Hello again and welcome back to happy hour. Hello Alan.

Hello everyone.

So Alan, have you heard the great news?

No, what great news?

Street food is back. This is got to be one of the most exciting news that I've heard recently.

Absolutely, I completely agree. I remember a few years ago when in beijing, all the street food vendors and they just disappeared.

It’s such a pity.

It is. When I first came to Beijing, that's one of the things I loved about it. Just being able to sit by the roadside and eat street food. So I'm really glad that they're coming back.

Epecially during long summer night, summer evenings. So let's talk about street food today, shall we?

Yep. Sounds good.

How do you say that in English? I know street food in general, what would you say?

It's a bit tricky, to be honest, we might say a street vendor. So that's the person is actually selling the food.

But street vendor is not just selling food. Right? If you sell clothes, you can also be a street vendor.

Much older version would probably be hawker.

I've heard hawker when it refers to Hong Kong or other southeast Asian cities. Hawker are people who are pushing a cart. You also have food stall.

Yes. If you're talking about the actual physical location or the actual physical space, you might say a food stall, or you might say a food truck as well.

The food truck is they actually have a truck.

Yeah.

That's quite popular in the US, I remember talking to Brad and James about it. In the UK, I cannot really recall seeing many food trucks or food stall, is it because street food is not very popular in the UK?

Part of it is due to the weather. And I would say another part of it is that the food industry is probably too overly regulated. So it's very difficult to get licenses for street food. But I have noticed when I last went back to the UK, in some kind of more up and coming kinda of what we call like hip areas, they would have sort of food courts that have lots of stores around them. And they're just all clump together. It's a designated area. So you have a covering …

Then back to the topic of street food. We both love street food, why do you love it so much?

I just love the fact that it's quite cheap and cheerful.

Cheap and cheerful.

When I travel, I do like to try street food. I remember I actually went to Vietnam last year. I went on the street food tour, it was just going around Hanoi and tried all the different types of street food.

So you had a guide with you, this kind of foot tour is fascinating.

And it just gave you a bit of an idea of the culture. And you got to try all of this street food that you might not feel comfortable trying it yourself on your own.

This is the same everywhere in the world. If you travel as a tourist, you don't know where to get the most authentic street food or local food.

I think it's becoming more popular now, isn't it? When you travel, you do wanna try street food. You don't really want to go to restaurants.

Exactly.

But what about you? Why do you love street food?

I do think that street food is perhaps the most vibrant part of food culture. You could really see how the taste develops. And then plus, like you said, they're cheap and cheerful, and they're usually finger food. So it's not like a formal dinner that you have to sit down. And there's a lot of etiquette manners. It's just light hearted. And also late at night, if you're really hungry, many street food, they're perfect for late night snacks. Although if you worry about calories, perhaps they're not the best choice. So let's talk about street food in China. Anlan, you've been in China for ages and your favorite street food, if you have to choose one, what would it be?

Oh, hard to really say, to be honest, I guess living in Beijing.

By the way, how to say that in English? Because many people they would say barbecue when English speakers hear the word barbecue, they don't think 串儿, do they?

Not really. Because when British people and americans they think of barbecue they probably think more what you might do at home. So burgers, sausages, meat in that way, I would say probably the better way of describing it would either be kebabs.

Or skewers.

Yeah, it depends really on the size because kebabs generally are thicker, so it’s got bigger chunks of meat. But then you have some that kind of little bit smaller. So we'll call those skewers.

Kebab is not even an English word, is it?

No, Kabab originally comes from Arabic.

In Turkey, they will also be called kebabs.

Yeah.

I believe many of our listeners would have that question as well.

Well, to be honest, I don’t think there is a proper translation of it. For example, as I said I have lived in China for many years and I know lots of people who also live in China for quite a number of years. But if you're having to describe it to someone who doesn't know, maybe Chinese style crepes.

Chinese style crepes, So the whole logic is when you're explaining Chinese food to people from other parts of the world, the better way is not to translate it, but actually define something similar that they can relate to in their culture.

Yeah, I would say that's probably the easiest thing to do. It's you find something that people can relate to, so that they can imagine it.

And I'm sure a lot of people are quite confused as in how to translate this.

Well, it’s quite a few to be honest, we'll say pancake, pie, roll or crepe.

So crepe would be the very thin one. And pancake usually it's thicker and sweeter maybe?

Not necessarily sweet.

But thicker. And pie is with fillings, and roll would be hard like a bread.

Kind of.

Yes.

How would you even describe that?

I would say Chinese style hamburger or something like that.

I suppose that is a hamburger. It’s two pieces of bread or buns. And then inside there's meat.

Exactly. Because I’ve told you before the street food is becoming more popular.

And these exotic street food.

And I imagine that would be very expensive.

It's 7 pounds.

Just under 90 hundred RMB.

All right. And then I think towards the end of our discussion today, let's take a look at a few street food around the world. We talked about crepes that's a very typical sort of street food I've seen in France, I've seen so many different types of fillings, but they are generally sweet.

You can also have savory crepes as well, or what we would call gelats, it's made from a different type of flowers. So they look a little bit darker.

Ok. What do you put in it, like bacon?

Bacon, eggs, cheese, you can put anything in it really.

Anything you put it in the crepe or a pancake. And you love Italian food. The Italian street food would be what? Pizza?

You can have pizza by the slice, or you could also have a calzone.

Calzone, that's a kind of pizza, right?

It's a type of folded over pizza, almost like a giant pie, really. And you have all of the cheese and tomato, all of the other pizza toppings inside. It looks like it's folded over.

So it's like pizza in a dumpling.

Kind of.

Okay, and of course Mexico. I went to Mexico last year and then Mexico, obviously street food all taco, lots of tacos and more. And then again you can put everything on it.

As I say, it's very interesting that kind of lots of street food, no matter wherever you are in the world, basics are there.

The concept is the same. Because it's easy, because the pancake would be dry and the food would be cased inside. So it's easier for you to just grab hold of it and eat it like that.

But also you have Japanese street food as well. So Takoyaki or oden.

Tako in Japanese means octopus. Do you like tacoyi?

I love tacoyaki.

It's not always good. But when you find the good ones, they're amazing.

Yeah, so I don't mind oden, but I have to admit that takoyaki is probably my favourite.

We'll finish off with a sweet one because previously a lot of those are savory. A sweet one can usually be eaten as a dessert. This is the Spanish Churros.

Yeah, I really love Churros.

But it's not the same. Because in China our fried dough is savory. But this Spanish churro is always sweet.

Always sweet, but that's mostly because it's what you dip into.

You dip it in chocolate, right?

Chocolate or with cinnamon, sugar, pretty much anything sweet.

Pretty much anything that will rot your teeth and make you fat. Really.

Absolutely. But it's so good. It's really good. I do like them. But I can't eat that many of them because they start making me feel a bit nauseous after a while.

They're very, very rich. I think they're getting really popular in China. So if you see them try them, especially when they're still hot. They're really good. And on that note we're gonna wrap up today. Share with us in the common section. What is your favorite street food and what is the street food that you wanna try.

Absolutely and also share with us your local street food from your hometown. And we can try think of an English name for it in our community.

Exactly. See you next time. Bye

Bye.

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