What separates an Asian Night Market from a Chinatown or an area that concentrates Asian businesses?
In America, most Chinatowns have a concentration of mom & pop Chinese restaurants. Many cities also have certain concentrations of Asian businesses in car-centric strip malls.
Asian Night Markets, however, are inherently pedestrian experiences.
Asian Night Markets concentrate a large amount of small food stalls side by side, similar to a farmer’s market. Each small vendor tends to focus on making one item very well.
“This man is an expert in making JianBing (煎饼), this lady specializes in GuaBao(割包). That couple has been making Boat Noodles for 20 years. Nobody does Wantan Mee Babi Salai like that old Malaysia lady.”
In America, it often feels like we can’t distinguish Asian restaurants from one another, and very few places excel in specific items. We can change that.
If I’m elected, I’ll create permanent areas near transit stations dedicated Asian Street Food in both my district (District 5) and other areas around the city. These areas will allow for tiny footprint food businesses to pop up and compete. Both variety and quality will be better as a result of these changes.
