Is Street Food in Vietnam Endangered?
As part of a continuing campaign to make Hanoi "green, clean, and beautiful," the local Vietnamese government implemented a partial ban on street vending, effective July 1. But what is downtown Hanoi without the street food? According to blogger Graham Holliday of noodlepie, "you take the food off the street and you just have street." A potentially more sanitary, but way less delicious, very sad street.
Next to frenetic motorbike taxis, hawking pho and fruits gives Hanoi its heartbeat. Vending is also an important part of many Vietnamese livelihoods, but as Hanoi becomes increasingly built-up and developed, supermarkets will displace the traditional markets and street vendors as the city hopes to embrace a spic and span look.
This isn't the first time local politics has denied grubby delicacies. There was the taco truck tragedy in Los Angeles, the Red Hook ball field vendors in Brooklyn, and though Washington, D.C. has seen a slight spike in street eats recently, the city had a moratorium against vendors for many years.
Whenever street eating is in trouble, a part of every food lover dies. We hope Hanoi doesn't lose too much culinary soul.
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3 Comments:
My heart dropped on reading this. Just last week I was in Saigon and watched a bánh mì maker pack up her stall in a hurry as the police approached. We are sanitizing ourselves right out of a life worth living!
ericz at 6:15PM on 08/18/08
I should be eating my veggies right now (yes, still at work), but when I checked Twitter and saw this tweet come through the tubes, I just had this feeling it was a story you had written. So yea, miss you in DC, Erin.
Okay, enough PDA 2.0 -- back to the story -- I think this is an interesting quandary to start forcing out the individual vendors, which to me is like asking the farmers market to not be so fresh. I mean, isn't that what the street vendors often provide for us? But now we need to sanitize it until it stops being what we love so much? It seems that we are throwing the baby out with the bath water on this one (as strange as that saying is, I think it fits). Why would we want to get rid of fresh food and/or small businesses in favor of... wanting to return to a world where things are fresher and there are more meaningful relationships with people and food? Seems to be counter-productive.
Thank you for your reporting on this Erin and drop me a line anytime. xo -L.
leslieann44 at 7:08PM on 08/18/08
Jefferson Parish (the suburbs of New Orleans) made taco trucks illegal when they started appearing after Hurricane Katrina. It is so lame. At least they can still sell their food within New Orleans.
gillsnthrills at 10:36AM on 08/19/08