<\/p>\n

I’ve often wondered, often in the voice of Seinfeld, what is<\/em> the deal is with street food?\u00a0It’s usually thrown together in the most unsanitary of shacks, or the shoddiest of carts, held together by duct tape. There’s often some kind of funky ingredient that you’ll no doubt write home about, and the final dish is, more often than not, unrecognizable to the untrained eye.\u00a0Why then,\u00a0I ask, is it so damn good?<\/p>\n

I remember when I first purchased what I ended up calling\u00a0“pig face soup,” in a a shop nestled between garbage cans\u00a0in a downtown alley\u00a0in the Korean town where I was living.\u00a0I pointed at the kettle of steaming broth sitting\u00a0next to a bonnet-wearing old ajumma<\/a> who just happened to be shaving a severed pig head only inches of my dinner.\u00a0Thoughts about\u00a0dividing up my assets crossed my mind.\u00a0Then I thought, “hell, she doesn’t look too worried about things, why should I?”<\/p>\n

Could it be the pride in which\u00a0it is prepared? The atmosphere? Maybe it’s the local, fresh ingredients.\u00a0Whatever the magic that\u00a0encompasses the world’s best street food, it’s undeniable the goodness. That\u00a0grandmother’s toothless smile after I\u00a0took my\u00a0first slurp of\u00a0her soup\u00a0was unforgettable, as well as the regular stop\u00a0I made there for the rest of my stay.\u00a0Thanks\u00a0to Budget Travel’s<\/em> recent run-down of the cities with the world’s best street food <\/a>,\u00a0she came\u00a0grinning\u00a0back into my consciousness.<\/p>\n

Sadly to say, her little shop didn’t make their list of fourteen.\u00a0It’s hard to compete with the street food powerhouses of Bangkok and Hanoi’s Old Quarters, or Vienna and Istanbul.\u00a0Even before\u00a0you see those mouthwatering names, there are a few higher-ranked cities that come as a surprise. My biggest beef (pun completely intended) is the list’s\u00a0#2 best city: Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s those\u00a0yuppy Hollywood images\u00a0I have in my head, but I can’t see\u00a0“pig face soup” being a real big hit there.\u00a0Isn’t that,\u00a0at least a little bit, what\u00a0street food is all about?<\/p>\n

*photo from Jonny Gilbert<\/a> courtesy of TheExpeditioner Flickr Group<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve often wondered, often in the voice of Seinfeld, what is the deal is with street food?\u00a0It’s usually thrown together in the most unsanitary of shacks, or the shoddiest of carts, held together by duct tape. There’s often some kind of funky ingredient that you’ll no doubt write home about, and the final dish is, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,2583,2561],"tags":[595,1670],"yoast_head":"\n