Street Foods – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Food is essential to life. We need food to survive because it gives our bodies the nutrients it needs in order for us to do our daily tasks and in order for us to stay alive. But asides from food being a need, it is also a want. We love to eat because we find it very delightful and pleasing to our senses. The smell, the sight and the touch of food is so exhilarating that a hashtag was even created to commemorate every meal we have (#foodporn)

Because food is very vital to our everyday living, we found ways of getting it whenever we can, wherever we can. And that is where street foods come into the scene. Street foods as the name implies, are delicacies that you can find almost anywhere and is almost always ready to eat and are sold very cheap.

There are different type of street foods especially in the Philippines, listed below are the top 3 street foods you can find in almost every corner of the Metro.

Fishball

This delicacy is the most common type of street food that you can see in Manila. Fishballs are like meatballs but instead of meat it is made of fish (duh). It is deep fried in a wok and fished out in sticks. Every fishball taste the same, but the sauce is what makes a store or a vendor shine brighter. There are normally 3 types of sauce to choose from: sweet, spicy and a vinegar mix.

Isaw

Is also one of the Hall Of Famers in the world of street food. Isaw is chicken intestine and is usually prepared through grilling. It may sound disgusting but the flavor of this food is really good.

Balut

Commonly known as the ultimate street food, balut is considered as one of those street foods that is weird enough to be featured in Survivor and Fear Factor. It is duck embryo and is usually eaten whole, with all the feathers, body and head included!

These are just some of the most common street foods you can find in Manila. There are many others such as bananaque, dirty ice cream, quail eggs, and the list goes on. But what is it about these street foods that people crave about?

The Love of Street Food  

There are 2 major reasons why people in general loves to eat street food:

1. Affordability – you don’t need to spend an arm and a leg to get a taste of street food. They are sold very cheap which helps a lot of people especially in third world countries that cannot afford to buy expensive food all the time.
2. Accessibility – when you’re on the go, you don’t have time to wait for food to be served. Most street food vendors already have their products cooked and just needs to be heated, or they can be cooked very fast.

However, is affordability and accessibility worth it? Are street foods safe?

Health risks

There are possible health issues that may arise if you always eat street food.

1. Sanitation – Most stalls does not have running water and utensils used for cooking are most of the time exposed to the surroundings. Smoke, flies, cockroaches are just some of the things that can affect the sanitation of the food which may lead to serious problems such as food poisoning
2. Complications – Because of the poor sanitation, there are also a lot of diseases that can manifest if you eat street foods for an extended amount of time.

• Hepatitis infection
• Typhoid Fever
• Diarrhea
• Stomach pains
• Gastroenteritis
• And many more..

Paolo is your regular 8 to 5pm work guy who loves to travel and plays sports once in a while to keep up with his work-life balance. He always bring with him his Oleia Topical oil wherever, whenever.