Most American cities have no local street food?

[MillennialUrbanist]

Originally Posted by Bettafish

Besides hot dogs, kebabs, and fried doughs etc. which can be found in any city, there is literally no street food scene in the US?

I think it would be a good idea to make a distinction between Street Food 1.0 and Street Food 2.0. Ice cream trucks are a gray area, but I'd categorize them as Street Food 1.0. I don't consider carnival food vendors to be Street Food anything, unless such foods are sold on regular city streets, rather than on carnival property.

Street Food 1.0 are the push cart vendors and people selling fresh fruit and snacks straight out of their vans. Also the "roach coaches" selling cheap tacos, kebabs, hot dogs, elotes, sandwiches, smoothies, etc. Street Food 1.0 once provided cheap meals to workers and partiers everywhere, but draconian regulations and lobbyists have killed off such vendors in much of the US.

Street Food 2.0 are the professional food trucks. Sometimes they're their own food independent business, but oftentimes, they're simply extensions of sit-down restaurants. In either case, the prices are almost the same as at sit-down restaurants. Street Food 2.0 is a relatively new phenomenon in the US; it's growing steadily in walkable downtowns and in hipster neighborhood.

So while the hipsters and the trend-followers are eating up Street Food 2.0 with a spoon (ha!), they don't realize that it's not the authentic experience Street Food 1.0 used to be.

[elnina]

Those are distinctions in quality, mostly - but both are street food, no?

[vladlensky]

I wouldn't really consider most food trucks to be 'Street Food'. They're often just extensions of brick and mortar restaurants and often cost just as much as one. The food I've had from trucks has often been overpriced and does not match the quality.

Conversely, in Manhattan you see a lot of push cart vendors. Some good, some awful, it's just kind of up to you to figure out which is which. There are about 10 of them that line up every day outside of my office. In the morning some sell smoothies, fresh fruit, bakery items, egg sandwiches. At lunch time you can find anything from kebab/halal cuisine to Indian dishes, Korean, Mexican, etc. Most of the places charge about $5 for a plate, which is just about what I'm comfortable paying.

There's also the vendors who sell fresh mango slices with lime juice and chili powder for $2 - one of my favorites!

[Beretta]

Originally Posted by Bettafish

Besides hot dogs, kebabs, and fried doughs etc. which can be found in any city, there is literally no street food scene in the US?

This is far too broad to be answered here. If you have a specific city you have a question about I suggest you ask about it there.

I checked out your history and notes and noticed you are most likely not from the US so I highly suggest you take this route.

Thread closed.