Street Food Freedom!
While Montreal obstinately refuses to allow any sort of food vending on its streets — ostensibly for health and cleanliness reasons — Toronto has convinced the Ontario government to liberalize its street food rules so that vendors may sell more than just hot dogs. Soon, in addition to the several hundred sausage stands and chip trucks that dot the city’s landscape, Torontonians will be able to buy samosas, brochettes, crêpes, Taiwanese fish balls — and pretty much anything else you can imagine — on the street.
Considering the extent of Toronto’s cultural diversity — half of its population is foreign-born — you can pretty much bet that this move will introduce the city to a vast array of street vending traditions from around the world. Immigrant entrepreneurs will finally have a way to build a low-overhead business selling the food they know best; Toronto’s pedestrians, meanwhile, will have access to an international food fair on every block.
In fact, last Friday, a street food festival was held in front of Toronto’s City Hall to celebrate the new rules. According to the Toronto Star, one of the highlights was murtabak, an Indian Muslim wrap that is a popular street snack in Singapore and Malaysia.
Down the 401 in Montreal, however, in a city supposedly known for its laissez-faire attitude, cosmopolitanism and joie de vivre, politicians and bureaucrats claim that allowing street vendors to sell food would put the city’s hundreds of cheap restaurants out of business. Yet Toronto has no shortage of hole-in-the-wall falafel joints, take-out jerk chicken restaurants and inexpensive Korean cafés. Montreal certainly wasn’t hard-pressed for cheap eats back when street food was allowed in the 1950s and 60s.
Like most Montrealers, I’m a fan of the occasional shish taouk from Basha or soggy steamé from La Belle Province. But wouldn’t it taste so much better if you could buy it on the street?
Montreal Apartments
Kate McDonnell says:
I have a doctor friend whose colleagues at a New York hospital ran some tests on the wares of a street vendor near the hospital. The results were bad enough that none of them would eat that food afterwards. Put bluntly, how do the workers go to the bathroom and how can they keep their hands and work surfaces clean without running water? Also, refrigeration?
Yes, in many cities food is sold on the street and lots of people eat it and don’t get sick or die. But they’ve been doing it all along and have worked out how to do it. In Montreal, we no longer know how to do it and, were it permitted at all, it would be so bogged down with rules and regulations that the only people who could afford to operate them would be major franchise chains anyway.
July 16th, 2007 at 1:16 am
Christopher DeWolf says:
I’m not convinced that that would be the case. 50,000 immigrants come to Montreal each year and at least some of them have food vending experience. Besides, if you can make shawarma behind the counter of a fast food place you will be able to make it behind the counter of a street vending cart.
Don’t forget that there are already a number of businesses that are essentially street food vendors: the only difference is that, instead of working in a mobile cart, they work in a tiny retail space with a window opening onto the sidewalk. I’m thinking in particular of the dragon’s beard candy guy in Chinatown, who makes Hong Kong-style street sweets like egg balls and waffles topped with condensed milk. His workspace is no larger than the average New York City food vending stall.
July 16th, 2007 at 3:16 am
Ken Gildner says:
Things might change in Toronto, but you can bet that Ottawa’s thoroughfares will remain clogged by the same old chip wagons and their exotic Eastern Franco-Ontarian fare (also known as the Federal Civil Servant Diet).
- Ken
July 17th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Nicholas says:
I sincerely hope that “most Montrealers” don’t eat at La Belle Province — for the love of god, how much had you had to drink?
July 24th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Christopher DeWolf says:
The filth adds flavour to the hot dogs.
July 25th, 2007 at 3:54 am