Two weeks ago, we talked about repurposing all the empty shopping malls as town marketplaces. Last week, we mused on what those markets might look like. This week, we’ll speculate on how the new markets mesh with a vegetarian future…
Balsamic Veggie skewers from a streetside / market stall grill: Will be
typical of the fare offered by the new street food culture…
I got to thinking, after completing yesterday’s weekly ‘Musings’ post, about what an Asian-inspired vegetarian food future might look like. And I’ve come to one pivotal conclusion: I think the only way it can be a long-term success is if we in the West, embrace the kind of veggie diet style they’ve lived with all over the Eastern Hemisphere for millennia.
It’s a matter of satisfying demand
Sheer demand for basic nutrition components – particularly balanced, healthy proteins – with produce from the veggiesphere will be the first major challenge. Are we going to be able to feed a projected 10 billion human beings properly by 2050? The experts predict that we’ll have to turn over vast tracts of agricultural land now used to produce animal protein to the production of veggie equivalents. And the sooner the better. Veggieculture, we’re told, can produce several times the edible food per acre / hectare that growing meat does, while polluting a lot less and needing much less water.\.
Aside from being our best hope of making sure all the future bellies will be full, we should enjoy healthier air and water. The relentless outflow of pollution now produced by conventional agriculture will be cut way back.
Yes, the climate is in peril. But we can adjust by growing the plant species we’ll need to survive – perhaps even thrive – farther north.
Eastern secrets will open doors
Acceptance of new veggie diet styles – as I speculated yesterday – will probably depend largely on adopting some of the ages-old practices already deeply rooted in ancient Asian, Middle Eastern and African cuisines.
That includes segueing from staple Western starches like potatoes to eating more rice, beans and noodles.
We’ll also benefit greatly by embracing the Eastern tradition of bold – but not necessarily super-spicy – umami-rich seasoning and saucing styles that distinguish predominantly veggie Oriental foods from all others. Yes, that may mean always having bottles of Soy, Sriracha and Thai Fish Sauce in the fridge. But the amount of the really pungent ingredients you use will be up to you.
What we consider ‘yummy looking’ will gradually change to reflect our new, veggie preferences. We’ll come to equate the presentation characteristics of certain new foods with how we expect them to taste and chew.
Eastern cooking techniques
Based on what we’ve already seen of many Eastern street food cultures, I think hot-coal grilling will be among the first cooking techniques we adopt whole hog from the exotic street cuisines. Count on Soups and Stews, served over rice or noodles, as making a big splash on new, veggie-centred western dinner tables.
Sandwiches will remain important grab-and-go diners. Fortunately, we’ve already got quite a few great examples from Eastern cuisines to get us kick-started developing our own. I fully expect flatbreads will supplant white sliced bread and it’s various derivatives quickly, in favour of the many and varied Eastern styles already considered regional classics.
Pizza – the perennial No. 1 favourite hand food world-wide – will remain at or near the top of the list, bolstered by the elevation to the top tier of current regional faves from the Middle East and Central Asia. Look for Harissa (onion relish) pizza from North Africa, Za’atar spice and herb blend pizza from the Middle East, and even roasted, seasoned Eggplant Pizza from Iran.
À propos of Pizza, Italian-style noodle dishes and other current faves in which cheese plays a central role… There will be much less cheese going around once the mammals we’re used to milking are more or less gone. But Soy-based cheese substitutes (which folks generally award high marks for texture and flavour) and Tofu products are already here to take its place.
Tomato relishes, sauces and spreads in all their forms will also remain all-round faves. They’re already found in most cuisines, and there’s no other flavour like Tomato!
I think you can see where we’re going with this…
As cultures from around the globe continue to merge and meld thanks to massive migrations in the coming years, the best of their food traditions will come with them, and find their way into the new Street Food Markets.
Are you ready for Moussaka-stuffed Baos and Bahn Mis? Spaghetti and Falafel Meat(less) Balls? Kimchi Cabbage Rolls?
You may find our Western habits trending away from conventional knives and forks toward chopsticks. And many foods that incorporate liquids will evolve into ‘drinkable’ takeaway forms, resembling Ramen Bowls and Vietnamese Phos.
It’s a brave, new, flavour-blasted world!
~ Maggie J.