Speaking of street snacks, I think of pancake fruit, mutton skewers, fried skewers, oil chopping boards (fried radish cakes are rare), glutinous rice balls and spring rolls. ...

And we can't always refuse stories about food: Wang Zengqi and Lu wrote about eating, Chen Xiao filmed China on the Tip of the Tongue, and YUTAKA MATSUSHIGE played Goro Inoue as a lonely gourmet and became a street food fighter ... This time, Netflix also launched a food documentary. In the first season, 9 cities in Asia were selected to introduce the most representative street food.

The structure of each episode is relatively modular, with an introduction of local food+an interview with a snack vendor (main and secondary)+simple production process+close-up of food+city scenery. The time is in the early 20 minutes, which is quite tight. In the alternation of food and scenery, the process of watching will not become boring.

In a sense, this is not a pure food documentary. Although it is called street food, the focus is definitely not on food, but on the chef who makes those foods. Their story is the most important part of this documentary.

Under the lens, they are not only street chefs, but also street fighters, artists, magicians and reformers. They are givers, not takers. They bring everyone together with food, and they represent a spirit of not giving in to suffering. In short, vitality bursts out of a poor life and shines on humble streets, just like an epic, a battle, a revolution or a grand performance.

Zhijie, Bangkok, Thailand

The 73-year-old mole sister, who has worked continuously for 40 years, is a well-deserved street food queen. When she was young, she was forced to make a living as a sewing machine worker. Suddenly one day, there was a fire at home, and she became penniless and had to go to the street stall to help. Faced with the complexity of street stalls, my mother suspected that she was incompetent, but with perseverance and enthusiasm, she created one delicious food after another, which has accumulated more than 100 dishes so far. For 40 years, the only day off was to win a Michelin star award.

Toyoji Tsuhara in Osaka, Japan

Always saying something philosophical will remind people of Kitano Takeshi, giving people the impression that he is more like a comedian and speaker. Anyway, he is not a street cook. This old man named Toyoji Kawamoto is always full of energy. He calls himself a "liar", which means to "cheat money" by turning other people's unused ingredients into delicious food. People are also willing to line up in front of his Oriental izakaya, waiting for his delicious food, listening to his words and even accepting his words.

After a long struggle, he finally became the boss of izakaya, but looking back on his life, he couldn't help sighing. My mother died young, my father drank too much, and my childhood was full of my father's violence. The happiest thing is to eat nutrition with classmates.

Rice, but my father told me that I can't afford nutritious meals. He digs a picnic and sleeps on the roof or dock just to survive.

I once fantasized about this life, being the boss of izakaya, having my own house, wife and children. Now he has become the boss, taking izakaya as his home and his employees as his children. At the end of the day, he warned them: "You should be responsible for your own health!"

Chen Da, Delhi

Delhi is a very complicated city, full of different nationalities and diverse civilizations, so it also has a very diverse food culture, and Chen Da, which is good at making chats, is undoubtedly one of the best street snacks. In his food concept, family is an indispensable element. His childhood was unfortunate. His father was addicted to all kinds of drugs and had to take to the streets for a better life.

His sister once secretly bought jewelry to help him, and now his brother is his helper, and the children are also involved. What a failure his career was, but he started again. With the support of my family, it seems that everything can be started again.

Grandma Satinan in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

90-year-old Shadinan is still active in the street, and her traditional market snack (which should be a dessert made of glutinous rice, caramel and coconut powder) is still deeply loved by people. I haven't been to school since the sixth grade. First I learned to sell snacks with my mother, and then I began to learn to cook. When I was a teenager, my father's infidelity made my mother conservative. Soon after, his mother died, and Shatinan fell into a lost mood. But life goes on. She didn't want to give up, so she went back to the street to sell her traditional crafts and met her husband in the street.

"He is not handsome, very ordinary, and I am also an ordinary girl." This kind of love has continued from the last century to the present. Two people hunched their backs, holding hands, preparing daily sales together. People happily stood in front of her booth for a long time, listening to her laughter.

Chiayi province, Chia-hui Lin

At school, Chia-hui Lin hated being nicknamed by his classmates. Her nickname is "fish head", because since her grandparents' generation, her family has been selling casserole fish heads on the street.

The big fish head is wrapped in flour and fried in an oil pan until it is golden and crisp, while the casserole is cooked with fungus, pork, onion, garlic, pepper, tofu, fried bean skin and a lot of Chinese cabbage, which is full of color and flavor. Traditional crafts are deeply loved by diners. Under the influence of his father, Chia-hui Lin went home to help after graduating from university. In order to improve efficiency, she is determined to reform and increase the number of POS machines, dishwashers and online orders. As a result, she had a little conflict with her parents, so she simply took advantage of their opportunity to go abroad to get everything done and let her parents change their habits when they came back.

Now, she doesn't hate the nickname "fish head". On the contrary, she thinks it is a compliment.

In addition to the above-mentioned street gourmets, there are Ms. Zhao Yinshan who sells Daoxiao Noodles in Seoul, South Korea, Cai Jinfang who sells snail meat in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Aisha Hashim who runs steamed restaurants and companies in Singapore, and Florencio Escabas who sells eel soup in Cebu, Philippines ... Of course, there are more delicious foods and chefs, such as Hainan chicken rice, Wonton Noodles, China spring rolls, roast suckling pig, Turkish rice, braised pork rice and octopus roast.

All people have different cultural backgrounds and experiences, but they are all ordinary people, born in the street, and will encounter such problems. While creating street food, they benefit from it, fulfill their dreams, get a stable life, love and so on. Ordinary life and food give birth to extraordinary light, precisely because people who have hope and love for life look more inspirational and bloody than the empty positive energy slogan.

What impressed me the most was that casual remark. The elder sister who sells soy sauce and crabs in Seoul suddenly said, "... but a wonderful story will fail at the beginning", as if it were a summary of the whole season. Selling snacks on the street has also become a Jedi counterattack against life!

Note: The pictures in this article are from the documentary "Street Food".

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