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Poll: Do You Like Standardized Food Carts?

Posted by in Featured, Poll | 5 comments


Jongno Food Carts

I’m trying not to show my bias in this.

Seoul has had a love-hate relationship with its own street food. Even though they are heavily patronized by citizens, the government has treated them in the past as embarrassments. I think they even tried to ban them or put them out of sight for the 2002 World Cup in Korea.

The latest measure has been to require street vendors to use standardized food carts from the city. I guess so that they’d all look the same. Maybe cleaner?
New Jongno Food Carts
There is a tendency to judge restaurants by how sterile they look than by the restaurant’s character, which explains why Korean restaurants tend to have bright hospital lighting. And the street food carts look a little more inviting–in a Disney-fied sort of way. I really don’t know what to make of them.

This obsession with standardizing and making everything look like a theme park was part of the controversy with the Filipino Market in Hyewha-dong. The government wanted the vendors to purchase the more expensive standardized carts in part of their arm twisting to kick the market out of the neighborhood.

Does standardizing street food make it better? I’ve heard in Singapore the government is much stricter, but they also have a reputation for great street food.

What do you think?

Do you like the standardized food carts like the ones in Jongno?

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Joe McPherson is the founding editor of ZenKimchi. He is also dining editor for 10 Magazine and writes and consults for multiple publications. He is the only non-Korean judge for the Korean section of the Miele Guide--but don't ever call him a food critic.
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  • Eacornelius

    I may not like the standardized food carts, but standardized carts are better than no carts at all. Also, looking at this post 5 minutes before lunch made me really, really hungry.

  • Anonymous

    Well, Singapore is stricter, but they technically don’t have “street food.”

    All their “street food” are situated in hawker centres. They were invented in a concerted effort by the government to make it easier to manage and monitor street food health and safety. Hawker centres are similar to the street food of other Asian countries (specialize in a single dish) but they have the luxury of running water, lighting and a static position. It’s definitely stricter but the feeling and identity of each hawker varies wildly.

    When I lived there my favorites were the Maxwell Hawker Center near Chinatown and East Coast Seafood Center. While they all weren’t sanitary in the past, the have transformed in an icon of the city.

    hawker food is by far the best food I’ve encountered in Asia. It has the prices of street food, the cleanliness of a decent restaurant and the years of love and passion of any great cook.

    • http://www.zenkimchi.com/FoodJournal/ ZenKimchi

      That’s why I brought up Singapore. It’s an interesting counterpoint to
      my gut hatred of the standardized food carts. Do you think there was
      another way to improve them other than taking them off the streets?

      • Anonymous

        If you are talking about Singapore, probably not, as there is a culture of food centres all around Southeast Asia. Even including Hong Kong. It sort of felt like a natural progression and the government simply sped the process along.

        If you are asking about the Korean carts, then I think that to an outsider, it will probably just look more uniform and thus cleaner. I don’t have a problem with them per se (other than the cost that the vendors must incur for the new carts,) but I see the logic in it. I guess I’m sort of ambivalent.

  • http://twitter.com/chosunbimbo stafford lumsden

    Standardized carts may take from the character of things but may also add a (sometimes much needed) element of Hygiene to things (at least initially). In addition are there standardized hand washing facilities to accompany the new carts.

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