Street Eating

February 27, 2016 8:11 PM

I'm interested in finding accounts of attitudes toward public eating in different social and historical contexts.

I know that for the ancient Athenians, eating in the agora was akin to a social taboo and I've read that some more conservative people even today find eating in public spaces to be rude and uncultured. I'm wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of an overview of changing attitudes toward public eating, and attitudes toward it in other cultures. I'm Canadian, from the UK originally, and I always feel grossly weird eating on the street, but I'm not sure why. I don't find it an issue when I see other people chowing down.

posted by alltomorrowsparties to Society & Culture (3 answers total)

In Japan, ice cream is the only food that's "okay" to eat while walking around.
posted by aubilenon at 8:21 PM on February 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

You'd find a treasure trove in the prescriptive literature of 19th and early 20th century etiquette books. There's always a discussion about how to eat in company, down to ways of chewing and holding utensils and napkins, acceptable sounds to make, etc.
posted by Miko at 10:44 PM on February 27, 2016

Best answer: I haven't read it, but "Street Food: Culture, economy, health and governance" looks like it might be what you want. From the publisher's blurb: "This volume is one of the first to provide a comprehensive social science perspective on street food, illustrating its immense cultural diversity and economic significance, both in developing and developed countries. Key issues addressed include...historical roots and cultural meanings of selling and eating food in the street....Many chapters provide case studies from specific cities in different regions of the world. "
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:57 AM on February 28, 2016 [1 favorite]