STREET food in Asia is a varied fare that delights the palate and comes cheaply. It is colourful, tasty and varied, sometimes sharp, saucy or spicy.
There is something for those with a sweet tooth, or to suit those looking for more of a savoury sensation. Drinks and snacks and full meals.
Street food is the original traditional finger-and-fast food, with a long tradition of cuisine made with fresh local ingredients, on-the-spot, while-you-watch cooking, and at an affordable price.
Some people forsake a kitchen and survive on street food while others supplement their household regime with the varied fare.
Universally, some dishes have caught the world’s attention and appear in almost everyone’s food vocabulary. They also form an important part of a modern travel experience, and eating the local food is an essential element in every tourist trip to a far-off place.
In Thailand, among best known and loved is the stir-fried noodle dish pad Thai, in Hong Kong, it is deep fried curry fish balls, while red bean cakes reign in Taiwan and a bowl of pho noodle soup is supreme in Vietnam, vegetarian masala thosai, pav bhaji, panipuris (fried puris) and sweet snack malai kulfi or frozen dairy dessert are among traditional favourites in India.
Meat figures in the Philippines and take-away meat snacks and whole roasted suckling pigs are popular. Sweet traditional yomari or Nepalese steamed dumplings are well loved in Nepal and Cambodia consumes bowls of steaming snails hand collected by farmers in the countryside to Phnom Penh city.
Scorpions and crickets are among the protein-rich insects deep-fried in oil until crunchy sprinkled with lemongrass slivers and chili that are popularly sold from street vendors carts across Thailand.
And betel quids, known as kunya, are popular in Myanmar, made of tobacco placed into the mouth to suck and chew. Baozi or Chinese steamed meat buns are a breakfast favourite in China.
Singapore and Malaysia feature many food hawker centres which offer a variety of traditional food tastes and open eating. S
Singapore said it will be nominating its hawker culture, comprising more than 6,000 for Unesco’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
But the news has angered some Malaysians, as both nations share a long street food culture heritage with similar dishes creating a rivalry over the origins of the dishes and who offers the most delicious. – November 22, 2018.
A vendor sprinkling tobacco onto betel quids at a street stall in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. Betel quids, known as kunya, are popular in Myanmar, and are made of tobacco and small pieces of betel nut wrapped in a betel leaf and spread with a lime paste for chewing and sucking. – EPA pic, November 22, 2018.A Nepalese woman preparing yomari or Nepalese steamed dumplings in Lalipur. Yomari consists of an external cover of rice flour and an inner content of sweets known as chaku and the mild-based khuwa. They sell for about 65 Nepali rupees (RM4) per dumpling. Yomari are traditionally prepared as a specialty dish by members of the ethnic Newari community in Nepal for their festival, but demand is so great that they are now sold throughout the year. – EPA pic, November 22, 2018.Tourists looking at a range of fried insects at a street food stall on Khao San road, in Bangkok, Thailand. The street food in Khaosan road is the house of many kinds of food but the most popular are fresh fruits, fried insects and pad Thai. Bugs have been on the menu in Thailand for ages but a few years ago, they migrated from the jungles to commercial farms and factories. – EPA pic, November 22, 2018.Indonesian women enjoying bakso in Depok, Indonesia. Bakso consist of meatballs and noodles mixed with tofu, mustard greens, fried onions and chilli sauce and is one of the most popular street foods in Indonesia. – EPA pic, November 22, 2018.A vendor selling baozi, or Chinese steamed meat buns, at a business district in Beijing, China. The traditional Chinese dish is commonly eaten as breakfast. Baozi are steamed over high heat in a bamboo steamer. – EPA pic, November 22, 2018An Indian street food vendor selling the common street snack panipuri, fried puris with an assortment of fillings, as commuters walk past in Mira Road, on the outskirts of Mumbai. Panipuri is also known as gol gappa of fried crisply hollow puri filled with boiled mashed potato, chickpeas and mixture of chutney and flavoured water. – EPA pic, November 22, 2018.Cambodians cooking snail soup at the Omega street food restaurant in Koh Pich, Phnom Penh. The snail soup is made with lake snails, caught by hand by farmers in the provinces around Phnom Penh. The dish offers customers a traditional provincial style of food compared to the majority of restaurants in Cambodia that offer Chinese, Western or neighbouring nations’ cuisine. – EPA pic, November 22, 2018.A street food vendor reaching for chilli powder as she prepares the popular deep-fried curry fish balls, a street snack especially loved by the youth in Mong Kok, a busy night life district of Kowloon, Hong Kong. – EPA pic, November 22, 2018.An Indonesian enjoying nasi goreng at a food stall in Medan, North Sumatra. The popular and delicious dish is served with an egg and garnishes. – EPA pic, November 22, 2018.A vendor making red bean cakes in Taipei, Taiwan. The red bean cakes cost T$10 (RM1.50) each and are a popular snack. Crispy on the outside and soft inside, they are filled with red bean paste, cream and shredded turnip. – EPA pic, November 22, 2018.A vendor grilling satay at her stall in the Lau Pa Sat Food Centre in Singapore. – EPA pic, November 22, 2018.Wrapped in pandan leaf and ready to eat, a packet of nasi lemak at a stall in Petaling Jaya. Nasi lemak is served with a sambal and includes garnishes, such as cucumber slices, anchovies, peanuts and hard-boiled or fried egg. – EPA pic, November 22, 2018.An elderly street vendor serving xoi, or sticky rice with lap xuong or Chinese sausage, at a street food stall in Hanoi, Vietnam. Sticky rice is usually served with meat or egg, but there are many variations, such as sticky rice with steamed chicken, mung beans, peanut and sliced coconut. – EPA pic, November 22, 2018.A vendor arranging fried insects on her street food cart on Khao San road, in Bangkok, Thailand. Khaosan is the house of many kinds of food but the most popular are fresh fruits, fried insects and pad Thai. Fried insects attract the attention of tourists from all over the world. – EPA pic, November 22, 2018.A vendor frying duck at a street stall in Binangonan, Rizal province, Philippines. The duck is deep fried after a boiling process with garlic, onions and other spices, resulting in its trademark of crispy duck skin and meat. – EPA pic, November 22, 2018.
Comments
Posted 7 years ago by Léon Moch · Reply