Short History of Street Food. Love for Indian Street Food at Indico
5 May 2017Street food consists of readymade food items that are sold by a vendor in markets or open places. They may include the solid food items, various drinks or juices. Street food has become a very important business nowadays. And people have always admired and loved street food and street food markets.
You walk across the street and you will see many vendors selling the food items. These are the delicious, traditional food items. They have a unique aroma and flavor attached with them that makes every passer-by to stand, and taste it. Moreover, they are readily made within a short duration of few minutes. This adds to its specialty of giving a try to these food items. According to a report of FAO (Food and Agriculture organization) there are around 2.5 million people who tend to eat street food daily. That is to say, the number of consumers of ‘street food’ is increasing day by day.
History
Every culture and region has a history that shows the love of people for street food. It dates back to the ancient Greece time period. They used to serve fried fish as their most common street dish. For people of ancient Rome street food was their main source of food. The ‘chickpea soup’ was a commonly sold item. China has a similar history.
During colonial time of America, the vendors used to sell ‘roasted oysters and corn’. Oysters remained as a popular street dish due to its cheap price and delicious taste till 1910. After that there came a little set back to it. New York had a bit different history. The government put many restrictions on vendors and then actually completely banned this business by 1707. In Africa, many women and children get their earnings from selling street meals. Another example, during 19th century in Transylvania, vendors used to sell ‘ginger bread’ and ‘corn mixed with cream’ on the streets. ‘French fries’ emerged in Paris as the most selling street meal by 1840. In Thailand, initially this business couldn’t gain much popularity. In Japan, street food business started 100 years back where it was provided to students and laborers.
Advantages of street food
There are certain advantages of street food that has contributed to its popularity worldwide, such as:
• It is easily available on the streets. Hence you can easily buy them without making an extra effort to go to a far place for food
• The taste is delicious and unique
• It often includes the traditional food items that you may have a problem looking for in big restaurants
• They are made from traditionally old recipes, preserving the original taste of these food items too
• They are cheaper in price
• Preparation is in front of customers so one gets good idea of the ingredients included in them.
Difference between street food and fast food
A strong association between street food and fast food is often created. But this is entirely wrong. They can only be linked in the sense that both are readily available. You don’t have to wait extra time for it to get prepared. But there is a huge difference in their preparation methods and qualities.
• Fast food is a processed food. Its preparation includes using lots of preservatives and chemical compounds. Fast food companies spend lots of money for preserving the texture and flavor of their food items with the use of these chemical additives. Whereas the street food is fresh and pure, just like homemade food, free from all sorts of preservatives.
• Chefs and vendors prepare the street food in front of the customers. So the customer knows the ingredients of the food items. On the other hand in fast food, a person is totally oblivion of right ingredients
• Street food consists of traditional dishes of that area. This is not the case with fast food.
Love of Street food in India
The street food business in India has flourished to a vast extent. Indeed, many people love to eat it. The street food contains a vast variety of food items that are available to people in the form of meat, vegetables, chicken, cheese products etc.
Moreover, Indian food is one of the most popular foods worldwide. They have a very diverse range of savors. They have quite a large range of spices admixed with food, giving a unique taste to every food item. There are large amount of street food items in India that you can try, such as paratha’s, gol gappas, tandoori chicken, kahthi rolls, bheil puri, aloo tikki, pakoras, samosas, kebabs, etc. They keep a long lasting delicious flavor on the taste buds.
