Street Food: What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

A few posts ago I wrote about how much effort my fellow expats and I went though to find American food while we were in China.  However, I really must stress (again) how much I enjoyed Chinese food, which is what I ate on a day-to-day basis; the American food was for whenever I needed a cheese fix.

While we mostly ate in restaurants (even if some were the size of a closet), a lot of our "between meals" food was street food.  Many of my breakfasts and lunches were also street food; I would grab dumplings or buns from a vendor before classes, or a sandwich thing from a man behind a window (I don't know if this is street food per-say, as he wasn't in the street, but you couldn't go sit down inside either as their was no restaurant--just a dude selling meat pockets from a window).

My own personal  Chinese food pyramid.  Don't worry, the cool pictures are further down. 

If you are going to be visiting a place for only a short period of time (less then a month) I would consider being cautious with street food.  The lasts thing you want to be worrying about on a vacation is where the nearest bathroom is because you are, at any given time, a stomach rumble away from a gastrointestinal catastrophe (think unstoppable landslide or what happened to Mt. St. Helens).   And given the fact you are going to spending a lot of time on buses and other forms of public transit that do not have toilets, getting a sudden case the runs is going to result in something America has not prepared you for--I have heard horror stories of people who wished they had packed an extra pair of pants in their bag that day.  I have been a part of a mad dash off the bus to the nearest possible toilet. You don't want this kind of experience marring (skidding?) your vacation, trust me.

However, if you are going to be living in a place for several months or even years, then you have no excuse for not jumping head first into all kinds of food experiences, including street food.  What is street food?  Well, I guess I would categorize it as anything sold out of some kind of mobile or temporary restaurant.  So, someone selling it on a cart or stand, or someone who is able to set up a sort of restaurant that can be packed up and  moved to a new location if need be.

In China, the street food is everywhere and covers a lot of different food groups.  Many of them are grills, which are mobile, and are out around dinner time and remain out until close to midnight.  They set up their carts on busy street corners (especially around shopping districts, clubbing districts, or high-traffic night life areas) and start grilling, luring in peckish pedestrians with the tantalizing smells of grilled, cheap food.

The grills are going to offer you any kind of grilled meat on a stick.  Beef, pork, chicken, squid, shrimp (and in more remote areas whole birds, lizards, etc).  They will also grill you up so some rice, noodles in a variety of shapes and styles. Mixed with this rice or noodles are a variety of veggies and your choice of meat, usually topped off with a fried egg (this was my lunch every day at school, although it was not sold on the street, but at a permanent shop--you didn't eat in the shop, you ordered your food and left--there was no seating).

You will also find people standing at corners next to these big round tins.  Th first time I saw one I thought it was a homeless person, because that is sort of what the set up looks like--a homeless person standing around a can with fire in it for warmth.  But that is not what it is; it is a man selling nice, warm, roasted things--typically sweet potatoes and they are so good! Other vendors sell roasted chestnuts, which are also awesome.

For those of you with a sweet tooth, you will find vendors with sugar spun into pretty shapes that you can suck on like awkward lollipops.  Or, my personal favorite, fruit that has been dipped in hot sugar.  When it dries it creates a semi-hard candy shell around the fruit.  They are so good...and it's healthy, because its fruit...

Sometimes you turn a corner that you've walked down a hundred times before, but today there are a bunch of people on the side walk selling all manner of produce--fruits, veggies, live chickens and ducks.  They will also have some fruit all ready and mounted on a stick in case all you feel like at the moment is a quick, cheap treat on your way to wherever you are headed.  Pineapple on a stick was my personal favorite. 

I have some of the best, and some of the very worst, food in my whole life from street vendors.  I have had a hot dog that nearly made me gag, and I have had lamb that nearly made me cry, it was just that good.   My advice for street food is to always try it.  Generally, trust your nose--if it smells good, it probably tastes good and vice verse (I don't care what the Chinese say about stinky tofu (臭豆腐), nothing that smells like that could possibly taste good).  However, take some risks sometimes; eat something you are not sure of; either you will love it and have a new favorite food or you will hate it and have a fun new story to tell everyone back home.  Street food is a win-win...except for your digestive system; always plan on popping some Imodium, but don't let it stop you from trying.

Ah street food. 

Many of these fantastic photographs were taken by Miss Amanda who is still in Hangzhou, and wonderfully willing to take pictures of things I never thought to photograph while I was there.  She's the best.