Food on the Street...

The wife and I watched No Reservations last night. As usual Tony sampled street food in his travels. Which always makes me wonder why we don't have street food around here. A hot dog cart does not count. Is it a product of our food culture? It seems every place Tony visits around the world has it. What makes us different?

I will qualify my post by saying I have not been to the larger cities in the U.S., such as New York or LA, so they may have more options I do not know about. But all the cities I have been to do not have the street food options I see on No Reservations. Instead they all have countless fast food places selling nondescript tasteless meals. Does the food industry have anything to do with this? Are there laws in place preventing street food from being sold?

Having freshly prepared food should not be so hard to find. Especially at a reasonable price. Instead we have prepackaged and heavily processed food everywhere. And we are the worse for it...

Fast food vs. Good Food...

I admit I eat fast food on occasion. I try to avoid it when I can, but there are times when it is just too convenient. I always feel bad after though. Not just from how the food sits in my stomach. Yesterday the wife and I planned on cooking out. Like some plans it did not work out. We both had a really long day at work and really did not want to grocery shop and then cook. So we discussed what take out food we would get. Nothing really grabbed our attention so we thought about stopping out to eat. What a great decision. We went to Tay-Do which is one of our favorite restaurants and got Vietnamese food. It was so much better than Penn Station that I almost stopped at. The place is a little hole in the wall that has been around for years. Nothing special to look at it is a husband and wife team who make some of the best Vietnamese food you will ever have. And it is very reasonable on your wallet too. How can you beat that? Which brings me to my point of this post. Good food does not have to be expensive or take a long time. There are some great ethnic places out there that will give you great food, be good to your wallet, and not hurt your health like some fast food restaurants can. Be a little adventuresome people and see what your neighborhood has to offer. If you do you it will be a long time before you venture back to McDonald's or any of the other fast food joints...