Agriculture, Food, and Food Security - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 139

Women also dominate the street food trade in
Thailand. Many vendors have contracts with
schools and hotels and even with shopping malls.
Children can only eat within the confines of the
schoolyard. Because women' s wages are considered
merely supplementary and they earn only 60 to
85 percent as much as men in any regular job, food
vending is an attractive alternative, especially since
Thai women control their own income. Women
support education for their daughters and sons and
frequently give money to their husbands for leisure
activities such as drinking and gambling, which are
considered culturally appropriate for Thai men.
Thai women have more freedom of movement
than women in many other Asian countries. They
are often seen eating on the street, a practice that is
not as common in Muslim Indonesia, for example.
One of the busiest times of day for street food is in
the late afternoon when most businesses have
closed. Then, working women stop on their way
home to buy ingredients or salty snacks to add to
the evening meal. Vendors jokingly call these
women mae ban tung plastic or “plastic bag
housewives.”
In Bangladesh, street foods reflect the poverty
of the local population as well as the cultural as-
pects of Islam, most notably in the absence of
women vendors. Moreover, because of the practice
of purdah, few women are seen in the markets.
However, it is women who produce the food for
sale by men. Street food enterprises come and go as
vendors find alternative work opportunities or, as is
often the case, fall into bankruptcy . However, there
are increasing numbers of micro-credit NGOs that
try to help sellers stay in business.
Another feature of street food selling in
Bangladesh is the prevalence of periodic markets
that are held in different towns on different days
of the week. Both buyers and sellers follow the
markets in search of local products and home-
made snack foods. Local governments have estab-
lished all-weather structures with tin roofs where
stalls can be rented. Those with simple carts set
up outside the main market. Some male vendors
do hire women assistants, especially little girls.
Some pile up bricks for customers to sit on, and
these are referred to by English-speaking Bengalis
as “Italian restaurants” because the Bengali word
for brick is “ it. ”

Foods are designated as “wet” or “dry .” Wet
foods, including rice or sweets with syrup, are
served in “hotels” (not a place to stay). Dry foods
are served in a “restaurant,” which means that egg
dishes, bread, and fried spiced vegetables are avail-
able. T Tea is served in a “tea shop.”
Bangladeshis believe that certain foods should
be eaten only at specific times. Foods that are con-
sidered hot “that warm the body” are sold in winter.
Eggs and meat are considered to be hot foods. Fish
and papaya are thought to be cold foods and there-
fore are commonly sold in the cool season.
In contrast to other Asian countries, few people
patronize street food vendors or at least not on a
regular basis. Snacks may be brought home but full
meals are cooked at home. However, studies have
shown that as affluence increases, more money is
spent on street foods.
The most significant impact on the street food
business in Bangladesh is Ramadan, the requisite
sacred period of fasting for all Muslims. About half
of the vendors close their shops for the month un-
der social pressure not to eat from dawn until dusk.
Those that stay open put up curtains so that nonbe-
lievers such as tourists or Hindus or others who ig-
nore the ban can eat in anonymity .
Numerous Asian governments have cited street
foods as being unsanitary , their stands as eyesores,
and their presence on streets as contributing to traf-
fic congestion. In some cities, such as Jakarta, they
have been banned from downtown areas. However,
governments were soon persuaded that to ban
street vendors from practicing their trade was to
render multiple thousands unemployed and dis-
mantle complex and essential social and economic
systems that had evolved over decades.
In Indonesia, programs were set up to help
vendors sanitize operations. Piped water was made
available so that operators would discontinue wash-
ing their dishes in sewer water. Vendors were given
lessons on disease and the importance of cleanli-
ness and proper storage of foods to avoid contami-
nation by flies and rodents. Special areas were set
up for stalls and new structures were built and of-
fered at low rents.
Most street food enterprises are family businesses
with each member contributing at least for sometime
in her life. It can be a means of independence for
women who increasingly are able to control their