Street Food: Crossing Cultures with Local Inspiration

By Andrew Hunter, Contributing Editor

Finding culinary inspiration used to be simpler when trends were conceived in white-tablecloth restaurants and by the mainstream consumer food magazines that were once trusted sources of all things related to food.

Now the next big thing in food can come from a number of different points of inspirationincluding our various media sources (most notably online), myriad cultures from around the globe and even our own backyards. And the culinary revolution afoot called street food neatly combines all of those into one. Its a revolution because the speed and scale of technology and social media are paving the way for food concepts to be streamed into kitchens around the country at an unprecedented rate. Its a revolution because chefsoften inspired by handheld, portable creations from streets around the globeare leading the charge from unique, often-rebellious restaurants, as well as mobile food trucks and carts.

Consumers are at the heart of this revolution too, wielding power in ways never seen before by driving the innovations they crave, from the chefs they admire and follow, into the mainstream with Twitter feeds, Facebook postings, Four Square locations and other new information points. Innovative chefs and restaurateurs have been early adopters of this new form of bottom-up consumer empowerment.

Finding inspiration perhaps used to be simpler, but now the process is more robust in the ways chefs and product developersparticularly when on culinary immersion tours of major citiesnever imagined even a few short years ago.

From trucks to carts

In the United States these days, street food is commonly sold via food trucks, from Los Angeles to New York and in dozens of cities in between. But street food has relevance and roots far beyond the current mentality of everything you could ever want served from a flashy truck." The best street food in Los Angeles, for instance, is served by industrious folks with propane or charcoal grills attached to shopping carts. From these carts, you can discover the iconic Oaxacan tlayuda (thin, crispy tortillas spread with pork fat, black beans, stringy local cheese, cabbage and salsa) or bing (Shandong-style fried scallion pancakes stuffed with slivers of sticky Hoisin-braised meat, green onions and cilantro).

Chefs and product developers tend to spend more time finding inspiration from these shopping carts, where we can taste food from places we might not have the time or capital to travel to, digging into real, unique cuisine instead of tolerating the gridlock of flashy food trucks parked near art galleries and night clubs, offering trendy cupcakes, gigantic burgers and curly fries.

One notable exception is Roy Chois Kogi BBQ trucks, which do stop by LA nightclubs, but also concentrate on less-traveled streets in a wider range of neighborhoods. He is credited by many with starting the food-truck craze with his combination of compelling Mexico-meets-Korea tacos, savvy use of social media and a dedication to serving delicious food to all people regardless of financial and social circumstance.

Choi can also be credited with adding an additional ingredient" to our ongoing culinary revolution: micro-regional." Traditional American regional cuisine is typically defined in macro-regions, like Southwestern or Southeastern, or by cuisine types like Cajun or Creole that have a strong historical connection with a region. But his tacos illustrate a new micro-regional sensibility. The cultural term Angeleno" (not the Beverly Hills variety) represents the mid-city blocks where he grew up. It peels away the layers of fame and fortune where several languages are spoken at once, where neighbors from Korea and Mexico joined together to celebrate and to mournfood is central to both occasions, and the fusing of these traditional flavors was a natural evolution. Almost every segment of the industry, from quick-service restaurants (QSRs) to casual and even fine dining are following the micro-regional trend by copying Korean tacos and flavors, andeven betterare mining their own unique local cultures to define distinct micro-regional delicacies.

Smashing" is a phrase used by Mark Miller of Coyote Café fameand an early pioneer of Southwestern cuisinewho now also works as an industry consultant. Whereas fusion is about blending flavors from different cuisines, smashing is about combining unique layers of flavors tasted separately and then together. Fusion, done correctly, is about harmonizing unique flavors, while smashing can be harmonious, but it can also challenge diners comfort levels and traditional sensibilities about flavor combinations.

Smashing is about experiencing two or more cuisines, one after another, in a single bite. Kogi BBQs micro-regional tacos illustrate a form of smashing, with Mexican corn tortillas topped with Korean marinated beef and pork belly, then topped with kimchi and finished with salsa verde. Korean and Mexican cuisines are smashed together into a delicious composition called Angeleno. Its multiculturalism on a plate.

Street culture

When white-tablecloth restaurants and consumer food magazines were focal points of inspiration, the trends and innovations trickled down to casual dining and onto the menus of other inexpensive restaurants, and sometimes into retail products. Today, within this paradigm shift, street culture is inspiring fine-dining chefs. Notably, Chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger of Border Grill (a micro-chain with units in LA, Santa Monica and Las Vegas)and formerly of LAs Ciudadventured onto the streets recently with a taco truck of their own.

Feniger believes in street culture enough to bring it indoors with a restaurant called Street (also in LA). The menu is composed of global street-food inspirations, including noodles, curries, dumplings and tacos in small and portable portions. The Kaya Toast on Streets menu is bread spread with coconut jam served with a soft fried egg drizzled with dark soy sauce and sprinkled with white pepper. To further get an idea of the diversity at play here, consider that the various iterations of dumplings on the menu find inspiration from places as far-reaching as the Ukraine in the Spinach Varenyky (filled with spinach and salted cheese, served with sour cream, fried onions and lemon marmalade) over to Korea for the Mandoo Vegetable Dumplings (filled with Asian vegetables, sweet potato and kimchi, served with a roasted-ginger, yam and sesame dipping sauce) and on into Mexico for the Ricotta Ñoquis (filled with ricotta and masecacorn masa flourserved with tomatillo and chipotle salsas).

Going from outside to inside, Choi recently designed the menu for the brick-and-mortar LA-area restaurant A-Frameagain, with Asian-Mexican barbecue overtones, in a space inspired by the Korean crab shacks on the Long Beach Pierwhere youre encouraged to eat with your hands, lick your plate and share food with some strangers."

Translating inspirations

Restaurant menus everywhere, as well as retail products, can embrace the fruits of this tantalizing revolution. Few can resist the aromas and flavors of vendors across the globe, whether it be noodles in China, tacos in Mexico or hot dogs and pretzels in New York. This is not only a nostalgic experience for a lot of us, but a way to experience new and exotic flavors and concepts without the commitment of time and travel.

Street food will continue to cross cultural barriers and divides using local inspirations, as well as culinary gems from exotic locales. It will be interesting to watch street food evolve our ever-changing industry from coast to coast. Street-inspired food might just be the spark of innovation that brings flocks of people back through the doors of restaurantsas well as into grocery stores everywherelooking for tlayuda and bing smashed together into a delicious melody of flavor.

Andrew Hunter is the president of Culinary Craft (culinary.craft.com), a food product design company that works with restaurants, food manufacturers and chefs, and co-founder of Flavor First Food Company. As former vice president of culinary development for Wolfgang Puck, Hunter was responsible for translating Wolfgangs signature fine dining vision into profitable, fast-casual menu concepts for 90+ Express and Bistro restaurants. He has worked in all aspects of the food business for 20+ years and is a member of the Research Chefs Association. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Marilyn, and two sons.