours. One such wholesale farmers' market is the South Carolina State Farmers Market,[5] which is a major supplier of watermelons, cantaloupes, and peaches for produce buyers in the northeastern US. Farmers' markets also may supply buyers from produce stands, restaurants, and garden stores with fresh fruits and vegetables, plants, seedlings and nursery stock, honey, and other agricultural products. Although this is on the decline, in part due to the growth of chain stores that desire national distribution networks and cheap wholesales prices—prices driven down by the low cost of imported produce.

Source: Wikipedia

What is a Streetside Vendor?

2010-08-20T10:02:00.000-07:00

A hawker selling Goat meat in Kabul.

A streetside vendor or a hawker is a vendor of merchandise or food that can be easily transported; the term is roughly synonymous with peddler or costermonger. In most places where the term is used, a hawker sells items or food that are native to the area. Whether stationary or mobile, hawkers usually advertise by loud street cries or chants, and conduct banter with customers, so to attract attention and enhance sales.

Source: Wikipedia

What is a Market Stall?

2010-08-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

Sponges are sold at this roadside stall near
Akti Bay in the island of Kalymnos, Greece.

A market stall is a typically immobile, temporary structure erected by merchants to display and shelter their merchandise in a street market or other setting. Stalls are easily erected, taken down or simply moved on wheels. The same type of stall is also used as a display area at fairs and conventions.

Some commercial marketplaces, including market squares or flea markets, may erect (or allow merchants to erect) more permanent stalls.

There are many types of stalls, from carts designed to be pulled by hand or cycles; makeshift structures like tents, or converted tow-caravans and motor vehicles.

Stalls are used throughout the world by vendors selling street food.

Source: Wikipedia

What is Street Food?

2010-08-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

Satay stall in Indonesia

Street food is food obtainable from a streetside vendor, often from a makeshift or portable stall. While some street foods are regional, many are not, having spread beyond their region of origin. The food and green groceries sold in farmers' markets may also fall into this category, including the food exhibited and sold in gathering fairs, such as agricultural show and state fair. Most street food is both finger and fast food. Food and green groceries are available on the street for a fraction of the cost of a restaurant meal and a supermarket. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 2.5 billion people eat street food every day.

Concerns of cleanliness and freshness often discourage people from eating street food. Lack of refrigeration is often construed as a lack of cleanliness or hygiene; on the other hand, street food often uses particularly fresh ingredients for this very reason.

Street food is intimately connected with take-out, junk food, snacks, and fast food; it is distinguished by its local flavor and by being purchased on the sidewalk, without entering any building. Both take-out and fast food are often sold from counters inside buildings. Increasingly the line is blurred, as restaurants such as McDonald's begin to offer window counters. Which is odd because the first McDonald's in Downey, CA sold exclusively from window counters.

With the increasing pace of globalization and tourism, the safety of street food has become one of the major concerns of public health, and a focus for governments and scientists to raise public awarenesses. FSA hence provides comprehensive guidances of food safety for the vendors, traders and retailors of the street food sector in the United Kingdom. Other effective ways of curbing the safety of street foods are through mystery shopping programs, through training and rewarding programs to market stallers, through regulatory governing and membership management programs, or through technical testing programs.

Source:Wikipedia