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=-sr-----------11 The tastiest food is in the

small streetsThe politics of flavor and nostalgiain Bangkok

Bronwyn Isaacs

AbstractFood in Thailand moves with the tempo of time. Bangkok's mae kha ("tradingmothers") once sold food from small boats, providing consumers withwonderful Thai dishes that reflected a long history ofintemational trade. Whenthe rivers were covered with roads and small streets in the mid-twentiethcentury, the speed of food's movement ricocheted, as did the success ofagribusiness and more recently, supermarkets. Using ethnography among streetfood consumers and sellers this chapter frames street food as a space in whichBangkok consumers participate in the multiple and contradictory experiencesof time and space that order their lives, and in which they construct a socialidentity. Drawing on Taylor's (2008) and Sopranzetti's (2013) discussion ofrural Thailand in the imagination of urban Bangkok, it is argued that consumingstreet food has a qualiry of intimacy that sustains a nostalgia, which is applied inthe construction of respectable social identities and makes social understandingsof the property rights meaningful. In agreement with Kim (2012), it is arguedthat street food governance must tum away from monumental urban spaces tounderstand the everyday use of official and unofficial spaces. Progress must benude towards removing class and policy biases in order to reorient the gaze tostreet food vending, the backstreets rather than the high streets, the collapsiblefood stalls rather than the high-rises.

Keywords: Anthropology of Food, Property Rights, Nostalgia, Bangkok,

Thailand.

IntroductionIn this chapter I write about the street food of Bangkok aspowerful in flavoringsocial life as it is in shaping the taste buds. Thai food is internationally famousfor its four-fold spicy_sour-sweet-salry cuisine and within Thailand itself, thefood is no less iconic. Both the experience of eating and the metaphors of foodhold great cultural power. It is not surprising, then, that the way in wbich it iseaten and sold should become an issue of great importance. controversy.

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I196 Bronwyn Isaacs

struggle, and conflict. In Thailand, controversies over vendors' right to spaceand the times in which they can sell are frequent. The emotion import of thesecontroversies cannot be separated from the food, its capacity to "spice up"everyday hfe and to make social relationships "rich" all contribute to localunderstandings of social and property relations. An awareness of this emotionalpower is essential to best practices of street food governance.

Drawing on ethnographic experience, academic literature, governmentreports, and social media, I discuss how life in Bangkok is shaped by thefabrics of memory and imagination into which street food spaces are tightlywoven. In particular. I consider the practice of eating in sois, small narrowlanes where people live, as a practice that lubricates social interaction andconstitutes p,olitical and personal memories, and where social relationshipsblur the official boundaries of rights to space. Drawing on other anthropologicalwnnngs about Bangkok, I describe the ciry as a space which can be understoodthrough the material and imaginative realities that are negotiated within it. Inparticular, l discuss the nostalgia of the rural, a shared urban imagination thatIS iconized in the rural migrants who sell much of Bangkok's street food inthe soi.

Globally, street vendors face daily threats from material realities such aspolice a~~ tra~c. as well as realities that are more elusive. such as social stigmaand political disempowerment, In her discussion of "side walk cities" Kim(2012) ak h ·al·· 'm es t e CruCI point that best practices of street and city governancemust turn attention away from th " al" .. e monument aspects of City spaces andunde~a~e to consider class perspectives which feature the non-spectacular.Rerrundmg us that property rights only function to the extent that they areaccepted and practiced by society Kin I· hat vendi ... .' 1calms t at vending controversies canreco~~truct fundamental social and state-society relations through publicspace. (2012, p. 226). Following Kim, Iargue that we must be attentive to theways in which street food is pracriced and imagined, in order to find ways ofgovernmg space that are more socially just ..Many public discussions and policy documents on street food vendors deal

WIth the problems of registration and poliricking th b t . f d .lk ". ' e 0 s ructmg 0 pe estrianwa ways, CIrCUIts of VIolence and conuption a d cdc d d. d ' n LOO satery stan ar smtro uced for the public. While these problems are important, Imaintain thatstreet food IS not merely an illicit or margi nal spac . I bal .

de, precanous y ancmg on

the e ges of culture's highways. Rather street food . . d wi hh kin

. • space IS mtegrate Witmany ot er ds of phenomena mcluding the . 1 Ii .

d.' econorruc, c ass, re gion,

gen er, technology and Virtual conmlUnication In Bangkok th hall

c. . . . , ese p enomenaact as spaces tor the acavlty of nostalgi a and the s If f: hioni f ialid .. e - as iomng 0 SOCI

l entities.Small streets are far from mundane. They are spaces h desi d. . were eSlres an

understandings of property and politics are created confirm d d d' e an conteste .In the pages that follow, I will give a brief historical explanation regardingthe place and pronunence of street food in Bangkok, a trade which has longallowed space for independent men and women to sell food as a form ofI

The tastiestfood is in the small streets 197

livelihood. I will then use the main body of the chapter describes ways inwhich Bangkok street food is able to create and sustain social ties, identity,and property rights.

MethodologySince 2008 I have travelled to Thailand on several short ethnographicassignments to investigate issues related to food and agriculture. The data forthis chapter is primarily drawn from eight weeks I spent in Bangkok during2013. During this time, most days or nights Iwould visit Khlong Toei Talat, oneof Bangkok's 24-hour markets. The primary reason for visiting the market wasto make an ethnographic film, but I spent most of my hours chatting to themarket vendors, helping chop onions, eating delicious curries and scrumptiousomelets cooked on gas burners, and learning about the food that moves aroundBangkok. When I was not at KhIong Toei, I also spent time with a Thairesearch assistant in other parts of Bangkok doing interviews with street foodconsumers and vendors. This chapter, then, is the result of ethnographicresearch in Bangkok, including information that emerged from interviews andcasual conversations with street food sellers and consumers. Understandings also

Figure 11.1 This "trading mother" works from 3 am to 3 pm with her husband andrwc small children (Bangkok, Thailand; photo by author]

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I198 Bronwrn Isaacs

emerged from all the sensory shethe killing of frogs th fry. C emata street food entails-rhe crushing of ice,, e mg of donuts under a I ei duriwhatever could be seen h diP as IC tarp unng a rain-storm:

understanding the mate '·aledar ,sme t, felt, these experiences were important ton imensions of the street fo d . C·

were the social relationship 1did . 0 expenence. rucial alsowho stopped me c: h s . eve ope with people, the local friendly neighbors

Lor a c at m the local . h Isnacks the friends wh . . d SO" t e regu ar vendors frequented for.' 0 invite me to their h d fa . .

discussion is also aided bv analvsi ames an vonte restaurants. Thisy an YSIS of academic litsocial, television and print di I erature, government reports,

"short term ethnography" me"ba .. n tohtal, the methodology can be described asor emgte "P . filThailand helped provid d . reo revrous e d work experiences in

and place. e an un erstanding of phenomena that altered across time

History of street food in Ba kconcrete rivers ng ok: from canals to

To know Thailand is to know Thai 6 .life, religious celebrations d C ood. Integral to family practices, temple

an ror many econo . 1'6 f d iyou tum. It is also an idiom throu h '. file 1 e. 00 IS everywhereexplain life. National 0 . . hs which many people experience andngm myt s b . . h .peppered with food metapho TV degm in t e rice-field, language ismarket and cooking shows rs

d, I.an pnnt media abound with television

Ean cu mary euphemi (T bsterick, 2000). Love is fr I rrusms am iah, 1976; Van

equent y expressed th h 6 dcare to loved ones by asking them if the roug 00. Families expressfrom the provinces bringing dbl y have eaten; friends return home

.del e souvenirs for thei . hbprovi es a mode of comparison-wheth eir nelg ors. Food alsofennented fish sauce with one th er one eats papaya salad with crab or

. f ' ,ree or twenty chili Tas SIgnS 0 regional origin Idles. astes are interpreted. ' c ass an gender Th . Ior eatmg balls of sticky rice b .... e SImp e act of making a salad. I" can e as rich In Its ial .SIgna 109 social status. senson expression as it is in

The historical process by which th .. d ib d b ese contradIctory· t .IS escn e y anthropologists of Thailand . m erpretanons emerge(2013) through the metaphor f u MIlls (1999) and Sopranzetti

. h 0 a pa 'mpsest A par .manuscnpt t at has been used f .' irnpsest IS an ancientR h h or recordmg diffat er t an begin a new rnanusc . t Id erent events over time.

. np ,0 words are e d d hwntten over the top yet m f h rase an t e new ones, any 0 t e old rernai . iblspace and values can be erased and I d h n VIS! e. In the same way. ayere . t e h f hi 'and Images not yet completely erased Th"d g osts 0 istory leave flavorsis helpful for thinking about Th '1' del hea of enduring layers of history. I. alan. w ere have Timvo ved In the trading of food for h d d f women ave likely beenun re so years (V E . kwe turn our nose towards lost food I. an srenc, 2000). Iff d. S· ore m Cambodia 0 di00 In ingapore, we are reminded th h r era lcated streetd

at t e presence of I·oes not make the future at all cert' (Ki 2 cu mary history. am m 012) Ho

hlSrory play an important role in influencin ' and h . wever these layers offeehngs of its traders and customers. g s apmg street food and theI

The tastiestfood is in the small streets 199

Many people are surprised to learn that ingredients now considered essentialto Thai cooking are only relatively recent additions to the cuisine. Prior totrade with Europe and South America, fish, fowl, and rice were already foodstaples. But from the sixteenth century, many new foods were introduced viatrade and became essential to much of Thai cuisine. These new foods includedfruits such as papayas and pineapples, chilies, cashew nuts, and peanuts (Kiple,2007; Wilson, 2004). The combination of garlic (originally from central Asia),ginger, lime juice, chilies (introduced by the Portuguese), and fish sauce(originating in China) has now become a famous symbolic flavor of northernThai food (Yasmeen, 1996). Portuguese-style baking also influenced thedevelopment of Thai desserts. Made with eggs and sugar, these delicaciesbecame an art Conn of intricately molded sweets for special occasions.

Unril the paving of Bangkok's canals in the mid-twentieth century, manyThai women would make an income for their families selling food and otheritems on the long, narrow river boats that they would take to market waterways.While most of these waterways were covered to create roads in the mid-twentieth century. there are still several surviving water markets that catermostly to tourists. For urban, middle-class Thais, visiting one of these marketsis a fun trip to make on a free afternoon. It is an activity highly marked withnostalgia, an experience of a historical past. The careful divisions made betweencounrry and poor people, who perform manually intensive work, and middle-class Thais, who prefer to see themselves as admirers but separate from suchlabor, are continually remade in the presence of the street food seller.

During the second half of rhe twentieth century, Thai agriculture and foodmarkets went through significant changes, adding new layers of meaning ro thegrowing palimpsesrs upon which Thai food culture moves today. Heavyinvestment in military expenditure and policy advice by rhe US during theCold and Vietnam wars had significanr effects on how food was produced andsold. New transport infrastructure and business opportunities saw the beginningsof agri-food businesses, which would grow to become some of Thailand'swealthiest companies (Burch and Goss, 2001). During the 1970s, Thaiagriculture was further altered by significant technological developments andthe country's economic activity shifted to being an export-oriented economy.During this rime, many people found new forms of employment to replace orsupplement their traditional fanning occupation (Wyatt, 2003). The economiccrisis of 1997 then heralded a new period of economic restructuring. Advisedby rhe IMF and the World Bank, the Thai government allowed a neo-liberalization of the national economic markets, including greater foreignownership of local companies in sectors such as food and retail (Phongpaichitand Baker, 2008). Writing in 1966, Wigglesworth and Brotan described closeto a dozen supennarkets in Bangkok as places marked by "self service, completewirh basket cart, plastic packaged meats and vegetables, and a wide assortmentof imported food" (p. 45, quoted in Mandhachirara, 2000). Thus, whilesupennarkets have been in Bangkok for decades, it is in rhe past 15 years thatrhe retail landscape has changed significantly.

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200 BrolllVYIlIsaacs

Following the economic crisis man .bought up by international finns' (Ma y supermarket retail companies wereaccommodating large air c di d hY'2006). Foreign owned, but locally

, - on inone ypennarkets g hi 11peripheries of the ciry p idi eograp rca y cruise thecomfortable, air_condi'tioronevd1mg

dco.nsllllmers a place to feel "free" within a

an visua y spect I '2009). In contrast to the sp I acu ar environment (Isaacs,vendors appear munda t ectacu ar supermarket, Thailand's markets and food

ne 0 many consumers Hvalue them for their offe ' f h' k ,owever, many consumers also

nng 0 t IC social interacti d r:social good by allowi th ractions an tor providing aTh ' f ng e poorer classes to make a living

e nse 0 the automobile and urb I' .canals during the first half f h an p annmg that led to the filling ofcontributions to changinO th t : twentieth century were significant

(Ph " g e Lace of Tho ' 'ongpaichit and Baker 2009) The Hi I consumption practiceappearance of land based k' e disappearance of canals led to the

H- mar ets and food t (Yowever, today's street v d' sores asmeen, 1996),

h' en ors use the street hei ,t eir small food carts'S as t err public channels, and

are not unlike small b b I'concrete rivers If Th 'I d' oats ust mg on the newly

. at an s superm k .ships," the small cart vendors izh b ar ets might be thought of "cruiseriver boats of the water kets. t, e Iikened to their precursors, the small

dmar ets LIke river b t dyen ing and supermarkets' oa s an ocean liners, street

Soperate at extraordi diffupermarkets are steered b . Inary nrerent levels of scale.

local and foreign ownershi y eCdonhomlcally elite hands that change between'P an ave the po diover national borders S 11 wer to rrect food distribution

, d . rna street vending rtpeno by a single trader 0 t di , ca s are steered over a longil r ra Ing fanuly Alth hsal across national bord h . DUg street vendors cannot

ers, t ey expert! ' he iBangkok's sois (small streets), y navigate t e Intimate back lanes of

Making the city from rural roots

For the people of Bangkok, street food ' ,brimming with small stall ,can mean tnppmg around sidewalks

I' s, squattIng to e t ink IP astic tables where th d a pin -co ored yell do fo soup at

, e so un s of SpOD d h 'melody over the backgr d ffi ns an c opstlcks create a clinking, Oun tra c or stop' b' f1

to pIck up a traditional I'C d ",' ,PIng ne y on a walk to workIe cOuee and In d I'sa ry sausages flecked red 'th h'l' spect e ICate coconut J' ellies or, WI C I I St t f< d' hor dIscourse, but a sensual .' ree 00 ISt us not merely a concept

I' expenence bro ht I'r ' ,re atlOnships, Many p I I ug to lIe WIthIn a world of social

Th' eop e spoke to d' h'al food requires both k'll d' unng t IS study emphasized that

r d' s I an tIme for t '100 IS for most people fi f II I S creatIon, To purchase streetb

. ' rst 0 a "conv' "I'usy hfe, in which the M kh' ement. t IS an essential part of avalued for their role i a~, a or por kha (mother and father "traders") arethe time or skill to ma~e~; f<Inghelaborate food for people who do not havedo not have kitchens or thor t lemselves, Indeed, many people in Bangkok

, e cu mary kn I d ffi 'vanery of foods they ch ,owe ge su clent to produce theoose to enJoy (Y 1996)the street is something th . d . asmeen. . Purchasing food onat IS one In a few minutes on the way to a transportI

The tastiestfood is ill the small streets 201

hub, workplace, or school. It makes life both tasry and convenient at an

affordable price.In her ethnography of economic life in Bangkok, Wilson (2004) explains

that everyday economic practices can be likened to a "stage" where powerrelationships are played out, Everyday economic life can be understood as adrama in which the effects of international commerce and intimate religiousand social ideas about the self meet, Drawing on this idea of a stage, whichbrings together the economic and the intimate, I argue that the very space thatis considered easy and convenient is also a space in which important social,economic and political activities take place. In the perfom1ance of dailyactivities, the presence of the physical bodies of the street vendor and thecustomers compels a negotiation over the right to public and private space: thenegotiation of property rights in Bangkok.In understanding how the daily activities of Bangkok's working class of

vendors can, through their very presence, constitute the city and itsunderstanding of properry, Sopranzetti's (2013) arguments with regards toBangkok's motorcycle taxi drivers, the "makers of the map," give great insight,Like street food vendors, motorcycle taxi drivers spend long hours each daynegotiating for space and commerce in the hot and busy streets of Bangkok,While the official planners of the city may think of Bangkok in terms of straightlines, clear roads, and as a place for automobiles, Thailand's rural migrants,many from the poorer regions of the North-East (Isaatl) offer an alternativeinterpretation. The motorcycle taxi drivers use their physical bodies to createnew ways to move in the city for their customers, creating escapes from trafficblockages and providing access to small backstreets that public transport cannotreach and cars struggle to penetrate. Sopranzetti argues that this fast, cheap. andconvenient transportation creates new possibilities of space and speed withinthe city. Sopranzetti identifies this as a "phatic knowledge," a physical fonn ofknowing, Describing the role that rural motorcycle drivers play in bothproviding the experiences of movement that contribute to what it is to live inBangkok and being a constant reminder of the "rural other" against which thecity reminds itself of its urban qualities, Sopranzetti writes:

The drivers are, in this sense, engaged and suspended berween the multipletemporalities of the city and the village and the representations of theirdistinct social times, daily rhythms, and aspirational futures. While thesetwO locations are presented as two discrete social. spatial. and temporalrealities they are, on the contrary, rwO sides of the same coin, configuringin each other by opposition. It is orIly by reframing the village, and itsarchitectural tradition and social practices. as a thing of the past, incompleteand unfinished, that the ciry becomes the space of the present, developed

and in continuous evolution.(Sopranzetti, 2013, p. 103)

202 Bronwyn Isaacs

Drawing on Sopranzetti, I argue that just as riding a motorcycle in Bangkokis a form of/earned physical knowledge and possibility. so too. is there physicalknowledge. and mobile possibility in cooking a fried egg on a street corner.pushing a vending cart in a sudden storm. or eating on the side of the road.These are ways of using space and movement that shape the vety materialexperience of what it is to live in Bangkok. However. while the motorcycledrivers are more readily thought of as dangerous outsiders, street food vendors.while also often from rural provinces, are often thought of in more intimateterms. The vendor is an historical figure who represents both a rural and anurban past. As an icon of family food provision. the vendor embodies thecontradictions of contemporaty city life; a desire for traditional culinary craftsand relationships within an experience of rushed time, convenience, andcompromise.

The contradictory position of the rural and. often. female vendor is furthercomplicated by Buddhist representations of economic and care-giving activity.In Thailand, public life is strongly influenced by Buddhist practices officiallycanonized by the monk hierarchy in Bangkok. On the one hand, preparing foodfor monks is an act of care which creates spiritual merit. On special occasions thewhole family takes part in this Buddhist practice. perhaps traveling to a templewith extended family members to spend the morning preparing a meal for amonastic community or bringing edible gifts to present to monks. who walk thelocal streets with their begging bowls. However, official Buddhist precepts teachthat excitement and emotional sensations are to be avoided. Thus, the spicinessand sour qualities considered essential for most Thais are an ambiguous quality(Herzfeld, 2013). Wilson (2004) has argued that. despite the fact that economiclife is interwoven with social life, Buddhist representations of culture exclude theeconomic. The food and market economic activities in which women have longplayed a prominent role are both iconic and morally ambiguous because of theirexplicitly economic character. Yasmeen (1996) also highlights the moral andsocial ambiguity of women's roles in food preparation in Bangkok. describinghow women who work in the food trade have great social and personalexpectation to maintain respectability while working in a public or semi-publicspace which may be considered morally suspect.On the other hand. many Thais have great respect and nostalgic appreciation

for the role of the mae kha. "trading mother." a women who, perhaps due torural origins. has the learned skill to create comfort foods. The trading motheris also a woman who. like a rural laborer, works hard. and uses her physicalbody over the heat of the wok in the hot sun for the good of her family. Shetreats her customers like children. Luk kha, which translates as "children oftrade," is the Thai word for customers. However, working in public spaces isan economic necessity that comes with risks of moral misrepresentation. Thisis something that women often attempt to control by explaining they will orilywork or eat in certain kinds of establishments, at certain times of day, avoidingthe sexual connotations that can come with working or spending time as aconsumer on the public street (Yasmeen, 1996).

The tastiestfood is in the small streets 203

f mil operations. This couple sells BBQPioure 11.2 Many street vendor st~s BarQeali rhe side of the road along with parked6 . alad Then B S ne

chicken and SPICY papaya sTh il d: hoto by author)pick-up trucks (Bangkok, a an ,P

. h B kok imagination as a site of nostalgia isThat the rural has emerged m t e ang liti al and sometimes violent poweralso in contradiction with the strong

hpo 'tl'C .sts such as Walker (2012) have

b l subi ects Ant ropo ogr ..nfl·that is wielded y rura su ~. h t rural Thais have m I uencmg.zational power t a .. .

pointed to the strong orgam f d the rural. as a site of ongm. IS aculture and politics. W,th regards to bOlo, trucked in from Thailand's rural

· E orning vegeta es are . al diPhysical reality. very m , H in romantic nation scourses,

k k' kets owever. fi.iI Iprovinces to Bang 0 s mar a cultural depository. depicted as peace peoperural people are also upheld as .. I hi rural idyllic image. the econorruc

· . 1 ommumnes. n t sIb t dembedded in ttrne ess c d ealthy city folks are ce e ra e .. . h poorer farmers an w. di . dinequalities berween t e . fi d with very simple commo nes an

h ople are sans e . ali .A rural dream were pe .' between rural-urban mequ nesI . .d alized This tension . d

traditionallifesty es IS 1 e .'. d animating emotional expenences anis one that should be kept in nun B as koksocial interactions of street food in aug .

· I u know: spaces of intimacy andEating WIth peop e yocommunication h gh

h . al world collide in Bangkok. Nt ou manyThe dream world and the :a:s~~k think of the city as a place enamored withmiddle-class people from h

ghildren follow celebrities on Instagram and

. hat i adem, were c . firmleverythmg t at IS m h k construction of the modern IS Y

h It style eac wee, a ." d .shop for t e aces 1 (2008 p. 13) describes this dream as a esireframed against the past .,Tay and • k d safety of imagined traditional face

· for mediated an networ e .. c al din recent nmes .. al Ids " I argue that it is this desire lor re anf conuTIurutles, ofloc wor .to ace

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Smalllants

The place where rhese food interactions emerge most powerfully is in thesmall, local lanes called sois, in which many people live. Writing about medicalethics in Thailand, Stonington (2012) has described how different spaces, suchas the hospital, the home, or the wat (temple), operate in social life withdifferent ethical frameworks and feeling. This is certainly true in Bangkok,where many sois emerge with strong social and ethical emotional resonances.These narrow, sometimes dead-ended lanes are areas where neighbors oftenspeak to each other, where people feel comfortable to walk from house tohouse for a casual chat, and where it is impolite to walk down the street withoutbeing ready to stop to inquire after a neighbor. One woman explained the roleof the so; in this way: "I love to go and eat with my friends at the departmentstore but in the soi, people talk more, they come to buy every day, the customersknow the mae kha (trading mother) and they know each other." While somestreet vendors who sell in sois will travel great distances to claim their daily spot,others live within the soi in which they sell spicy salads, such as papaya, mango,or cucumber, from a small table outside the home. The desire for comfort inrich social interaction may help to explain why many people whom Ispoke toin Bangkok noted that the "tastiest" food or the food they like the best was tobe found at the local stall or restaurant in their street. For example, a group ofseven young student female nurses all emphatically insisted that their preferredplace to eat was the small restaurants near their apartment or family's home,where they knew the family who owned the restaurant. These small, localrestaurants are often no more than four or five tables along with a wok, a shelfof vegetables, and an icebox of meat arranged around a single, soul] room,which is actually the bottom level of a family's home. In the soi, these homerestaurants, together with the vendors' stalls, blur the boundaries of space. Thehouse has become semi-public. Meanwhile, the street, with its familiar foodvendors, has become semi-private. the whole of a small street becomes rich insocial sentiments and ethical obligations. Buying food in the small street is notunlike buying food from an extended relative.

Known for their rich social relationships, Bangkok's sois may nostalgicallyinvoke an invented past, but this feeling of the past is powerful because it is alsofirmly situated within the contemporary world. When I spoke with a group ofmen who worked for the Bangkok municipality and often had to travel forwork, they explained that they loved to spend their lunchtimes eating at streetfood stalls and street restaurants. They would regularly check internet reviewsin order to find good suggestions of tasty street stalls to visit.

Linked to virtual and contemporary worlds, sois are places of change and thecontemporary politics of space. The soi in which ( lived in Bangkok was anarrow road along which several food vendors had set up stalls, several of

204 Bronwyn Isaacs

imagined social ties in rural life which gives the social flavor of many streetfood interactions in Bangkok.

I

The tastiest food is in the sl1Ial/ streets 205

. ' fa 7/11 store. The 7/11 sold a wide rangewhich were set up directly in front 0 li chocolate to Japanese softof cheap and mid-ranged snacks from AusthraIan. hb rs The 7/11 was not

I for many of t e neig 0 .drinks and was a popu ar stop , I f: t women happily walked

c. h soi's SOCIal space. n act, ,treated as separate trom t e. . 0 the other side of the SOl wasinto the 7/11 in their house-papma clothm!. nl housing made out of sheets

· hi h h d been erected m,omla d c:a vacant SIte on w ca. . f flimsy materials erecte lor. ry housmg SIte 0 I ' .of iron. This was a tempera . .iect Thus while the 501d by constructIon pro,. ,

m-igrantworkers engage on a near 1 hei children play in the streetgl . I where mothers et t err h .was a stron y SOCIaspace . hbors to peer in and say hello, t e so,

and where doors were left open for neig he cid i h COOlmerce of t e CIty. .' .was also finnly cemente in t e . f c ty and familianty m the SOL. 1 feelIng 0 sateThe importance of the emotlOna C d ellers Several male vendors

· h ers and street lOO s .was provided by bot consum f: bl on their old one. One man,described how their current job reflected c:avodra Ydorwho sold both cold Thai

· d d iddle classstreet ,00 ven d' lya university-e ucate nu - or lained that he ha prevIousarieties of couee, exp H

and hot European espresso v d' lik d the corporate environment. ISbeen an engineer at a firm but had induls e his "coffee addiction," was morecurrent work, which allowed him to I gb his own boss. He reflected that

, 11 edhnnto e I hsocial Most importantly, It a oW h rules I have to follow, w at. h . centre t ere are"if I had a cafe inside a s oppmg 1 y own boss, I make my owndi play Here am m tto sell how to arrange my IS· to save up enough money 0

, iddl d man's dream was al id al wasdecisions." This rru e-age C! 'llustrating that the rur 1 e1 . nd open a care, 1

move to a rura provmce a I d b sellers themselves.b lso va ue Y '''I .one not only for consumers ut a. kok's official heritage sites as OCI

Taylor (2008, p. 18) has descnbed Bang d meaningful to some and the. d sentiments rna e d theof transition from memories an . e." However, base on. f the present tim . . b als

imperatives and exigenCIes 0 h ' . not only heritage Sites, ut 0c d I rguc t atltlS al 'emotional power of street ,00 , a h which have a powerful nost gIcd 6~~~as~ . Geveryday seemingly mun ane 0 d I b icate social relationships. ao, a

, . 1 'd fty an un, d h hePower to recreate SOCia I en 1 h b 'province explame ow s

. t from Petc a un . d"' t afterfemale, middle-aged nugran a local delicacy from her "tnc,switched to permanently sellmg kao naill, h sale of the dried coconut treats.

, . er responses to er fri d" but myshe received POSitiVecustom I' d "I used to sell e nce"I actually don't like kao nom," she e~p a;;e ;hey see this." Gao explained tharcustonlers from Petchaburi get excite w e~hereis a very friendly atmosphere,"I like to work here on this street becfause I live in an apartment behind the

d h en't a lot 0 cars. . "people get on an t ere ar her Ir's like a commnruty.. .street-people here know each ot h' was something many mIgrants like to

Purchasing a familiar food from ome h it was still a special renunder.n1y similar to ome, . to'"do. Even if the food was 0 'nd one of hmne, purchasing SpICY50111 ..

Eating the special foods that renu in in to the local restaurant, whether It ISfrom a migrant vendor, and dropp ~r the private-public space.of a street srallthe public-private space of the ho~e ctions and intimate UlteraCtlOns Inor restaurant, are both economlcd transade The erhical demands and feeling

. . eated an rema .which social identity IScr

206 Bronwyn Isaacs

of soi relationships thf ' e respect g' hogren jai (considerati iven t e mae kha figures ad'food and feel th on) have a peculiar effect A ' n the Thai concept

h

at street vend . consumer may d" likt ey may stiUclai ors are an eyesore and . IS I e streetthem a social rig~~to feel sympathy for the seUers' plic~ngestlOn to. traffic, butofficial uses of to space. SOCialrights the g t and grudgmgly admit. space eve . h ,n, can sometiinformal uses of . n In t e case of comm ial nles stand against

bspace are ve diff ercr and legal . h h

ureaucrats. ry 1 erent from the offi . ng ts, w encial rules of planners andII

I(Bangkok,~fa'~:n~13 Kao IIam (dried

, photo by author)coconut sweets) S ldo next to BBQ bauana

The tastiestfood is in the small streets 207

From market to cyberspaceEvery day before sunrise, thousands of Bangkok's Mae Kha and Pot Kila willmake their way to one of Bangkok's major ciry markets. The markets, such asKhlollg Toei, are places of commerce and culinary creativiry. Almost everyingredient 15 there: vegetables such as the giant hairy pak ga thet, animals such asliveor skinned frogs or freshly cut beef, and condiments that encompass everychili paste, coconut, or flavoring. Before leaving the market, however, the MaeKila has likely chatted with an old friend, the Por Kha has swapped opinions onthe local lottery, and children have sat on tables doing homework and eatingbreakfast.The market isboth public and private; it is a place to sell, to work hard,to sweat while chopping, lifting, pushing, and frying. It is a place to buildfriendships, to learn about life in the ciry, to find love and raise children, to makereligious merit by praying, and to seek or make a future. The customer at themarket becomes the seller, whose customers become ciry-foragers,bringing backrefreshing treats to co-workers or children returning from school.

From farm to fork, food takes on a range of meanings. All of them arenegotiated within the structures of the state, those spaces deemed legal to sell,They are also negotiated through the social encounters using the agreed-uponconventions within which people use speech and trade. As discussed above,they are also the performances of memory; the search for things desired, the oldfoods cooked when one was a child, and the new snacks bringing delight to afriend. The food has a history and a past; it has come from somewhere, but thestory of its journey is only hinted at by the accent of the food seUerand the

color of the fruit.. The power of these foods to express history, relationships, and delight wasillustrated by the discussions of several young women who emphasized the rolethat social media played in their eating habits. One young woman whom Ichatted with in a mall food court explained, "If a friend posts a photo onFacebook of something that looks good, I'll want to try it" and "If! find somefood that is cheap and delicious, I'll post a photo so that my friends can alsotry." Reflecting on the gendered distinctions of this activiry, she continued,"Women use social media more than men. We like to take photos of everything,including street food." Her friend agreed, "Women like to take a Facebook

photo to show that it is beautiful."For those customers who claimed that food was "easy and convenient" or"cheap and convenient," the internet provided a platform through which thesequalities of street food were amplified. The grOUpof men who worked for theBangkok municipal government explained how online food fonuns andreviews gave them the information to hunt down the best food, no matterwhere they worked in the city that day. One of these men also gave a genderedexplanation to his use of social media, suggesting that "women will think itmore important that the food is beautiful, while men think it more inlportantthat it is tasty ... men just go to eat, they need quality food while women takephotos of food. Women want to go to a raan klla, they prefer to eat somewhere

�~---------I

II\

\

I

208 B ronwyn Isaacs

that is beautiful and comfortable." T . .th~ acnvitres of delighting in or hunthes~ SOCIalmedia interactions amplifiedre ationshipe They are gendered ex mg or food and took place within socialfood discoveries with others and p pr~SSlOns,allowing friends to share their

Ttahstyfood in a nearby location wh~~v~lsmg clueIS for groups of friends to finde use of a ph t 0 Signamg mas r .. 0 0 or text to I b I C cu imty or femininity

exercise b t a e a food as tasty . . ., u a complex negotiation of . I . was not a Simple taste budsocia relationships.

Figure 11.4 This vendor's stall .a small restaurant Som . provides a table and ch .or "paeng loi" (driftin eS~)als would call this kind of:

1::U

f?,r custom~rs, op~rating like

g (Bangkok,Thailand. ph b raan kha (trading booth). oto y author) ,

Tile tastiest food is in the small streets 209

Labeling street food: rights and respectabilityAs I have argued above, street food is very much a physical experience. Indeed,tastes cannot be thought of as purely cultural, for chili and sugar have differentchemical compounds unaltered by media or discourse. However, theImportance of this physical experience provides a great richness within whichlanguage, media, and action create interpretations about what is sociallyrespectable or politically acceptable. In particular, I wish to draw attention tothe ways in which people actively work to frame or name street food in orderto assert a particular social and ethical identity. If different locations in Thailandhold different ethical experiences and obligations, how spaces are recognized isof crucial importance (Stonington, 2012). Describing work as respectable isconferred through the very names that are used to refer to or describe thephysical structures on which street food is sold. While both academic and cityplanning documents will often refer to "street vendors" or "street food" as anassumed category, when talking with both consumers and street vendors, thevery words used to refer to street food in Bangkok are far from decided. Inparticular, the words that people use to describe different eating establishmentsdemonstrate that the act of labeling a person as a street vendor or food as streetfood is a highly interpretive action. When discussing different street foodestablishments, three main terms are used in Bangkok: raan kilO (which translatesto "trading booth/store"), pamg foi (which translates as "drifting stall"), andhaap ray (a "wandering hawker").Two male graduate students, who claimed to enjoy eating at food stalls

every day, had very different ideas about what a ram' kl,a as opposed to a pengloi might be. Lek declared a peng loi was a small, movable cart. If a food stallprovided a table and chairs, then it was a raan kha. It was the distinction ofseating customers at the food establishment that created a different category ofestablishment. However, Jo disagreed, claiming a raall kha was an official orlegal vendor, while a peng leoi was one without official status. Fon, their fellowstudent, described raan kha as having access to proper electricity and runningwater and not cooking on coals placed close to the ground. "If I notice a wng(bucket for washing), I know it's only a peng Ioei;" she declared. Fon agreedthat, according to her definition, even medium-sized restaurants that operatewith many cooks and waiters but without established kitchen facilities can be

considered peng loei.Each evening in Chinatown's famous Yaowarat Street, well-establishedrestaurants, the owners of which are proud of their multi-generationalpresence and their inclusion in tourist guide books, will set up tables andchairs that can seat up to 30 people, perched on the sidewalk and side of theroad. These large and famous restaurants do their cooking on woks onmovable carts and hire teenage boys to clean fish, dishes, and vegetables in anassembly line on the side of the road. Usually, however, these restaurantshave only informal agreements with local law officials, not legal status. Smallcanteen stallS, small restaurants inside family buildings, and anything in a

I

210 Bronwyn Isaacs

legally owned building where the s .descnbed as raan kha. tall space IS officially hired is likel to be

However, the ambiguous use f . . yconclusion, illustrating the nee . 0 t: description is far from a forgoneproperty d ri h essity 0 SOCialbeli f .k an ng ts to space. Rather th havi re s In sustaining systems ofraan ha as opposed to peng loi the a~ aVlng an agreed upon definition of~treeltfood creates a hierarch; of re~ay a~~uage was used in order to refer toanu y had used their special dumpli:ecta .' ity, A middle-class couple whose

to sell enough steamed dumplings to s~ r~clpes for 60 years and had been ablewere very finn that although I d n their daughter to study in the USA

ktehmp~rarytable under a small aw an my research assistant presumed thei;a. Not eve nlng might be a pen I . . .

U.. ryone can get a stall' hi ~ 01, It was In fact a raanDIversity' In t IS spac .. hli . s space, so you must be abl t fill e, t ey explained. "It's the

:;~hlc:IOn." The couple agreed that eth~ir out their forms and make a goodthoughtY~;~hdlfferent locations at hosPitaI:~~d was very temporary, movingWhen asked "elt movement as regular and theirumversltles. However~ theystreet . what IS a peng leoi?" they repli d h use of space as legitimate.vend' carrying their food in a basket I~eb t at a person walking on thea stallorswere described by many other cou e called peng loei. Wanderingto ref:: ;ot peng loei, however, illustrafe:ot~e a: heap rei, not peng loei. Markingwho h 0 street food in Bangkok ar w anguage and the concepts usedbas~~ a;~:n be used to claim social ;e::e~:~~~~ in negotiation, a flexible tool

d the official or social I .. ty or construct a self-identityegItllnacy of the trade.

UDirty but tasty"?

Describing a stall ffi .d as 0 cial or ill galesc.ription that is born out of a ran ' or respectable or unwelcome is a social

r:::ntht factor for many people wh: thinkinofcomplibcatedfactors and fe~lings. Onee street was th . g a out the . h f

describing the kinds f err conception of the food di ng ts 0 people to sella common des . . 0 food that might be sold at a as .rty or dangerous. Whenidea of" dirty"c~pt1on of street food that I heard c:

eng101,b~~h Lek and J0 offered

was cooked on ood was often explained in terms :tInually: dirty but tasty." TheTastiness h the street, It was possibly dangero b germs and pollution. If food

, owever p d us ecause of ts dirtinwere at a 10 ' rove more difficult t . 1 ess."tasty" lab I ssbto explain why dirty food . ~ explain. While most peoplevendors e:p!~i e~ u:derstood through the a:~ t~ctually be the tastiest, thefrom parents a:; t at they learned to cook t: scuskslOnof nostalgia. Streetfc extended famil r . e snac s and meals the ld

f::~s ~~~:~~t s~~ t~e local dish:s ~:: ;~e7:~:~e~~ of Thailand. Many~t~~etThailand, but als: enefited from the culinary knowI~es, offenng consumerswhich . h proVided a nostalgic . e ge of different parts of

Out~~~n~~eeu~ste buds to thoughts 0~1:::npca:-to eat the comfort foods. vefSlty I chatted . .

provinces who were ke ' WIth older motorcycle dri fren to teach us about th" I. vers om rurale eVQutIOn of street food."I

~r-----------The tastiest food is in the small streets 211

They described peng loi stalls as a relatively recent invention. They noted thatcooks now used more sugar in their foods. They also said that the concept ofpubhc street food was an old concept: "like the market, it is part of our culture."Marking themselves as authorities on what was better quality food, these ruralnugrants were critical of young people's lack of knowledge. "Today childreneat less Thai foods. Some of them don't even know the names of the curries ...Even right here at the University you will see students who eat from stallswhere the food looks really dirty. Don't they know it's not good?" These olderrural migrants inverted the language of "rural and dirty" in order to suggestthat the educated University students were the ones who ate dirty food, notthemselves.

ConclusionStreet food in Thailand is a phenomenon of great social and political strength,with muscles that flex within street protests, charm that displayswell on lifestyleTV shows and in tourism campaigns, and emotional gravity that tugs at theheartstrings of many Thais who feel at least some consideration for, gretl jai, forthose migrant street workers who toil long hours in the day and have very feweconomic opportunities available to them. While there is a tendency in globalfood movements to celebrate "alternative" fonTISoHood production, suggestingthat they represent the victory of the small man against global corporations orstate politics, arguments for the altemarive should also take account that, formany, street food vending is a difficult daily practice of negotiating physical andsymbolic obstacles. In Thailand, while many street vendors enjoy their work,they also work hard, even over generarions, with the ambition of purchasing asmall shop space and retiring from street food life. Many consumers may purchasestreet food with ambiguous feelings; they eat on the side of the road with acombination of nostalgia, dehght in tasty flavors, and a vague or pronouncedquestioning of their social respectability and their rural past. Thereforeunderstanding street vendors' use of space in its relarionship to political ideologiesor market capitalism, while important, must also include an understanding of theactual daily experience of street food vending and purchasing.

A raan kha with rent, electriciry, and running water looks a lot like a peugloei, when it is seen how quickly it is dismantled and packed up at the end ofthe trading day. The speed in which strucrures then become semi-pemlanentor temporary remind us of the ways in which all urban and non-urban space istemporary according to a scale of time. While marking things as temporary orpennanent is a tool for marking rhe legitimacy of some and the illegitimarerights of anorher, all spaces are unstable and can be rendered so by floods,political marches, renovation, trade of property, and govermnent intervention.In the fluidity with which different people refer to different spaces by the samenames, we are reminded of the impermanence of all urban space, and that alluses of the city are embedded on cultural beliefS and social agreements. Screetfood governance, which endeavors to be just and wise, must attend to the

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212 Bronwyn Isaacs

importance of urban memory, imagination and social agreements which arenot always easy to describe. While this task is not an easy one, political andsocial vision will surely be enhanced if we turn our gaze away from themonumental and direct our nose towards the seemingly mundane, if we lookto daily life, to the experience of finding a new delicacy, or a path through thebusy sidewalk, a sweet from home and a taste of the past.

Acknowledgments

Funding for this research was provided by the Harvard Asia Center. Particularthanks to Miss Podjamas Roswan for her excellent work as a research assistantin Bangkok, and to Vivien Chung for her constructive critique of the chapterin progress.

References

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Herzfeld, M. 2013. "Spice Boys: Masculinity and the Travels/Travails of Asian Food,"Paper presented at the 8th International Convention of Asia Scholars, June 24-27,2013, Macao.

Isaacs, B. A. 2009. "Imagining Thailand in European Hypermarkets: New Class-BasedConsumption in Chiang Mai's 'Cruise Ships'," Asia Padjic joumot of Anthropology,10(4), pp. 348-363.

Kim, A. M. 2012. "The Mixed-Use Sidewalk: Vending and Property Rights in PublicSpace," [ournal oj the American Plannino Association 78(3), pp. 225-238.

Kiple, K. F. 2007. A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press.

Mandhachitara, R. 2000. "Patterns of modernization in Thai retailing," Proceeding of theAustralian and New Zealand Marketing Ammol Cor!ftrellcc (ANZMAC).

May, K. J. 2006. "Transnational Retailers and Supply Networks: RestructuringThailand," Department of Geography, University of Manchester.

Mills, M. B. 1999. Thai Women in the Global Labor Force: Consuming Desires, ContestedSelves. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Phongpaichit, P., and Baker. C. 2008. Thai Capital .-wer the 1997 Crisis. Chiang Mai,Thailand: Silkworm Books.

Sopranzetti, C. 2013. TI,e Owners of the Map: Motorcycle Taxi Driven, Mobility and Politicsin Baflgkok, PhD dissertation. Department of Anthropology, Harvard University,Cambridge, MA.

Stonington, S. D. 2012. "On Ethical Locations: The Good Death in Thailand, WhereEthics Sit in Places," Social Science and Medicine 75(5), pp. 836-844.

Tambiah, S. J. 1976. World Conqueror and World Re'lOIHlcer:A Study of Buddhism andPolity in Thailand Agaimt a Historical Background. Cambridge/New York: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Taylor, J. 2008. Buddhism and Postmodem [magiflings in Thailand: The Religiosity of UrbanSpace.Farnham, UK/Burlingron, VT: Ashgate Pubhshing Ltd.I

The tastiestfood is in the small streets 213

'L d Oxford/New York: Berg.Van Esterik P. 2000. Materializing Thin all . p '11 tile Modern Rural Economy,

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kok' Tomboys, Tycoons, and Avon lCSWilson, A. 2004. The Intimate Ecotlotmes. ° . 'gof California Press. .

in tile Global City. Berkeley, CA: Um.versl~ Haven CT: Yale University Press.W att D K. 2003. Tliailalld: A Sltort HI.~tory. ew

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White Lotus Press.

.------- -- . _. --

~r;J[i[][il~~r;Jmfrom Routledge

Edited by RYZIA de CASSIA VIEIRA CARDOSO,MICHELE COMPANION and STEFANO ROBERTO MARRAS

ROUTLEDGE STUDIES IN FOOD, SOCIETY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

First published 2014by Routledge2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Rolltltlt~v is "rl iff/prim of tilt Taylor & FrtJlJds Croup, atJ j'iforma business

C 2014 Ryria de Cassia Vieira Cardoso, Michele Companion, andtefano ROberto Martas. selection and editorial material; individual

chapters, the contributors

The nght of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorialmateri:.!. and f the authors for their individual chapters, has beena ned in accorcbncC' with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,D~,8'" and Patents Act 1988.

AlJ rights reserved. No pan of this book may be reprinted orrtl)rodu ed utilised ill IUly Conn Or by :;my electronic, mechanical, orOther mean . 11 W known Or hereafter invented, includingph pym~ and eee rding, Or in any infomution stora~ or retrievaJ"\t(l1\. WIth lit pertni i n in writing from the publishers.

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cu,u Ie Oro for this book is available from the British Libr.uy

loIh..". ".fCi~'~ CII,,,/~j,t,,,I"·'>UbliMjotl Datil

'tfttt culture. ec oQmy. hnlth and governance I edited byR 1.1. de Vlc-Ir", rdceo. Michele Com~nion, tefancft n M.ur:u.

~ m - (R.. ul1~ tudlti in food. $OQety and environment)IncluJob,b~.ll'tu ill rtfcrc.nce3 .md indeJ(.I 11U~",.lUOluJ 18 2. ~l food. . tr't'ct 'ltendon_Soc4l;13~ of trttt \·C'lldon-CO\·C'nUHc.nt poLey. 5. Food-Cross-(\&lIur-1li tuJ.c, 6 ;&.5(>«13.7. Food sc.rviCC':--5.Ue:tyUK ,11t'" I , R.. lQ, (k ~.& VIC-Uil. It. Comp.uu n. Machele.III '.&It,". It.r. R «'''''''''''1 1>. 14

Contents

Lis: of jig",,,,List of IiJbl", .Nor", on ,dilors and conmburorsA(knau~,dgmenLS

VU1

X

Xl

XVU1

Introduction

PART 1 •.Governance: policies and politics

.. analysis of leaislative appro.aches1 Comparative es- lith A merican metropo sesstreet food in ou " ..HI

STEFA 0 R lARRAS

13

to15

2 Ii gime and the political economyUrban po" CYd~e Canada and the United tatesof treet .00 mKATH~RINE BUR ETT • D LE ORE EWMA

T ds fair tteet food governance in Dh~:owar d .... to SOCIal" from ........Ioitation an eVlcaonrnovtng -r

r cognition and upportBE 'J. II" liT ZOLD

61

3

lld. 0.'" ..

4 The te ofprLegality amongTI B••RIC HA YDE

"ry: language, legitimacy, and..can tre t food vendors

I'tVII<d1lld1_TJ '-''''*'''''-'

trth

t fo d nnr e in Armt rdam: unravellingof th market deroriginal

fRH J. Ii S

VI Contents

PART IISubsistence and enterprise

6 Changing food landscapes: understanding thefood truck movement in Atlanta, Georgia, USAALEXANDRA PILL

7 Food trucks in the USA: sustainability, youngentrepreneurship, and urban revitalizationPAOLO CORVO

8 Street food vending in West African cities:potential and challengesGIORGIA F, NICOLO AND MOHAMED AG BENDECH

PART IIIWomen on the front line

9 Violence and sexualvulnerability amongNorthern Mozambican female street foodvendorsMICHELE COMPANION

10 Co.rporealityand the cooking practices of theBalana de AcarajeLILIAN MIRANDA MAGALHAES AND

UGIA AM PARa DA SILVA SANTOS

PART IVCultural tastes

11 The tastiest food is in the small stre t . thIi . f fl e s: epo tics 0 avor and nostalgia in Ban kokBRONWYN ISAACS g

12 The structure of Penang street food ult. MI' .. cureIn a aysiaM, SHAHRIM ABDUL KARIM AND

NURHASMILAALISA ABDUL HALIM

/:-=-------.-----_~

-Contents VII

117PART VFood safety and nutrition 223

13 A description of hygienic-sanitary conditions of119 street food trade at Parque Nacional, Bogota D.C. 225

LUISA FERNANDA TOBAR VARGAS AND

GINA TATIANA BARBOSA MUNOZ

133 14 Street food consumers in Salvador, Bahia: habits,knowledge, and risk perception 241R YZIA DE CASSIA VIEIRA CARDOSO, GIZANE RIBEIRO DE

SANTANA. AND TALITA FERREIRA DANTAS GUIMARAES

14615 Street food and intervention: strategies and

proposals for the developing world 255R YZIA DE CASSIA VIEIRA CARDOSO, SANDRA MARIA

CHAVES DOS SANTOS AND EDLEUZA OLIVEIRA SILVA161

16 The way forward for better food safety andnutrition: an online discussion 269MAX BLANCK, RENATA MIRULLA AND MAURICIO ROSALES

163

Index 275

180

193

195

214