Our man in Bangkok

Todd Ruiz, former Pasadena Star-News City Hall reporter, lives in Thailand, where he samples real street food on a daily basis - not the kind that comes in a fancy truck, but the kind that comes from someone who pays a monthly bribes to keep his gutter-side restaurant open.

From the post:

So I noticed foodie Evan Kleiman of KCRW in that other City of Angels has unilaterally declared May 1st Global Street Food day. Good to see America tasting some of its much-celebrated diversity. Although the hipster horde of Los Angeles may have recently discovered catering trucks serving up lengua and all-things con carne, the joys of street food are largely absent from the American diet. I'm sure health codes and dysentery dissonance are factors.

But while Americans focus on 'square' meals in carefully scheduled nutrient-consumption rituals, much of the world cruises through life grazing from stalls, booths, mobile kitchens and gutter-kettles tended by stooped oldsters.