A couple weeks ago, we rolled out our latest feature, Outside DC. Our thought was this: Washingtonians are from everywhere. The makeup of DC’s population ebbs and flows with political administrations, college enrollment, and time. Each and every one of us arrives in Washington with our histories – and our hometowns – in tow. We decided to celebrate that.
This week’s entry is written by Steven Weinberg. Steven is originally from the District, but has lived all over the world. Steven and his girlfriend Casey recently wrote a book called To Timbuktu. The book is an illustrated travelogue about the two years out of college they spent living in Asia and West Africa. Casey wrote the word. Jeremy did the art. You can see excerpts, reviews, and more on the book’s site.
From Bethesda to Timbuktu: Street Food Around the World by Steven Weinberg
Growing up in Bethesda, my world of street food was rather limited. Past the Good Humor man who would hang out by Bethesda Elementary, it’s a restaurant town. Ladies frying up shit on Bethesda Ave might cause a stir.
Maybe that’s why I love street food so much—even if it rips up my stomach half time.
I came to love roadside grub in the two years after college that my girlfriend Casey Scieszka and I spent living in Asia and West Africa. We just came out with a book about it all, To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story.
What follows is a list of the 9 best street foods from the 9 places Casey and I went to in our book. (Which, by the way, you can see excerpts and reviews if and more on its site. Also, we’ll be heading to Politics & Prose Friday June 24th for a talk and signing at 7pm.)
1: Morocco.
Casey and I met in Morocco and have been lucky enough to go back there a lot. It’s a country with spectacular food, but often your best chef is a friend’s mom. So finding that perfect tagine or plate of couscous can be impossible without connections. What then to eat on the streets? The everything sandwich! This lovechild of Moroccan and French cuisine is sold nearly everywhere. Its ingredients include: baguette, mysterious white cheese, carrots, lettuce, onions, spicy olives, this ubiquitous tubed meat called Koutoubia (named after a similarly colored and shaped minaret in Marrakech), French fries, and without a doubt more ingredients I can’t identify.
2: Beijing, China.
Street food in this city is delicious, cheap and everywhere. But the best time to find it is the early morning breakfast rush. I gobbled up many steamed ginger pork buns (look for stacks of circular bamboo steamers) and these salty doughnuty things called “bing”. Look for stands like this one. Smile and point. Your stomach will thank you.
3: Hanoi, Vietnam
Welcome to the land of spring rolls! This lady on the left is the one you want (though if you’re down for open-air butchers look right.) People sell the spring rolls in big old stacks. Buy MANY, because you’ll want to eat them all. If possible, bring your bag of them to any of the many street corners where bodegas have set up kegs and plastic chairs.
4. Vang Veng, Laos
In the context of its neighbors, Laos has strikingly bad food. So Casey and I took to drinking. Ladies, just like the ones pictured above, often sell local hooch street-side in old glass bottles with some saran wrap rubber-banded to the top. The guidebook suggested it may cause blindness, but compared to the mushroom smoothies being sold in the same village, this seemed like a safer option.
5. San Kan Peng, Thailand
Papaya salad is cold mix of salty and sweet, just what you want on a hot day. Casey and I spent an afternoon in the town of San Kan Peng hanging with our friend Kate and her friends who ran a little roadside papaya salad stand. They had me try to mash it up in the giant wood pestle thingys, but the Thai ladies laughed at my insufficient mashing strength. So I did what I do best and just drew a cartoon about how to make it.
6: Paris, France
Anything. Just eat. From crepes to ham sandwiches, that’s what we did. And at this point you’re probably curious of what my book’s art looks like. Here’s when we get to Paris. See? Food takes over!
7: Bamako, Mali
I love Mali, but it’s poor and after living there for ten months, I came to understand it is just not a food place the way China is. But that’s not to say street fare is nonexistent. In fact, just about everything happens in the street in this country: from defeathering your chicken to bathing your younger sibling, and a whole lot of tea drinkin. Groups of dudes hang out in crews called grins and brew incredibly strong tea and serve them in little shot glasses. When it’s 120 degrees hot tea might seem insane, but just pretend it’s tequila and make some friends.
8: Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso
Casey and I only ventured to Burkina Faso for a week after accidentally drinking well water in rural Mali. We spent half of it in a hotel room watching French soap operas to recoup, but when we finally ventured out to the streets of Bobo-Dioulasso we found a block that sold rotisserie chicken and beer outdoors. I don’t think there is a better medicine in the world. I was really struck by how cool the So. B. Bra’s caps are. Nice lions.
9: Brooklyn, NY
Ahh… and back to the Good Humor Man–but this time in Brooklyn, where I live now. As I said at the beginning, this was my first street food love and it still holds my heart/gut. Mister Softee is a NYC standard and serves great, never too frozen, soft serve. If you see a grown man running after one of these trucks yelling at them to stop, that’s probably me.