工夫を凝らしたチーズボード
One doesn’t get the kind of longevity in the hospitality business Chinatown’s Ronald Cheng does without listening to customers. It’s no surprise that his latest concept is a direct response to neighborhood demand.
On January 1, 2020, the longtime local restaurateur will convert pan-Asian eatery Street into Far East Sports Bar. Located downstairs from the Chinatown location at 3407 Greystone Dr., the new project will add casual elements like 12 flat screens and counter service to the warm North Austin space, according to a release.
The bar will boast 15 taps pouring local craft beer as well as a full spirits selection. Though the release did not share the full cocktail details, it did tease that some of the drinks will be made with liquid nitrogen to add an element of fun.
The food menu will feature Chinese and Japanese favorites like fried rice, lo mein, sesame chicken, and a variety of maki and sashimi. Snacks like egg rolls, crab puffs, sushi nachos, and wings and other ideal pairings with booze will also be available.
After acclaimed sushi spot Musashino moved operations from Greystone Drive to San Gabriel Street in May 2016, Cheng nabbed the downstairs space. Inspired by his travels throughout Asia, the Austin restaurant icon outfitted the concept with decor like kimonos and a custom Chinese host stand.
The menu originally included a large array of street food, ranging from accessible options like taro fried and Sriracha chicken wings to more uncommon dishes like jellyfish salad. Since then, the menu has been simplified, but still covers all the bases from traditional to fusion.
In the release, Cheng did not specify why he decided to whittle down the menu and change concepts, but one thing, however, is for sure. As a person who has weathered the expansions and contractions of the Austin restaurant scene since 1983, he certainly knows when it’s time to try something new.
If there were a theme to Dallas restaurant openings in 2019, it was this: Good food comes in small dining rooms.
Ka-Tip Thai Street Food seats barely more than 20 customers: There are three tables for four, two tables for two and a communal, picnic-style setup for a larger group. And yet the space is never full, despite serving probably the best Thai food in Dallas city limits.
The married duo of YuYee Sakpanichkul Kaiho and George Kaiho has been planning to open Ka-Tip for years. At first, the plan was to create a more upscale restaurant with wine and liquor to pair with chef’s tastings and elaborately inventive dishes. But as Dallas grew more casual, restaurants such as Khao Noodle Shop blazed a trail as small, approachable homes for bold flavors. The Kaihos saw that example and decided to follow it.
On our first visit, our party of four watched the only other customers leave, then brought the kitchen back to life by ordering every single appetizer. Colorful paper trays arrived like tiny, delicious parade floats. Gyao grob are fried wontons, folded around hard-boiled quail eggs ($5). They superficially resemble crab Rangoon, but cooked to order, with darker skins and a filling that’s not cloyingly sweet. There’s a drizzle of chile pepper sauce over the top, too.
There are pork and shrimp dumplings, five to a $7 order, tightly packed with a meaty filling that’s enlivened by the crunch of diced water chestnuts. There are fried, veggie-filled spring rolls ($5 for three). And there are “salad rolls,” a term Ka-Tip uses to refer to butterflied shrimp, tofu, lettuce and herbs rolled in rice paper ($6 for two). The salad rolls are minty, impeccably executed and irresistible when dunked into the accompanying spicy dipping sauce.
More of America’s restaurants need menu sections called “Spicy Salads.” Of course, for that to happen, our customers will need to understand that “salad” doesn’t always mean a bowl of lettuce.
It’s a particularly complicated term in the context of Southeast Asian cooking, which has entire genres of dishes that consist of warm, cooked things that have been mixed together. They’re not necessarily stir fried, but they’re not a salad, either. Except we don’t have a word for this type of dish; so that’s what we call it.
Anyway, this is a long way of saying that Ka-Tip Thai has “Spicy Salads” like nam tok moo, a combination of chopped and crisped pork with such strong, punchy herbs as culantro (not to be confused with cilantro) and mint ($10). It’s just about the fiercest dish on the menu.
New menu items are still being added, almost weekly. But, occasionally, we’ve seen items disappear, like on a recent return visit when the appetizer section had shrunk from five dishes to four. More is yet to come, including a promise of desserts.
One recent addition is tom yum moo sub, the famous spicy-sour noodle soup, which Ka-Tip prepares with ground pork and fish balls ($12). Every Thai restaurant in town has some form of tom yum, usually bright orange with a pre-made seasoning mix. The nearly clear broth at Ka-Tip hums with the deep sourness of lemongrass and lime, the meaty heft of pork and seafood, and the heat of fresh chile pepper slices that cling onto noodles like little climbers on a cliff face.
The soup comes in a huge portion, brimming with pork and studded with balls of both fish and shrimp meat. (The shrimp balls are yellow.) It’s both sleep-inducingly heavy and energetically vibrant from all that spice, lime and tongue-searing sourness. Afterward, I wanted to take a nap and have fierce, combative dreams.
Another dish featuring big, bold flavor is the green curry ($12). It looks like a small bowl, and it’s served with a mound of rice that seems disproportionately big. But this curry is a feast for the senses: thin slices of small, round Thai eggplant, the aroma of Makrut lime leaves, tender chicken, a gentle current of spice.
There is, naturally, pad Thai, the dish that won a national contest in the 1930s and has since come to define a whole cuisine in the eyes, and bellies, of American diners. The discussion around pad Thai is almost as complex as the dish itself, because many versions in the United States are sweetened, which has led to a backlash from American foodies who’ve deemed the dish “inauthentic.”
That backlash misses the point, of course. There are as many ways to make pad Thai as there are ways to make meatloaf or salsa verde.
Ka-Tip’s way, at $14, is loaded with fried egg and perfectly tender shrimp, which home cooks know is a deft bit of time management. The flavors are admirably balanced — while this is the least spicy main on the menu, it’s neither sweet nor syrupy — and in case a diner disagrees, little mounds of chile pepper flakes and ground peanut are perched on the side of the plate, waiting to be stirred in.
There’s still room for growth here. George Kaiho, who is also the soft-spoken lead bartender at Jettison, thinks that when the restaurant’s liquor license arrives, Ka-Tip may begin offering adventurous, one-night-only tasting menus, much like Misti Norris does at Petra and the Beast. The restaurant might reserve a weeknight for an appointment-only procession of off-menu specials and expertly chosen white wines.
That’s a vision to look forward to. It’s also even more evidence of the blurring line between high-end and casual dining in Dallas. One of our city’s hallmarks now is the way our best chefs step so nimbly from one end of the spectrum to the other.
One of our other hallmarks, for many years, was a deficit of good Thai food. Part of the problem was simple demographics; our Laotian community is far bigger, and many of Dallas’ best Thai restaurants, such as Ly Food Market in Oak Cliff, were Lao restaurants in disguise. Even now, the best Thai food in the area is far out in the northernmost suburban reaches, at Spice Thai Cafe in Allen.
Ka-Tip helps change that picture. It’s another step forward for diverse, casual excellence in downtown Dallas food. It’s an endearing underdog success story from local industry veterans. And its soups are perfect winter-weather foods. What’s not to love?
Ka-Tip Thai Street Food, 1011 S. Pearl Expressway, Suite 190. 214-238-2232, katipthaidallas.com. Open 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-10 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday.
大きな節目となるお正月。古くより日本では、家々を守り一年の幸福を授けるため年神様が朝日と共に天から降り各家にやって来るとされています。今回は、2020年最強のサポートが得られる元日の過ごし方をご紹介します。
元日と元旦の違いをご存知でしょうか。元日とは1月1日のこと。元旦とは1月1日の初日の出の時間を指します。
元日の朝一番に汲んだその年の初めての水を若水と呼び、邪気を祓うパワーがあるとされています。若水で手を洗った後、神棚がある場合はまず神様にお水をお供えして感謝しましょう。その後は若水でお湯を沸かし、挨拶を済ませたらお茶を家族全員で飲みましょう。若水でいただくお茶は、「大福茶」(おおふくちゃ)といい、邪気を祓い幸せを呼び込むパワーがあるとされています。
「大福茶」を飲んだ後は、お節料理を楽しみましょう。節句の料理はもともと年神様にお供えするもの。ご利益のある神様のおさがりですから、ありがたくいただきます。
お節料理にはそれぞれ意味があり、縁起がいい食べ物です。田作りは「五穀豊穣」、昆布巻きは「喜びと不老不死の願い」、黒豆は「まめに働く」、数の子は「子孫繁栄」、栗きんとんは「財運」を表します。この中で2020年に最も食べておきたいお節料理は栗きんとんです。2020年は、色と甘いものとの相性がよく、幸運が授かりやすくなります。栗きんとんは、最強のパワーフードです。
多くの人で賑わう初詣。初詣に行くのでしたら、ホワイトの下着をつけて出かけましょう。浄化作用が強く、サポート運がアップする2020年のラッキーカラーはホワイト。お風呂に入り身を清めてから出かけるのがGOOD。お祈りをするときは具体的なお願い事はできるだけ避け、日ごろの感謝を述べるといいでしょう。感謝の想いが広がり、巡り巡って自分の方へも幸福がやってきます。
2020年は楽しむことで運気がアップする年。境内で屋台が出ているようでしたら甘酒などをいただき、楽しい雰囲気も味わうと福力が厚くなります。名物をいただくのもいいですね。
いかかでしょうか。お正月にしてはいけないとされているのがお掃除です。お正月に掃除をすると年神様もゴミや埃と一緒に出ていってしまうと考えられています。神様が見守る中、ゆとりの時間を使って一年の計画を立てましょう。
ハート占い1to1、ハートスクール1to1主宰。スピリチュアルカウンセラーとして、風水や四柱推命、霊視にてたくさんの方々を鑑定する一方、デジタルコンテンツ「霊通師 月香」の監修をてがけ、Yahoo!占いをはじめ、Ameba占い、楽天占い、LINE占いなど多数で活躍の場を広げる。スクールでは、占い師、セラピスト、スピリチュアルカウンセラー、ヒーラーを養成。モータースポーツにも従事。レーシングチーム、Team Sky Lightに所属。
The Rotary Club of West Hartford surprised the long-running Fern Street Food Ministry with a donation.
Submitted
On Dec. 10, Bennett Forrest, current Rotary Club of West Hartford president, visited the group of food programs at the Universalist Church of West Hartford – the Fern Street Food Ministry. It was a surprise of the Food Ministry to receive a donation of $3,000 to continue to fund their projects.
Jacob Lee, the coordinator, received the check in the Food Pantry storage room which was in process of being re-stocked for their upcoming Pantry event.
“It’s amazing to have partners like the Rotary Club that help us to keep going. Easing food insecurity in our communities takes a lot of volunteers and a lot of time. These donations help us to react to our shortages and what our clients want,” Lee said.
“This is what it is all about,” Bennett said about handing the donation to the Ministry. “Getting our fundraising to where it’s going to be the most useful.”
The Rotary Club of West Hartford has been helping to fund various programs in the area for years, and continues to see a need, even in West Hartford.
For more information on the Rotary Club visit their website.
For more information on the Fern Street Food Ministry visit the website.
Like what you see here? Click here to subscribe to We-Ha’s newsletter so you’ll always be in the know about what’s happening in West Hartford!
[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Lunchbreak: Roman style street food pizza – Pizza Bianca di Forno campo de’ Fiori WGN TV Chicago:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15986155/Vox_The_Highlight_Logo_wide.jpg){kind=logo}
The Food Ranger and I had arrived at our next meal. We knew it by the smell floating out of the diner in front of us. Blazing hot oil, the funk of coiled pink-brown organ meat, an acidic bouquet of crushed peppercorns, star anise, and scallions all wafted together, promising to numb our mouths. Plastic tables tumble out through the doors of the dining room and down the gray, rain-spattered sidewalk. We’re deep in Chongqing, China, a city that, with its surrounding areas, sustains a population of roughly 30 million. And yet, this particular joint is well off the Yelp network. I’d never find it on my own, which is exactly what The Food Ranger loves most about it.
Inside, he’s in his element. The Food Ranger, who is white, 31, and originally from Vancouver, Canada, begins speaking in Mandarin. The words slide into the kitchen like a keystone and crack the code — the staff, recognizing that he’s the rare Westerner who can communicate with them in their own tongue, receive him with open arms, and begin annotating the menu in ricocheting Chinese. The Food Ranger darts his eyes to the video camera held steady a few paces away by his wife, Ting, and relays our dining options. “That’s beef intestine!” “That’s silken tofu!” “That’s starch jelly with duck!”
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19528012/Chongqing_11.jpg)
We order it all. A few minutes later, a platter of Sichuan small plates is plopped down on the table in front of us. The Food Ranger does his taste tests, groans in delight, and regales the camera with a description of the fragrance, spiciness, and anesthesia of each bite. I spade tofu on the end of my chopsticks, spoon a dab of coarse chili powder on top, and quickly succumb to the cumin. As always, The Food Ranger is effusive in his praise, and the kitchen staff is pleased to see how much we’re enjoying our meal. After all, it may be the only time this restaurant appears on the Western internet.
The Food Ranger’s real name is Trevor James. He always wanted the bon vivant lifestyle of an Anthony Bourdain or Gordon Ramsey, but he didn’t have a television contract or a generous book advance. Instead, he had a single camera, and so he began loading his own shoestring productions onto YouTube.
Today, The Food Ranger is one of the most popular food vloggers in the world. His speciality is China and the country’s ancient street food culture that hides out in curbside shops all over the 26 provinces. The vendors he highlights are watched by millions of viewers and earn a brief taste of international fame. But these stalls are under threat: The Chinese government continues to crackdown on the unregulated food economy. The Food Ranger is in the middle of that paradox: a YouTuber in a country that blocks YouTube, and a Westerner who has access to the deepest reaches of Chinese cuisine thanks to his Mandarin ability. That outsider status is crucial to his appeal, in a country that’s prenaturally misunderstood by those outside of its borders.
James has been making YouTube videos for six years as The Food Ranger, and in that time has accumulated more than 3.5 million subscribers, and an additional 600,000 followers on Instagram. Food YouTube is a huge genre on the site. Jamie Oliver will show you the best way to roast a chicken, and Tasty will walk you through a three-course holiday menu. But in this particular content corner — Westerners exploring global cuisine — there aren’t many as successful as The Food Ranger. Other major players, like Mark Chen’s Strictly Dumpling show, or Simon and Martina Stawski’s Korean and Japanese food guides, are millions of subscribers away from eclipsing James.
He moved to China years ago to work on a Master’s degree in International Trade (while teaching English on the side,) and watched as his gastronomical vlogs of the local flavors slowly mushroomed into an international brand. Today, when he’s not on the road, he splits time in Guangzhou and Malaysia with his wife, who he met on a backpacking trip in Turkey. Scroll through his videos, and you will see James, always flashing a toothy grin, pulling the curtain back in rugged Kaifeng, arid Xinjiang, and other dense, vibrant regions that often fly under the radar of Western tourism.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19528079/Chongqing_81__1_.jpg)
The template is simple; three or four meals in each 20-minute clip, focusing on the sort of cuisine that’s mostly unfamiliar to a non-Chinese audience. (I’ve watched The Food Ranger wolf down fried pork brain, lamb head soup, and steamed, lemongrass-infused snails.) Each video accumulates millions of views, mostly from other English speaking countries, which provides the trickle of ad money necessary for the next city, the next hotel room, and the next bowl of hand-pulled noodles. On his website, TheFoodRanger.com, he posts comprehensive food guides for cities like Hong Kong and Xi’an, and a directory of the best VPNs to get around China’s Great Firewall.
His work is the epitome of foodie fetishism, thumbnails plastered with words like “AUTHENTIC,” “EXTREME,” and occasionally “FORMER WAR ZONE.” When I meet James in Chongqing, he’s only a few cities deep into a worldwide noodle tour that will take him through Central Asia and into southern Europe. The whole trip will last at least two years, he says, a journey that plenty of Bourdain-weaned millennials would sign up for in a heartbeat.
Knowing Mandarin helps. It’s something that distinguishes James from the other white men who’ve attempted to explain China to western audiences: The Food Ranger doesn’t need a translator. That’s part of what makes his videos fun; we relish in the cook’s sudden chumminess when the Westerner reveals he speaks their language. Sometimes, a crowd begins to circle, drawn in by the cross-cultural, cross-continental exchange. “The foreigner is making you famous!” piped one onlooker in a recent Chengdu video as a shopkeeper in a microscopic stall heaped twice-cooked pork into a ceramic bowl. James doesn’t travel with a boom mic or a brigading production crew, and he thinks the stripped-down, single-take, #relatable nature of his videos keeps his subjects in their element. Also helpful: his Chinese wife behind the camera, ready to handle some of the more knotty translation problems, and relieve a baseline of apprehension in the subjects.
”I try to show them my excitement for the food, and how cool what they’re creating is, and how cool China is in general,” says James. “When people see me really into it, or asking really specific questions, or just giving a thumbs up, they [open up]. It’s everyday for them, but here’s a foreigner who thinks it’s the coolest thing in the world. They share so much. That’s my goal.”
Now we’re in a Chongqing alleyway deep in a concrete, working class neighborhood. The hunt is for xiao mian — a local speciality composed of wheat noodles, creamy yellow peas, and chili-stained ground beef that pumps warmth through your nervous system. James opens up the navigation app on his phone, revealing dozens of different pins he’s dropped throughout the city map — potential shooting locations. He researches using an app called Dianping (think Chinese Yelp), but also through early morning walks, on which he identifies the stalls, corners, and cookouts with the longest lines, happiest customers, and most mesmerizing smells. The xiao mian house we’ve selected is perfect, in that it looks more like a garage with a propane burner than a restaurant. James launches into his enthusiastic introductions, and together we watch the woman behind the pot concoct a blend of sweetness and spice that’s responsible for the single greatest meal I’ll have during my time in China.
”You just gotta get that first ni hao,” he’ll later tell me. The Food Ranger’s very own diplomacy.
James is clear that he makes his videos for a Western audience, though his wife does upload them to Chinese video sharing services. In China, he tells me he operates in relative anonymity. During the day we spent together, he’s only recognized twice — unsurprisingly, by other English speakers. The Chinese Communist Party’s blackout of Google, YouTube, and Facebook on the mainland means that The Food Ranger is celebrating Chinese street food on a platform that, legally speaking, Chinese people are not allowed to see.
This is emblematic of a contradiction that tails The Food Ranger, as both a person and a YouTube brand. James tells me a number of times that his videos are not a political act. He says he is proud of how The Food Ranger portrays Chinese people as buoyant, garrulous, and, most importantly, different from one another — given how the population is often painted as a grim monolith by the West. But he stops short of saying that his street food commentary should be lumped into any broader analysis or advocacy of domestic Chinese issues. “We like to stay away from any politics whatsoever,” James explains. “We do food and positivity, and that works wherever we go. There are so many different ideas everywhere, and we don’t want to get into that.”
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19528169/Chongqing_13.jpg)
This is an increasingly unsteady stance in modern China. In the past few years, the country’s municipal authorities have cracked down on the unregulated street markets in the busy metropolises of Shanghai and Beijing, which has purged countless carts from their usual corners. The government justifies these clearances in the name of hygiene and pollution, but the cooks under the gun are usually poor migrants from outlying provinces who’ve moved to urban centers in search of better means. Dominique Wong, a journalist working in Beijing, talked to two mobile cart vendors earlier this year about their struggles during the purge for the publication Culture Trip. Today, she says, neither is working —broken down by the constant police scrutiny.
”It’s completely changed the street environment,” says Wong. “It’s less vibrant, less alive with the sound of cooking and the sight of people lining up. For customers, it’s less convenient and tears away at the social fabric of the community.”
James has made a career highlighting the exact cuisine that’s under assault by China’s rapid development. Obviously, he’s noticed the effects of the injunction. It has become harder for The Food Ranger to find the places that make his documentation valuable — the teensy plastic stools, the prices that hover around three-and-a-half yuan (about 50 cents), and the aroma of Sichuan pepper billowing out of a silver pan perched on the edge of the street.
So I go back to the political question one more time with him. Perhaps James doesn’t see himself as an activist, and perhaps he feels like he doesn’t know enough about the Party’s infrastructural policies to critique them. But does he feel any passion for the preservation of a cuisine that he celebrates on his channel? Does he want to fight for jianbing carts? Once again, he demurs. The Food Ranger believes these quandaries are outside of his purview.
”It’s harder for us to find those [local] places, it’s sometimes frustrating, but I’m not here to really judge on what they’re doing,” he says. “For me personally, I do love those street-style places. I do get kinda bummed out about it.”
I ask Wong a similar question. I wanted to know how she felt about a Westerner who’s made a living showcasing Chinese street cuisine, without fully contextualizing how that same economy fits into the dramatic ways China is changing. From her perspective, a YouTuber can always be digging a little deeper.
”It’s one thing to enjoy a tasty bowl of noodles, but what else? Food tells a lot about a city, and its people, and it can be political,” says Wong. “If you’re not willing to explore any of this, you’ve got to wonder what the point is, and what you’re bringing to the table.”
Luke Winkie is a reporter from San Diego. He has written for Rolling Stone, GQ, The Washington Post, and the New York Times.
中国メディア・東方網は２０日、「日本ではどうして中国のように食べ物のデリバリーが流行らないのか」とする記事を掲載した。
記事は、今や中国ではモバイルアプリから食べ物を注文し配達してもらう「外売」と呼ばれるデリバリーサービスが当たり前になっている一方で、日本ではまだまだ始まったばかりの状態であると紹介。日本においてデリバリー産業が中国ほどの爆発力を持たない理由を考察した。
まず、デリバリー産業の大きなターゲットとなり得るワーカー層について、日本では大企業には社員食堂があり、食堂がない企業でも社員が弁当を持参するほか、周囲のコンビニやファストフード店にちょっと出かければ食事にありつけるような状況であるため、そこまで大きなニーズが生まれないと伝えている。
また、デリバリーできる食べものは寿司を除けば大体「あったかくてにおいのあるもの」であり、オフィスで注文すればにおいが充満して周囲の人に影響を与える可能性があると説明した。
そのうえで記事は、日本人がデリバリーを注文する主なタイミングについて、自宅に客人を招いた時、祝い事や祭日のごちそうを食べる時、母親が病気になった時、母親が忙しいか家にいない時と紹介している。
日本のデリバリー文化は中国で爆発的なブームが起こるはるか昔より存在してきた点を、記事の作者は見逃しているようだ。コンビニやファストフード店、さらには寿司や中華を含む各種飲食チェーン店が増えたことにより、かつて華やかだった日本の出前産業は規模を縮小していった。人手不足などの理由により、今後も中国のように爆発的なブームを生む可能性は高くないかもしれない。（編集担当：今関忠馬）（イメージ写真提供：１２３ＲＦ）
Video PlayerClose
BANGKOK, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Thailand Street Food Festival 2020 has been planned at several major tourist destinations throughout the country.
Prasan Wangratanapranee, assistant to the minister attached to the Prime Minister's Office, confirmed on Wednesday that Thailand Street Food Festival 2020 is primarily designed to promote tourism and stimulate domestic spending among the Thai people and foreign visitors. He confirmed next year's street food festivals will be organized at major tourist destinations in all regions of the country from early February.
The first street food festival will be held on February 1 and February 2 along Bangkok's Silom Road, which has been turned into a walking street for two consecutive Sundays this month.
As many as 100,000 people, Thai and foreign, are expected to visit the Silom street food festival and no less than 500 million baht (about 16.6 million U.S. dollars) in sales of food and other goods are speculated during the two-days festival.
The second street food festival will be held on February 29 and March 1 in Ayutthaya province, followed by the third street food festival scheduled from April 3 until April 6 in Pattaya.
The fourth street food festival will be organized on April 25 and April 26 in Chiang Mai, followed by the fifth one which will be held from May 1 until May 3 in Khon Kaen and the sixth one which will be held on May 30 and May 31 in Phuket.
Boost for tourism, economy on menu
The government is moving to spice up the country's culinary scene next year with a plan to blend world-renowned Thai street food with its tourism promotion policy to attract visitors and boost the economy.
The government is collaborating with the private sector to organise a series of street food festivals in major tourist destinations, starting in February in central Bangkok.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Tuesday presided over the launch of the "Thailand Street Food Festival 2020'' publicity campaign.
The festival comprises six street food festivals, with vendors laying out the first feast on Silom Road in Bangkok on Feb 1-2.
The banquet will then move on to Ayutthaya on Feb 29-March 1, before rolling into Chon Buri's Pattaya on April 3-6, Chiang Mai on April 25-26, Khon Kaen on May 1-3, and Phuket on May 30-31.
"Thailand's street food is world-famous. CNN has declared Bangkok to be the world capital of street food. Street food is scrumptious and varied and tourists can find it any time, any place and at cheap prices,'' Gen Prayut said.
CNN named Bangkok as the city with the best street food in the world in 2016 and 2017.
According to research firm Euromonitor International, revenue from Thailand's street food was estimated at 276 billion baht in 2017, up by 4.3% from 2016. That figure is expected to increase to 340 billion baht in 2021. In 2016, there were an estimated 103,000 street food stalls across the nation, accounting for 69% of all places to eat.
Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said that the street food festival project offered a good opportunity to boost revenue from tourists. More than 500 million baht is expected to be generated during the first festival on Silom Road, Mr Phiphat said.
Foreigners who list the attraction of street food as a major reason for visiting Thailand are mainly from China, Russia, the UK, Malaysia and the US, Mr Phiphat said, adding that promotion of "gastronomy tourism" will be a boon to the economy.
Prasarn Wangrattanapranee, vice-minister attached to the Prime Minister's Office, said that the six provinces chosen as venues for the street food festivals are major economic hubs renowned for their nightlife, which makes them popular with foreign and Thai visitors.
Tourism Authority of Thailand governor Yuthasak Supasorn noted that the tourism sector plays a crucial role in the country's economy, as it accounts for 10% of gross domestic product and generates about 2 million jobs.
Citing data from the World Trade Organisation, he said that Thailand earned a record 1.65 trillion baht from tourism in 2016 and 2017, ranking third on the list of countries with the highest revenue generated from tourism.
Early this year, the country's tourist income rose to 3 trillion baht, Mr Yuthasak said. Bangkok also ranked third among cities for visitor spending on food and beverages, and sixth for spending on shopping, according to the Mastercard's Global Destination Cities Index 2018, he added.
"I'm confident that the street food festival project will be a major event in attracting more foreign visitors, which will in turn boost the country's gastronomy tourism," Mr Yuthasak said.
Chatchai Payuhanaveechai, president and chief executive of the state-owned Government Savings Bank (GSB), said the bank is supporting efforts to improve the livelihoods of street food vendors. It has also launched a reality show called the GSB Street Food Contest, to improve vendors' skills in cooking and presenting dishes.
Meanwhile, Chomkamol Poompanmoung, chief executive of WP Energy Plc, a SET-listed liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) trader, said the company was planning to set a world record for the largest Pad Thai, which will be cooked in the world's longest pan.
She said the pan will be 110 metres long and 99cm wide. A total of 100 cooks will fry up the Pad Thai, which will weigh about 2,200 kilogrammes and be served to 22,000 people. Gen Prayut will preside over the event, she said.
Chumpol Jangprai, who heads a working panel on the street food project, said that under the project, Thailand Professional Qualification Institute will help train street food vendors as professional operators to ensure their food stalls comply with hygiene and environmental standards.
Mr Chumpol, co-founder, managing director and chef at R-Haan, one of two Thai restaurants which became the country's first two-Michelin-starred eateries this year, said that more than 100 street food vendors and 400 food shops from across the country will take part in the street food events.
Restaurants and the food industry in general made big news in 2019. Industry concerns over rising wages and real estate costs filled headlines, culinary trends drove food stories, and politics created some fun and interesting dust-ups. Here are the ten biggest restaurant-related stories to emerge in Denver over the past twelve months.
EXPAND
Mayor Michael Hancock unveiled a $15-per-hour minimum-wage proposal in front of the City and County Building on September 19.
Conor McCormick-Cavanagh
In September, Mayor Michael Hancock and the Denver City Council announced their plan to raise the city's minimum wage, beginning with a bump to $13.80 an hour at the start of 2020 and continuing to $15.87 in 2021. While this was welcome news for activists and minimum-wage workers, folks in the restaurant industry were far from pleased. The problem, many eatery owners complained, was that the increases didn't take into account the growing disparity between front-of-house and back-of-house pay. Colorado has a mandatory "tip credit" rule in place that allows tipped employees to be paid up to $3.02 less than minimum wage, as long as their tip earnings bring their hourly pay up to at least minimum wage (otherwise the business has to pay the difference). So restaurant owners were faced with wage increases for back-of-house employees (cooks, dishwashers, etc.) and another increase for servers, bartenders and other tipped employees who already earn well above the minimum wage. Restaurant owners and the Colorado Restaurant Association met with Hancock to discuss their concerns, and council eventually adjusted the plan, approving increases to $12.85 on January 1, 2020, $14.77 in 2021 and $15.87 in 2022.
EXPAND
Bar Zero and other zero-proof concepts showed a growing interest in alcohol-free dining.
Bar Zero
In January, professional counselor and former restaurant worker Emily Schrader formed SoBar, a nonprofit organization with plans to open a booze-free restaurant that would hire people in recovery from drug and alcohol dependency. Schrader changed the name to Bar Zero in July and launched the catering arm of the business while still looking for a space for the restaurant. Since the death of Anthony Bourdain in 2018, the restaurant industry has been more willing to talk about the connection between mental health, substance abuse and suicide, and the result has been a growing sober movement among chefs, servers and bartenders. Bar Zero will likely be the first of its kind in Denver when it eventually opens, offering a safe space for workers looking to avoid the typical work-hard, drink-hard lifestyle of the service industry. Other groups, such as CHOW (Culinary Hospitality Outreach & Wellness) and the Zero Proof Dinner Series, have also sprung up in the last year or two to help provide work-life balance and alternatives to dealing with stress in the business.
Colt & Gray was one of a number of 2019 closing that could foreshadow a trend.
Westword
Colt & Gray was on the forefront of the nose-to-tail and gastropub movements when it opened in 2009, but a decade later, the restaurant's lease was ending and owner Nelson Perkins decided not renew, citing rent that would have almost doubled under a new contract. Colt & Gray wasn't the only popular eatery to call it quits in 2019: The Populist, Mister Tuna, The Tavern Downtown, Dino's Italian Food, Bones, the Wooden Table, Bayou Bob's and the original location of Biju's Little Curry Shop all closed up shop for various reasons, including higher rents, heavy street construction, real estate sales, the rising cost of doing business, and changing tastes among diners. Many industry insiders predict that this is just the tip of the iceberg, and that the rate of closings will increase next year.
EXPAND
Several food halls said "Hello" in 2019, but Edgewater Public Market was the biggest.
Michael Emery Hecker
Market halls and freestanding food courts (the kind with no shopping mall surrounding them) have been one of the biggest restaurant trends over the past few years, but things really kicked into high gear in 2019. Edgewater Public Market was the latest — and possibly the biggest so far, with 50,000 square feet and fifteen food and beverage vendors on hand when the food hall launched in November, with more to be added next year. Others this year included Broadway Market in the Golden Triangle, Tributary Food Hall in Golden, Rosetta Hall in Boulder and the food court at Mango House in Aurora. And 2020 promises Golden Mill in Golden, Troy Guard's project in the Denver Tech Center and Freedom Street in Arvada's Candelas development.
EXPAND
Colorado-grown green chiles were a point of pride for Governor Polis in 2019.
Mark Antonation
Colorado Governor Jared Polis and New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham began exchanging good-natured barbs last summer about which state grows the best green chiles. Lujan Grisham held up the Hatch chile as the ideal, while Polis pointed to Pueblo as the place where the best pods grow. Then New Mexico crossed a line when it put up a billboard advertising the state as "the chile capital of the world" — right at the corner of 9th and Lincoln in Denver. There was talk of a chile cook-off to settle the debate, but that never materialized. So we conducted our own rigorously scientific (meaning not scientific at all) taste test, and Pueblo's incendiary chiles won out — of course. The dust settled as harvest season ended, but the battle will surely heat up again come next summer.
Not so long ago, veggie burgers in Denver restaurants were made of standard stuff: black beans, beets, quinoa and other veggies and grains. But then came Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, two companies peddling juicy, pink "meat" meant to fool the eye — if not the palate — into thinking you've got genuine ground steer on your plate. Only a few restaurants jumped in at first, but soon nearly every burger bar, fast-food joint and neighborhood grill was sizzling up the uncanny patties. Now it's possible to dig into an Impossible Whopper, an Impossible Qdoba burrito, a McDonald's PLT (plant, lettuce, tomato) burger made with Beyond Meat, and the Beyond Famous Star at Carl's Jr. We're not sure which is weirder: the mystery behind the meat, or the fact that most of these imposters aren't even vegan.
Plant-based diners may have felt dissed by all the imposter-ble burgers that didn't pass the vegan sniff test, but they got their just desserts (dairy-free, of course) at new vegan restaurants and a growing convoy of food trucks this year. Topping the list was Somebody People, which opened in September, serving chef-driven cuisine in a hip setting (read: no macrame owls as decor). The vegan scene has been slowly gaining momentum over the past two or three years, with Meta Burger, Vital Root and Beet Box opening up, and this year also saw So Radish open in Arvada. Food trucks and vegan vendors like the Veggie Whisperer, the Veggie Yeti, WongWayVeg, Vegan Van, Cholo Ass Vegan and Migration Taco made the street-food scene tempting for a growing number of Denver residents eschewing meat, eggs and dairy.
At the Wolf's Tailor, chef/owner Kelly Whitaker explains the restaurant's mission.
Rob Christensen
In September, Bon Appétit released its "Hot 10," a list of the ten best new restaurants in the U.S. Chef/restaurateur Kelly Whitaker's Sunnyside eatery, the Wolf's Tailor, made the cut, with the food described as an "example of way-too-muchness." Whitaker was also a semi-finalist for the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef Southwest award, a distinction he shared with Caroline Glover, chef/owner of Annette. These are just a few examples of Denver chefs and restaurants attracting national attention, and a sign that the city's scene is on par with those of other major food cities.
EXPAND
ClusterTruck offers several different menus, all cooked in one kitchen and made for delivery only.
ClusterTruck Bloomington
Ghost kitchens (where restaurants operate without a dining room) and online delivery services like GrubHub, DoorDash and Postmates have given stay-at-home customers more options than ever — far beyond the pizza and Chinese food that were the standard for years. Restaurants are having to adapt to the idea of maintaining quality while sending food out the door, even when diners are requesting ramen, pho, rare steaks and other elaborate or delicate dishes — and then complaining about it on social media. Some businesses have built themselves specifically for delivery; these include ClusterTruck, which offers several menus from one central kitchen, and Nextbite, which took over the space at 1610 Little Raven Street once occupied by Zengo and operates Monster Mac, Grilled Cheese Society and Mother Clucker there. All three show up on major delivery apps, with no indication that there's no real restaurant. What's next? Maybe drone food delivery to cut down on the already horrible Denver traffic.
Did you miss out on the Popeye's fried chicken sandwich? Denver has plenty of its own.
Brandon Marshall
Did you get to compare Popeye's evanescent chicken sandwich against its main competitor, Chick-Fil-A? Neither did we, at least not back in August, when the two companies sparred jokingly on social media — and then Popeye's ran out of its sandwiches just two weeks after launching them. Eventually the furor blew over, and now you can walk into any Popeye's and grab a sandwich without jockeying for a position in line. A better option: Eat something made locally at one of Denver's own chicken sandwich spots. New shops like Chicken Rebel, Little Beast Street Food and Royal Rooster joined older favorites like Lou's Food Bar, Birdcall and the Budlong Hot Chicken. Denver knows what the cluck is up with fried-chicken sandwiches.
◆旅館の夕食を残しまくった彼
まず話を聞いたのは、温泉が大好きなOLのミワさん（仮名26歳）。
「今の彼と初めて付き合った冬休みに群馬県の草津温泉に行ったんです。草津温泉といえば食べ歩きが有名なので、『昼は散策しながら食べ歩きがしたい！』という彼が色々プランを練ってくれたのでおまかせすることに。
それが当日、旅館の夕飯は18時からだというのに彼は夕方頃からからずっと食べていたんです。『夕ご飯入らなくなるよー』という私に『大丈夫！』と食べ続ける彼。
しかし、いざ夕食になったときに『もうお腹いっぱい……』と半分以上食事を残したんです！ しかも夕飯のプランは彼が選んだもの……。夕飯が自慢の宿だったので残すのも悪いし、結局私が無理して食べました……」
◆現地フードを爆食いしてお腹を壊すはめに
旅行中、食事が原因で喧嘩するカップルは多いようです。『食べ物で彼にムカついた！』というのは、アジア旅行歴の長いリョウコさん（仮名・30歳）。アジア料理や屋台での食事が大好きというリョウコさんですが、1つだけ注意していることがあるといいます。
「海外に行ってもナマ物や食べたことのない物は食べないようにしているんです。お腹を壊した経験はないのですが、もし食あたりでもして予定が狂っちゃうのが嫌で。でも去年、付き合ったばかりの彼と韓国に行ったときはムカつきましたね。
An eclectic trio of newcomers in the Arts District have helped transformed a previously barren plot of land at the intersection of Charleston and Casino Center Boulevard into the 16,231-square-foot, mixed use hub, The Charleston.
Already in place, the Pastry Academy by Amaury Guichon is preparing to launch its year-round curriculum of masterclasses overseen by the Jean-Philippe Patisserie veteran. Welcoming students at all skill levels to its theoretical and practical classes, the academy hopes to enroll students looking to begin a “sweet career,” or take their knowledge of pastries, chocolates, danishes, confectionery, breads, and plated deserts to the next level.
Now open daily on the ground floor, C3 Coffee Bar from South Carolina is now roasting on site and donating all its profits and tips “to support local, national, and global communities.”
Filling a bright and industrial-designed space, C3 partnered with The Rock Church, a non-denominational church.
On the coffee shop menu, espressos, cortados, lattes, blended choices, and teas, plus pastries, scones, cheesecake, vegan and gluten-free cookies, and a collection of toast dishes including the mozzarella-based Mobster, smoked salmon Lox and Loaded, and a fruit and Nutella combination.
Still on its way to The Charleston, the under-construction Berlin, originally previewed as a German street food-inspired restaurant from the co-founders of local food truck Dude Where’s My Hotdog. The owners recently promised in a social media post that intrigued diners will not have “too much longer” to wait.
• Achtung Baby! Berlin-Inspired Street Food Moves Into the Arts District [ELV]
• Where To Dine in The Arts District in Las Vegas [ELV]
Chef Uno Immanivong has officially debuted the Dallas location of her much-anticipated, fast-casual eatery Red Stix Asian Street Food.
A post to the restaurant’s Facebook page indicates that it opened at 6501 Hillcrest Avenue on Saturday, December 21. The original Red Stix Asian Street Food opened inside sprawling Plano food hall Legacy Hall in 2017 before departing this year as Immanivong planned to open two standalone locations of the restaurant — the Hillcrest restaurant, and another that’s set to open soon at Mustang Station at Farmers Branch.
As far as the food is concerned, look forward to Immanivong’s take on a variety of Asian street foods, ranging from Vietnamese banh mi to noodle bowls and grilled yakitori skewers. There’s also a solid menu of starters and snacks that are all priced at around $5, including waffle fries showered with togarashi and served with sriracha ketchup and chicken dumplings served with ponzu.
Eater has reached out to Immanivong for Red Stix’s full hours of operation. Stay tuned for an update.
