Agriculture, Food, and Food Security - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 138

snack. Distinctly Indonesian is the spicy hot peanut
sauce called gado gado, which is sold exclusively by
women to be poured over fresh fruit or blanched
vegetable salad sold by men. Indonesians love spicy
foods to the extent that they have separate words
for “hot” ( panas ) and “spicy hot” ( pedes ).
One of the most popular drinks is jamu, a tradi-
tional, medicinal, herbal drink that comes in 30 va-
rieties, each concocted to treat anything from
infertility to colds. T Typically, , women from central
Java produce jamu , frequently returning home to
their villages to gather ingredients. One jamu ven-
dor that was studied walked more than 6 miles
(10 km) on her daily route carrying a basket with
bottles of 8 different drinks weighing 29 pounds
(13 kg).
A year-round favorite in Bogor is noodle soup
that consists of rice or wheat noodles, and vegeta-
bles with meat or chicken in chicken stock. This
soup is in particular demand in the hot dry season
because it replaces liquid and salt lost by sweating
and provides energy from carbohydrates. This food
is sold only by men, mostly migrants from West
Java.
In the Philippines, university students patron-
ize and work for street food vendors. After gradua-
tion, many start up their own businesses, which can
be more lucrative than jobs in the low-paying gov-
ernment sector. Many women sell street food to pay
for their children' s school fees. Most of the street
food enterprises are owned or operated by women,
although many are run by couples. Whoever the
owner, women control the business income and
dominate decision making.
Most street vendors in the Philippines sell a
variety of foods from self-produced items to already-
packaged snacks and beverages, thereby acting as
producers, traders, and servers. The custom of
merienda or snacking is well entrenched throughout
the Philippines. Consequently , food vendors are
open all day long offering Western-style eggs, sand-
wiches, popcorn, fried peanuts, and the like. Local
specialties include deep-fried local plantains coated
with sugar called “bananacues” or when stuffed
with ground meat, a “banana burger.” Customers
also like to chew on cooked pig' s ears. Often, food
is purchased from the street stall and taken home to
eat with rice cooked in the family' s electric rice
cooker.

Street Foods

Street foods are sold in almost every country in the
world (Figure 5-11). Every kind of food imaginable
is sold by men and women from permanent or
semi-permanent stalls, mobile carts, or simply from
containers set on the ground. Multiple vendors of-
ten hawk their dazzling arrays from under a giant
tent where people can eat at tables. Some people
use their homes as outlets, selling their wares out of
a kitchen window to buyers who can then sit on
benches outside the house to eat. Because they
purchase their ingredients locally , these micro-
enterprises support local market gardens and small
farmers. In other words, they are integrated into
local economies.
Street foods are important elements of the di-
etary regimen for millions of individuals in Asia.
They supply lunches for workers who have no time
to go home and eat. Both women and men pick up
food to take home for dinner. Many school children
rely on street food for their first and sometimes
only meal of the day .
Street food vending reflects local culture, espe-
cially the appropriate roles of men and women. For
instance in Bogor, Indonesia, the hawking of sate is
a man' s job. Sate comprises little pieces of chicken
lamb or beef roasted on a bamboo skewer and
coated with a spicy peanut sauce. The sate vendors
carry their supplies on two trays, one at each end of
a pole ( pikulan) slung over one shoulder. One tray
holds the food and a small stool for buyers to sit on
and the other tray holds a charcoal brazier. Women
sell fruits, cooked snacks, and sweets. Women ven-
dors tend to own their own equipment, often bring-
ing pots and pans from their home. Men frequently
work at franchised outlets.
Over 200 types of foods are available in Bogor
food stalls—from cassava (manioc) chips and egg
rolls, to complete meals of rice with meat, fish, or
chicken along with a side dish served on a banana
leaf. The foods reflect the ethnic diversity of the
country , and vendors often dress in regional garb.
Street foods also reflect the dietary preferences
of a society . For example, to Indonesians, only rice
is a meal; everything else is a snack. A filling
chicken porridge might have the nutrition of a
meal, but it is not considered a meal. It is merely a