Food on the Street

From New York to Cape Town and from Pompeii to Cairo, street food is out there and seemingly experiencing a major resurgence in popularity, writes Andre Erasmus.

For the few of you who may not know, street food is usually prepared and sold from vendor stands, food trucks and markets. The concept has been around for centuries, long before the phrase “fast food” was even invented.

Street food was widely consumed by poor urban residents of ancient Rome, whose tenement homes did not have ovens or hearths. In 1502, Ottoman Turkey became the first country to legislate and standardize street food.

Street food has taken off since then and in New Mexico, for example, the Street Food Institute (SFI) is an entrepreneur-focused culinary program dedicated to inspiring the success of small, local businesses and supporting the development of small businesses by growing the state’s local food economy.

In the USA, New York City’s signature street food is the hot dog. However, the Big Apple’s street food also includes everything from spicy Middle Eastern falafel, Jamaican jerk chicken and Belgian waffles.

Street food differs from country to country and culture to culture, and bread in its various forms is usually a part of this type of food.

In South Africa’s Durban, for example, the bunny chow, or “bunny” to addicts, is a local creation that was made to eat on the street. It consists of a hollowed quarter loaf of bread brimming with hot curry, often topped with sambals. My opinion? They are great, but can leave you with a long-lingering “after burn” in your mouth.

Further along the South African coast, we find the Gatsby sandwich, which needs little introduction – at least to Capetonians. The Gatsby is a foot-long feast that’s impossible to conquer alone and comes packed with “slap chips” (soggy French fries) and your meat of choice.

The ultimate South African street food is the “boerewors roll”. Boerewors (farmer’s sausage) is a spicy mix of meat (beef, pork, etc.) in a thick sausage. Companion to every sports game, festival and Saturday morning parking lot, the “boerie roll” is a South African staple. The smell of frying onions alone will have you lining up for as long as it takes to get a tomato-sauced boerie in a soft white roll. My opinion? As a South African, I consider boerie rolls to be a staple. They are yummy!

Even in bonnie Scotland, street food is burgeoning. It’s not only the deep-fired Mars Bar, either; now you can get a haggis toastie. The Macbeth from Deeney’s is a mix of cheddar, hot haggis and caramelized onions, mustard, rocket and granary bread. My opinion? I am not yet a haggis fan, but this is better than a deep-fried Mars Bar.

Seen around London from time to time is Yu Kyu’s food van, which offers a Japanese delicacy in the form of crunchy panko-crumbed chicken breast and fragrant katsu curry sauce in a burger bun.

In London’s Borough Market, Kappacasein’s stall draws queues of fast foodies who order the cheese toasties. These offer a carefully selected combination of three cheeses – Ogleshield, Montgomery cheddar and Comte – which are added to a sharp mix of leeks and onions and melted until bubbling between two crisp slices of sourdough bread.

The ancient Romans, the Greeks and the folk of the Middle East are who we have to thank for street food. I could carry on, but my boerie roll is waiting…