Lucky Peach Issue 10: The Street Food Issue

by David Chang (Editor), Peter Meehan (Editor), Chris Ying (Editor)

Lucky Peach is a quarterly journal of food and writing. Each issue focuses on a single theme, and explores that theme through essays, art, photography, and recipes. Less summary than survey, the street food issue takes to the world’s streets like a starved flâneur, flitting from birria in Mexico City to chicharron-studded tortillas in Buenos Aires, from chaat in Mumbai to gizzard noodle soup in Chiang Mai’s Lumpinee Boxing Stadium. This issue watches as children made stick bread in Copenhagen and shares a report on who’s eating all your cigarette butts ( microbes). For Jonathan Gold, the experience of eating street food is inseparable from time and place. Issue 10 also delves into the history of “Turkey in the Straw,” an ice-cream truck ditty that rings out across Los Angeles; spends a day with the Doughnut Luchador of East LA (doughnut slinger by day, luchador by night); and learns what happens, exactly, when you cook with charcoal, and what nixtamalizing does to corn. Plus, a look into the wondrous array of street sausages around the globe, the best of the wurst.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Culinary, Travel, Foodie, Cooking

176 pages, Paperback

First published March 4, 2014

Reviews

[Hans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nobody quite does food writing quite the same as Lucky Peach. In this case, their "Street Food" issue has an article about literal street food eaters: what microbes are eating cigarette butss from the streets. But we also get longer diversions into masa and charcoal, mixed in with a slew of other street food stops. A few of my favorites: the visit to Martin's potato roll factory, the Lucha-Doughnut man, La Venganza del Licuado, the history of "Turkey in the Straw," and the new "Lucky Peach Atlas" feature.

Next up on Lucky Peach, the "ALL YOU CAN EAT" issue. Rest your bellies, it sounds like we're going all-in soon.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Funny the way the short articles that were all over the map mimicked the stalls of an indoor market. The only long piece was fiction at the end that didn't seem to tie in at all to the idea of street food. In terms of the whole series, this one had very little to offer as a lasting bite. Kind of like street food, it filled a void between last issue and next and made me feel slightly ill and used but sated.

[Kristina Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a particularly interesting issue to me, what with my unrequited fascination with street food -- which I will NOT eat when traveling as my fascination is far outweighed by my fear of explosive diarrhea. There -- now you know more about me than you ever wanted to. It was fun to live vicariously . . . .

[waits4thebus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This issue ups the ante. The last issue seemed to be long-winded, but this time around, they shortened pieces to a perfect length. Once again, beautiful photography and arts. I never thought I'd enjoy a story about a wrestling donut maker AND the origins of the ice cream truck music, but I did!

[Amy Peavy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I totally finished this book a long time ago too! <3 Lucky peach always does a good job. Keep up the good work.