How to eat street food and live to tell the story

Admit it – room service is for wimps. We’ve all been there – straight off the red-eye with a rumbling belly yet too jet-lagged to speak in proper English let alone the local dialect – we reach for the room service menu and hit 3. Really what we should be doing is hot footing it to the nearest street food stall for your first taste of paradise. 

Squatted on a tiny plastic stool on a random street corner slurping steaming noodles; there’s no better way to immerse yourself in local life and get to the heart of a country’s cuisine. Quite often it’s the food I recall most vividly from a trip, and an experience I search out time and again.

From Thai moo ping to Mexican elote, whichever itinerant cook you visit, what you are guaranteed is simple, authentic food cooked to perfection right in front of you. And as they are cooking it day after day, for hours on end, they know what they are doing.

But for the wary or uninitiated traveller, knowing where to go and what to eat can be a daunting task. Remember you don't need to be an adventurous eater or have a stomach of steel to eat street food. Follow these guidelines and live to tell the story: 

1. Time of day is crucial. Find out when the locals have their main meal at home and avoid ordering around those times. For example in Mexico street food stands are busiest either in the morning or late in the evening since locals tend to eat a big sit-down meal around mid-afternoon.

2. Eat where it’s busy and there is a fast turnover of customers. Unless you’ve had a recommendation, the best way to choose a spot with good food, is to look for where all the locals are queuing up.

3. Ask taxi drivers or bartenders for tips of where to go, there's usually a main area street hawkers congregate or night markets with stalls all in one place.

4. How food is prepared is more important than where. Watch how the vendor prepares food and notice how clean and tidy the workspace is, he/she should not be handling money at the same time.

5. Take your cue on how to eat from other diners and if you don’t know the name of a dish, simply point to a fellow diner’s portion. 

6. Heating kills germs, so choose thoroughly cooked food, which hasn’t been left to cool or been reheated. Fried and baked goods consumed without delay are a safe bet. And beware of chipped ice, it probably came from an ice block, which may not have been handled well. 

7. Above all, don’t get hung up on what you should/shouldn’t be doing. It’s bloody obvious you’re a foreigner so just roll with it. If in doubt, smile and mime!

You can read more about my top street food destinations, Streets Ahead, in issue eleven of Cloud.