66
submitted 3 months ago by 7bicycles@hexbear.net to c/urbanism@hexbear.net

I get why things like hot dogs or bratwurst are readily available as streetfood, it's logistically easy - but so is soup! You need like a pot, maybe two if you're getting crazy with it, maybe some bread rolls and that's it. It's cheap to make, cheap to buy, you could get hot soup on a cold day to warm you up or something like a gazpach or okroshka on a cold day to have a chilling meal. They're stupidly easy to make, all the ingredients basically cost zilch, very easy to adjust for all kinds of different dietary needs if you offer some sort of toppings optionally instead of throwing it all in there.

So why isn't there more soup? It's a style of meal you can find in basically any cuisine yet in all my travels I remember like two instances where I could just get a soup. What drives streetfood and why is soup shafted?

top 43 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net 24 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It's not really a thing in the global north, but in many places in the global south you'll find street vendors selling soup and other whole ass meals.

First reason that comes to mind I think is how many (official or ersatz) public spaces to sit down and eat (you can't really eat soup on the go) exist, and also how soup-centered the local food ways are.

I'll go to my university's library to see if they have anything on the anthropology of street food, and report back.

[-] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 21 points 3 months ago

I'll go to my university's library to see if they have anything on the anthropology of street food, and report back.

Insane commitment, thanks

[-] TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net 19 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I do food studies (food justice, culture and aesthetics) research for a living lol, so it's a bit of a tangent on my usual duties.

Besides, these are the kinds of questions that unless I get a satisfactory answer they won't leave my mind.

[-] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 11 points 3 months ago

Soup in a cup is a winning strategy. However being able to sit would be good as well

[-] comrade_pibb@hexbear.net 10 points 3 months ago

Food not Bombs vegan soup cup stays winning

[-] TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I've seen soup in a cup working well, too. But I've only seen it in contexts where the people buying it are really strapped for cash, like people living in the street who really struggle putting together the few coins the cup of soup costs.

[-] glans@hexbear.net 15 points 3 months ago

Soup is mostly water. Water is big and heavy. It can spill. Burns can be devastating. If you have a big pot you need a very flat stable surface to heat it.

Sausages can be cooked as you need them but you can't keep topping up your soup all day. You need to make the correct quantity to begin with. Which means waste is likely.

[-] Black_Mald_Futures@hexbear.net 13 points 3 months ago

you can't keep topping up your soup all day

skill issue

[-] ItsPequod@hexbear.net 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yeah, there's logistical problems with, say, a soup stand: How do you deliver the soup to people? Reusable ceramic bowls? Those are gonna break eventually, needing replacement, and they're also heavy as shit. Plastic? That's not super good for environments, people will toss them in the trash, and plastic isn't reusable in the long run on such a small scale. The ideal bowl would be like what Tim Hortons had for a while, bread bowls, but that itself is another logistical problem of producing your own bread bowls. Edit: Fuck me was this back in 2001? I'm turning to dust by the day

There's logistical reasoning as to why you typically get soup at kitchens.

[-] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 2 points 3 months ago

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[-] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 7 points 3 months ago

Half these criticisms feel odd. I can't manufacture new hotdogs in my street food stand, they're coming from somewhere offsite anyways, seems easy enough to replicate with soup.

Cooking is just sort of dangerous to begin with, I feel like "Stable surface, possibly a cage, for big pot" is rather more a solved issue

I think you might be on to something with the water thing though, that could be a problem. 800 hotdogs seems a lot easier to transport than 400L of soup.

[-] ped_xing@hexbear.net 14 points 3 months ago

It can be done and is done in Finland, or at least Helsinki -- there are a bunch of stands where you can get a salmon soup by the docks. I think a would-be soup vendor in, say, burgerland, is up against cultural expectations about soup, namely that it comes in cans and sucks and you only eat it when you're sick.

[-] quarrk@hexbear.net 11 points 3 months ago

Salmon soup (lohikeitto) is common to find in most Finnish markets and restaurants. Usually exactly as you described, large vats of soup and bowls that are quickly served to each person.

Another perfect food on a cold Finnish winter day is rice pudding (riisipuuro). It has all the advantages of soup but it’s also sticky, so no concern of clumsily spilling soup while wearing thick gloves/mittens.

Ramen, pho, and other soup styles are also common streetfoods (not in Finland) for the benefits you mention

[-] HelluvaBottomCarter@hexbear.net 11 points 3 months ago

You should be able to check out soup at public libraries.

[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 9 points 3 months ago

The problem probably lies with the fact that if there's a soup and a hotdog or burger side by side people don't buy the soup. Or that they're willing to walk 200meters to get the hotdog/burger instead of the soup.

The vendors are just trying to maximise and getting whatever the audience is more likely to buy.

[-] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 10 points 3 months ago

Would you say that streetfood is more of a treat or more of a part of life?

I know it's a treat for me, but that's genuinely because there's so few "healthy" options going on with it that it sort of fulfills it's own prophecy, I can't eat a hotdog or a hamburger anytime I'm in town, I sure could eat a soup though. Healthiest option here, barring salads from fast food chains or such, is usually a falafel wrap and while that at least comes with veggies and no meat, it's still deep fried and all.

[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 6 points 3 months ago

I dunno, depends on the location? For some it's definitely part of life like ones that post up near workers where your only alternative is driving. The streetfood in some cases becomes your regular lunch.

Like maybe that's quite a "treat" lunch but the convenience of closer means they get to go sit around more rather than spend their break travelling to and from their alternative lunch options. Sure bringing lunch from home is the cheapest but I know I've been in that situation before and not everyone is making particularly sensible spending habit choices at all times.

[-] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 4 points 3 months ago

I'm thinking more like urban center, pedestrianized spaces here honestly, not so much Ex-Urb with a foodtruck if that helps contextualize it.

[-] glans@hexbear.net 4 points 3 months ago

Why do you think soup is inherently "healthy"?

[-] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 4 points 3 months ago
[-] TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

This is largely cultural, though. Some places prefer soups over western street food, but just because the culture prefers soup overall, and eat them for almost all meals. This is not the case for the global North, in my experience.

[-] SerLava@hexbear.net 9 points 3 months ago

Canned soup makes people think soup is mid. It's tragic. Take the bones of a smoked chicken and make a soup and that's not just lunch, it's a whole dinner

[-] Dolores@hexbear.net 8 points 3 months ago

everyone in here is wrong

a decent waterproof disposable bowl plus a spoon is much more expensive than the wrappings you give finger foods. and they gotta be nice, i don't care how nice your soup is, if the container i got it in starts leaking or i get burnt i'm not having a good time

[-] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 13 points 3 months ago

When I did eventually find streetfood soup I was just given what is basically your standard waxed paper soda cup except not filled to the top so you could hold it there and a flat wooden spoon which supermarkets here sell for like 0,30€ for their salads and that worked out fine.

[-] Dolores@hexbear.net 9 points 3 months ago

gotta get 3 coffee cups of soup for a full bowl ooooooooooooooh

if you wanted to be really wacky, only serve fine (as in the granularity) soups and don't give people spoons at all. put a lid on it and it's savory warm smoothie beverage

[-] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 7 points 3 months ago

I feel like your average 500ml cup with 400ml in there and like a bread roll makes a fine quick streetfood meal. I don't want like a gallon of soup

[-] Dolores@hexbear.net 11 points 3 months ago

I don't want like a gallon of soup

wtyp soup is supposed to make you feel like a big watery barrel. full of soup

[-] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 10 points 3 months ago

But streetfood is supposed to starve off some hunger well enough that you can get an actual meal. I don't wanna be a bloated big watery barrel of soup when I gotta bike home 5 kilometers. What if I capsize

[-] Dolores@hexbear.net 9 points 3 months ago

What if I capsize

you'd be more buoyant think-mark dont worry abt it eat some more soup

[-] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 6 points 3 months ago

I'm more worried about hitting the asphalt than drowning in it

[-] Dolores@hexbear.net 9 points 3 months ago

????? your portly watery form will repel it and you'll pleasantly bounce to a full stop. rub your belly and say 'oooooo i shouldn't have drank so much soup' kitty-cri-potato

[-] TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net 7 points 3 months ago

All of south east Asia and a bunch of places in south America have street soup, even chunky ones. As far as I know many of them use polystyrene or paper containers.

[-] Thordros@hexbear.net 7 points 3 months ago

It's because you can't huck fresh, piping hot soup at people's doorstep in the morning.

[-] Zrc@hexbear.net 7 points 3 months ago

that's what I'm saying!

[-] Grandpa_garbagio@hexbear.net 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

There's soup in every corner store deli in the NE US

[-] wtypstanaccount04@hexbear.net 6 points 3 months ago
[-] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 1 points 3 months ago

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[-] Mokey@hexbear.net 4 points 3 months ago
[-] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 17 points 3 months ago

My condolences for being deprived of good soup all your life

[-] Mokey@hexbear.net 5 points 3 months ago

Add it to the pile

[-] Stolen_Stolen_Valor@hexbear.net 2 points 3 months ago

Good soup is still mid at best.

[-] SpiderFarmer@hexbear.net 3 points 3 months ago

In my experience, most soup places kinda suck. It's not even a dunk on soup, just companies that specialize in it and aren't phó/ramen tend to blow.

Chili tends to make a splash, but likely cause it's better year-round and (being a thicker product) doesn't slosh and splash as much, making it more portable. To add one more factor to consider, is the spoons and cups, making it more of a hassle for both stocking in a food cart as well as easy consumption while on one's feet.

this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2024
66 points (98.5% liked)

urbanism

22540 readers
1 users here now

This was supposed to be c/traingang, so post as many train pictures as possible.

All about urbanism and transportation, including freight transportation.

Home of train gang

:arm-L::train-shining::arm-R:

Trainposts highly encouraged

Talk about supply chain issues here!

List of cool books and videos about urbanism, transit, and other cool things

Titles must be informative. Please do not title your post "lmao" or use the tired "_____ challenge" format.

Archive links for reactionary sites, including the BBC.

LANDLORDS COWER IN FEAR OF MAOTRAIN

"that train pic is too powerful lmao" - u/Cadende

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS