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If you want to see the future of cooking as a service, no place better than to check out the night markets of Taiwan. Every kinds of cuisine, from Taiwanese to

If you want to see the future of cooking as a service, no place better than to check out the night markets of Taiwan. Every kinds of cuisine, from Taiwanese to Japanese, Italian to Mexican. Every kind of meat from oyster to crab to lamb. Every dish is bite sized, and can be had for $0.50 to $2. You can try out 20 different dishes in a trip! Young people rarely cook at home (they usually live in a small apt as well), instead buying quick dinners at these night markets or 7-eleven. Check out the markets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi6f41Tq_J8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi6f41Tq_J8 Unfortunately, there's no such thing in the big cities in US yet (New York, SF). Anthony Bourdain was trying to start a night market up in NY though....

OkGoDoIt 7y ago
I imagine between stricter heath codes and higher wages and taxes and all the other costs involved, there’s no way to realistically get Asian style street food in the USA. Seems like the closest I’ve seen if food trucks, but those are often more expensive than traditional restaurants in my experience (San Francisco and Atlanta). I love Chinese street food, but I’m not holding my breath to see it in the USA. I cook more nowadays in order to save money since eating out is so insanely expensive in USA cities compared to Asia.
- Aromasin 7y ago
  I believe it is entirely possible, but the food trade culture in the West is the issue. There's an attitude of "my competitors' price their food at this point - they likely know better as they were here first so I should price my food at this point too". My father works in the trade and he's said that food could be price at a fraction of what it's currently priced at - and they'd like make even more money - but it would mean a lot more physical labour; something most food vendors aren't willing to do, as it's a hard enough job already. I lived in the North of England for a while (one of the cheaper places in the UK), and to go out for lunch would pretty much cost £6-£10 for a 'street-food sized' meal. One day, a street food stall parked up in the middle of a high traffic area and started selling massive burrito sized spring rolls for about £3 a pop with meat and £2 without. Pre-chopped veg, meat fried in massive woks, pancakes rolled fresh. 10 or so staff meant they were basically handing them out as fast as the card machine could take contactless payments (no cash). It was like the whole city damn near shut down. 1000's seemed to congregate to that one spot. People would queue for an hours (thankfully the English are good a queuing); any other alternative for lunch simply didn't make sense. They were open for about 6 months, queues hundreds deep, then all of a sudden they shut up shop overnight just like that. Coincidentally it turns out the owner was actually a guy a played rugby with. I interrogated him Spanish inquisition style. Basically he saved up enough money to buy 2 commercial fat-fryers, 2 burners and woks, a chest refrigerator and a generator to run them all; all second-hand, all super inexpensive. Lighting, marque, prep stations and the like were all sourced on things like freecycle and gumtree. He bought a permit from the local council to set up shop on the high-street, found a team of part-timers, gave them all course in food safety and he was good to go. No marketing, no branding - just a chalk board that said "Spring Rolls £2 - add meat for £3". All in all it cost him just shy of £8k to start, with which he got a loan for half of that. Apparently a month in and he was turning over £5k gross in a DAY. He told me he stopped because he had saved up enough money to call himself a millionaire, and didn't want the stress of standing behind a searing hot burner with a 300 deep queue in front of him anymore. He paid off his loans, his kids loans, got an extension on his house and put the rest of his money into some real estate. I think the demand is there. It's just a case of vendors actually attempting to take the risk and breaking that mould when it comes to price.
- arkitaip 7y ago
  True and this also applies to almost every other industrialized country. The layers of law and bureaucracy that we expect and even sometimes demand to live safe and predictable lives really conspire against more relaxed food systems.
leksak 7y ago
Not necessarily the future, I recall from Netflix Street Food documentary that the reason a lot of individuals eat street food in certain countries is because their living space is too small to fit a stove and the indication was that given the choice the preference would be to cook on one's own. Street food vendors then become a substantially vital and integral part of sustaining the population, but as that documentary would suggest a lot of vendors do not want their children to have to toil as they have and so there might be a void in the work force as that generation retire or become too old to work.

OkGoDoIt 7y ago

I imagine between stricter heath codes and higher wages and taxes and all the other costs involved, there’s no way to realistically get Asian style street food in the USA. Seems like the closest I’ve seen if food trucks, but those are often more expensive than traditional restaurants in my experience (San Francisco and Atlanta). I love Chinese street food, but I’m not holding my breath to see it in the USA. I cook more nowadays in order to save money since eating out is so insanely expensive in USA cities compared to Asia.

Aromasin 7y ago
I believe it is entirely possible, but the food trade culture in the West is the issue. There's an attitude of "my competitors' price their food at this point - they likely know better as they were here first so I should price my food at this point too". My father works in the trade and he's said that food could be price at a fraction of what it's currently priced at - and they'd like make even more money - but it would mean a lot more physical labour; something most food vendors aren't willing to do, as it's a hard enough job already. I lived in the North of England for a while (one of the cheaper places in the UK), and to go out for lunch would pretty much cost £6-£10 for a 'street-food sized' meal. One day, a street food stall parked up in the middle of a high traffic area and started selling massive burrito sized spring rolls for about £3 a pop with meat and £2 without. Pre-chopped veg, meat fried in massive woks, pancakes rolled fresh. 10 or so staff meant they were basically handing them out as fast as the card machine could take contactless payments (no cash). It was like the whole city damn near shut down. 1000's seemed to congregate to that one spot. People would queue for an hours (thankfully the English are good a queuing); any other alternative for lunch simply didn't make sense. They were open for about 6 months, queues hundreds deep, then all of a sudden they shut up shop overnight just like that. Coincidentally it turns out the owner was actually a guy a played rugby with. I interrogated him Spanish inquisition style. Basically he saved up enough money to buy 2 commercial fat-fryers, 2 burners and woks, a chest refrigerator and a generator to run them all; all second-hand, all super inexpensive. Lighting, marque, prep stations and the like were all sourced on things like freecycle and gumtree. He bought a permit from the local council to set up shop on the high-street, found a team of part-timers, gave them all course in food safety and he was good to go. No marketing, no branding - just a chalk board that said "Spring Rolls £2 - add meat for £3". All in all it cost him just shy of £8k to start, with which he got a loan for half of that. Apparently a month in and he was turning over £5k gross in a DAY. He told me he stopped because he had saved up enough money to call himself a millionaire, and didn't want the stress of standing behind a searing hot burner with a 300 deep queue in front of him anymore. He paid off his loans, his kids loans, got an extension on his house and put the rest of his money into some real estate. I think the demand is there. It's just a case of vendors actually attempting to take the risk and breaking that mould when it comes to price.
arkitaip 7y ago
True and this also applies to almost every other industrialized country. The layers of law and bureaucracy that we expect and even sometimes demand to live safe and predictable lives really conspire against more relaxed food systems.

leksak 7y ago

Not necessarily the future, I recall from Netflix Street Food documentary that the reason a lot of individuals eat street food in certain countries is because their living space is too small to fit a stove and the indication was that given the choice the preference would be to cook on one's own. Street food vendors then become a substantially vital and integral part of sustaining the population, but as that documentary would suggest a lot of vendors do not want their children to have to toil as they have and so there might be a void in the work force as that generation retire or become too old to work.