Street food and tapas

Street food and tapas have been near and dear to my heart for many years. Now, I am finding ways to incorporate some of these dishes for breakfast or dinner at Watson Lake Inn.

Street food is known as ready-to-eat food or drink sold in a street or other public place, such as a market or fair by a hawker or vendor, often from a cart or portable stall. While some street foods are regional, many are not, having spread beyond their region of origin. Most street foods are also classed as both finger food or fast food, and are cheaper on average than restaurant meals. According to a 2007 study from the Food and Agriculture Organization, 2.5 billion people eat street food every day; and in my opinion Singapore is the epicenter of the worlds street food.

During the American Colonial period, street vendors in Philadelphia sold “pepper pot soup” which included tripes “oysters, roasted corn ears, fruit and sweets,” with oysters being a low-priced commodity until the 1910s when over fishing caused prices to rise. As of 1707, after previous restrictions that had limited their operating hours, street food vendors had been banned in New York City. Many women of African descent made their living selling street foods in America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; with products ranging from fruit, cakes and nuts in Savannah, to coffee, biscuits, pralines and other sweets in New Orleans.

At Watson Lake Inn we strive to cater to the client

and may offer street food and tapas in several ways, for example, we recently incorporated in our breakfast congee (rice porridge) as in Taiwan. At dinner time we may offer appetizers such as arancini, arepas or causa; and as tapas during social hour or on guests’ request with specialties like piadina, kibbeh, sopes and anticuchos, my favorites made with beef heart.

What is your favorite to go snack, street food or tapas?

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