2015年经济学人 街头小食 体面户外餐饮的兴起（在线收听）

Street food

Sandwich spread

The rise of decent outdoor dining

ON A cold, blustery morning at Canary Wharf, London's second financial district, eating outside does not seem appealing.

Yet on a solitary concrete quay, suited workers huddle around picnic benches. Half a dozen food stalls line the water's edge.

One sells Thai food out of a rickshaw, another salted pork buns from a converted horse box. Everything on offer is about6 (10).

Such is the latest in Britain's culinary evolution.

Street dining is hardly new. Kebab vans in university towns serve oily gunk to sozzled students;

on weekends in London, grizzled men hawk frankfurters outside Tube stations.

But until recently smarter nosh was mostly available only in restaurants.

Now most big cities have at least one regular street food event, as a London fashion has spread out.

Britain's faltering economy is part of the explanation. “In a recession, people go into food businesses”,

says Mark Laurie of NCASS, a trade association for caterers.

Setting up a street food stall takes little capital or specialist knowledge.

At Canary Wharf, the traders include a former architect and a bank worker, as well as restaurateurs.

Demand is increasing, too, as pinched customers trade down from restaurants.

Yet the biggest driver of outdoor eating is officialdom.

Local authorities and commercial property developers see street stalls as a means of quickly gingering up struggling high streets and sterile plazas.

The Canary Wharf Group does not charge for the use of its land by the cluster of street vendors

(the market is organised by Kerb, a profit-making firm).

Alistair Turnham, who runs Stock Mkt, a similar outfit, says some councils will even pay his firm to run events.

Street food vendors thus avoid paying hefty rents or business rates—which helps them to undercut restaurants.

Still, the distinction between indoor and outdoor food is blurring.

The Marriot, an upmarket hotel in Mayfair, recently put on a street food-inspired menu.

Trinity Leeds, a new shopping centre in Yorkshire, hosts rolling street food traders as part of its food hall.

Some successful street food vendors are setting up restaurants—few want to work out of vans forever.

Others are moving into catering for private events. The market economy is triumphing.