Eating On The Street

A wildly hilarious and irreverent memoir of a globe-trotting life lived meal-to-meal by one of our most influential and respected food critics As the son of a diplomat growing up in places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan, Adam Platt didn’t have the chance to become a picky eater. Living, traveling, and eating in some of the most far-flung locations around the world, he developed an eclectic palate and a nuanced understanding of cultures and cuisines that led to some revelations which would prove important in his future career as a food critic. In Tokyo, for instance—“a kind of paradise for nose-to-tail cooking”—he learned that “if you’re interested in telling a story, a hair-raisingly bad meal is much better than a good one." From dim sum in Hong Kong to giant platters of Peking duck in Beijing, fresh-baked croissants in Paris and pierogi on the snowy streets of Moscow, Platt takes us around the world, re-tracing the steps of a unique, and lifelong, culinary education. Providing a glimpse into a life that has intertwined food and travel in exciting and unexpected ways, The Book of Eating is a delightful and sumptuous trip that is also the culinary coming-of-age of a voracious eater and his eventual ascension to become, as he puts it, “a professional glutton.”

Eat Mexico is a love letter to the intricate cuisine of Mexico City, written by a young journalist who lived and ate there for four years. It showcases food from the city's streets: the football-shaped, bean-stuffed corn tlacoyo, topped with cactus and salsa; the tortas bulging with turkey confit and a peppery herb called papalo; the beer-braised rabbit, slow-cooked until tender. The book ends on a personal note, with a chapter highlighting the creative, Mexican-inspired dishes - such as roasted poblano oatmeal - that Lesley cooks at home in New York with ingredients she discovered in Mexico. Ambitious cooks and armchair travellers alike will enjoy Lesley's Eat Mexico.

Zoe Chase always wanted to own her own restaurant—but first, she’ll have to serve up a heaping helping of meals on wheels, with a side of mystery… When she’s once again passed over for a promotion at work, Zoe decides to take the big leap and go for her dream. She quits, gives up her fancy digs, and buys a fixer-upper diner in a shady part of town. To keep above water during the renovation, she buys a used food truck to serve the downtown and waterfront of Mobile, Alabama. Zoe starts to dish out classic Southern food—but her specialty is her deep-fried biscuit bowls that blow traditional bread bowls away. After a promising start, things start to go downhill faster than a food truck without brakes. First, someone tries to rob the cash register. Next, Zoe is threatened by the owner of a competing food truck for taking their spot. And when the owner ends up dead inside Zoe’s rolling restaurant, Zoe and her sole employee, Ollie, find themselves hopping out of the frying pan into the fryer. They need to find the real killer, before both of them get burned.

Thanks to foodies, soft-focus feature spreads, and unbending artisan philosophies, you'd think that cooking has become a rarified skill that only those with a Yelp account and three-hundred dollar knife set can enjoy. It's easy to forget that delicious food is often loud, messy, and fun. When was the last time a Michelin-starred restaurant made you feel like you discovered a secret, amazing part of a city? When was the last time you yelled "this is f*king amazing!" at a tastefully-appointed bistro? But you did pledge your undying devotion to that food truck at 3:00 am, right before the memories get fuzzy. So we dug up that taco recipe, plus a couple hundred others worthy of your foul-mouthed late night praise. And now you can make it yourself at home. For those who like their food grilled, fired, and charred, Eat Street presents 200 recipes for the most delicious food in the world -- street food. Starting with the setups, you'll discover how to get the most out of everything from flat-top griddles to outdoor brick ovens to earthenware pots, so you make the best food with the right equipment. Then dig into the greatest hand-held grub from around the world: Philly Cheese Steaks, Pork Belly Gyoza Dumplings, Arepas, and more. Each recipe comes paired with a beer, so you put the right bottle or can with whatever you're cooking. Welcome to Eat Street.

Describes the L.A. street cook's life, including working in his family's restaurant as a child, figuring out what he wanted to do with his life, and his success with his food truck and restaurant.

Prepared foods, for sale in streets, squares or markets, are ubiquitous around the world and throughout history. 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: policy, regulation and governance of street food and vendors; production and trade patterns ranging from informal subsistence to modern forms of enterprise; the key role played by female vendors; historical roots and cultural meanings of selling and eating food in the street; food safety and nutrition issues. Many chapters provide case studies from specific cities in different regions of the world. These include North America (Atlanta, Philadelphia, Portland, Toronto, Vancouver), Central and South America (Bogota, Buenos Aires, La Paz, Lima, Mexico City, Montevideo, Santiago, Salvador da Bahia), Asia (Bangkok, Dhaka, Penang), Africa (Accra, Abidjan, Bamako, Freetown, Mozambique) and Europe (Amsterdam).

Street vendors are ubiquitous across the world and throughout history. They are part of almost any distribution chain, and play an important role in the marketing of consumer goods particularly to poorer customers. Focusing on the food trades, this multi-disciplinary volume explores the dynamics of street selling and its impact on society. Through an investigation of food hawking, the volume both showcases the latest results from a subject that has seen the emergence of a significant body of innovative and adventurous scholarship, and advances the understanding of street vending and its impact on society by stimulating interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary discussions. Covering a time span of approximately two millennia, from antiquity to the present, the book includes chapters on Europe and Asia, and covers a diverse range of themes such as the identity of food sellers (in terms of gender, ethnicity, and social status); the role of the street seller in the distribution of food; the marketing of food; food traders and the establishment; the representation of food hawkers; and street traders and economic development. By taking a dynamic approach, the collection has enabled its contributors to cross disciplinary boundaries and engage in discussions which extend beyond the limits of their own academic fields, and thus provide a fresh appreciation of this ancient phenomenon.

Traveling foodie and TV personality Daym Drops presents a cross-country culinary tour of America’s best bites . . . Millions have watched Travel Channel and YouTube host Daymon Patterson, aka Daym Drops, eat burgers and fab food truck finds in his car as he drives the highways and byways looking for America’s best food trucks, street foods, and cheap eats, sharing his insightful and hilarious reviews along the way. Now the food correspondent on the award-winning Rachel Ray Show details the definitive road map to truly tasting Americana. Skip the ritzy restaurants and discover the true taste treats—sometimes messy but always made with love—in this guide that takes you to fast, fun, flavorful meals from coast to coast, whether they’re served on wheels, at sidewalk stands, or in hole-in-the-wall mom-and-pop operations. “If there’s another person’s taste buds that I would take into battle, it would be Daym’s. Not only does he know what tastes good, looks good, and holds together well, he knows what doesn’t! . . . If you hold food dear to your heart, then this book should be held to your gut.” —Josh Elkin, host of Cooking Channel’s Sugar Showdown