Asian street food

May 2, 2017 4:45 AM

I need a crash course on street food in different Asian countries! Can you help me?

Questions:
- What is iconic street food in (Singapore, Thailand etc.)
- Recommendation: Where do I best eat it (feel free to get very specific - which market/stall!)

Your opinions and recommended blog posts for longer reading equally welcome.

Thank you very much!

posted by Omnomnom to Food & Drink (8 answers total)

Have you seen any Anthony Bourdain shows on Netflix? In A Cook's Tour he goes to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. In The Layover the first episode is set in Singapore. Lots of street food although it's quite old now.
posted by derbs at 5:10 AM on May 2, 2017

There are many Asian countries! Are there specific ones that you are interested in? What would be the type/flavors that you would be more inclined to?

For example, India has so many regional cuisines that one needs to spend a month or two tasting street food across different cities. China also has significant regional variation as well.

Some more specific info may help us. However, to start with, let me give you some tips for South India:

1. Hyderabad - Chaat at Gokul Chat, Koti or Dadu's, MG Road. Chole Batura and Biryani at night on the HiTech city road, Irani chai, samosa and biscuits at Blue Sea restaurant near Secunderabad railway station

2. Chennai - Idly and Dosa on ranganathan street

3. Bengaluru/Bangalore -
Multi-cuisine food on V V Puram Food Street, south Indian breakfast foods at Central Tiffin Room in Malleshwaram, Veg sandwiches at Hari's Sandwich Zone in Jayanagar, Chaat and Pani Puri at Rakesh Kumar Pani Puri Stall also in Jayanagar and grilled snacks and wheat rolls at Khan Saheb Grills and Rolls in Indiranagar
posted by theobserver at 5:23 AM on May 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

EatingAsia will give you a lot of background on the subject. Some of their posts are old enough that tracking down specific vendors they mention may be impossible.
posted by Candleman at 6:08 AM on May 2, 2017

Singapore-- there are many sources, but my favourite option is Sambal stingray at the East Coast Lagoon Food Village. Carrot cake for bonus points.
posted by frumiousb at 6:13 AM on May 2, 2017

Response by poster: You're right, that was too vague.
I am interested in Bangkok, Singapore, Bali, Tokyo
posted by Omnomnom at 8:36 AM on May 2, 2017

Get someone on the ground in Bangkok to tell you what the status is at Sukhumvit Soi 38. A friend of mine used to live down the street from there and I can tell you its fame was deserved. The government was going to implement various measures this year that would put a lot of street food vendors out of business (yes, some of the measures were related to food safety... it was always fine when I ate there), and there are contradictory reports online about "oh, soi 38 is cleared out," "no, it's saved!" etc. So, you should get an up to date opinion. But if you're in Bangkok anyway, it's easily accessible from the BTS (subway) so maybe stop by and check it out even if you get conflicting reports.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 9:44 AM on May 2, 2017

Japan doesn't have street food as much as festival food -- okonomiyaki, takoyaki, taiyaki, dango, yakisoba, chocobananas, and so on. Besides festival food stalls, some traditional shops are more or less open to the street, like your regular oden shop.

A lot of grilled-on-a-stick food dishes you can find at stalls are also typical izakaya food. These are small bars that are everywhere. Okonomiyaki are a staple of food stalls but they are typical of Osaka and Hiroshima and eaten in restaurants.

Recommendation: when you're in Tokyo attend a festival like Kanda Matsuri or Sanja Matsuri, there will be lots of food stalls around the temple grounds. Besides festivals, some very touristy places (Inari Shrine in Kyoto, for example) have food stalls available all year long. Flea markets may also have street food, at least the one at Kitano Tenmanguu in Kyoto did when I went there.

Manners: Don't walk around eating food or drinking, it's just not done. Stay near the stall and when you're finished throw the plastic container and chopsticks or skewers in the trash bag that will be nearby.
posted by sukeban at 6:49 AM on May 3, 2017

Singapore corralled their hawkers into little market stalls where there are a LOT of stalls in a center and a lot of tables, sometimes numbered. If there's a sign says "self serve" it typically means that you go up, grab a tray and put it down on the countertop space, order, then they give you the food and you take it to go eat at a table. If there's no sign, then sometimes someone from the stall will have you sit down and give you a menu, you order, then they will bring you the foods and you pay them when you get your food. Sometimes there's no menu to give to you and you will just order at the stall and then tell them where you're sitting, and someone brings you the food. We thought that the things that we ordered sort of randomly were good, we developed the strategy later of going to stand in whatever the longest lines we saw at whichever food stall market we were at- these results were uniformly very good to excellent- sometimes we would ask people in line what to order if there were a lot of choices. Also it seems like a thing that people don't usually self bus, they leave their dishes/trays on the table and someone comes by to clean everything up (we self bussed b/c we couldn't not). If you are used to using napkins at mealtimes, you should bring either napkins/tissues/wet wipes b/c there are typically none.

Specific foods- I liked stingray, carrot cake comes in a black or white version (savoury, kind of like Chinese radish cake squares but chopped up), bak kut teh- pork bone soup?, chili crab- they might give you gloves and a bib b/c it's messy, prawn noodles/seafood soup
- we had very good chinese egg tarts in chinatown at a place by Trengganu & Smith street
- I liked the fresh fruit juice stands
posted by tangaroo at 10:41 AM on May 3, 2017