Common Tongue
From the night markets of Bangkok to the hawker centres of Singapore, Asia’s culinary capitals are well-known for their street foods. While you can take a quick — okay, 10-plus-hour — flight over the Pacific to delve into those culinary cultures, the last few decades have been great for diners in America seeking out those […]


From the night markets of Bangkok to the hawker centres of Singapore, Asia’s culinary capitals are well-known for their street foods. While you can take a quick — okay, 10-plus-hour — flight over the Pacific to delve into those culinary cultures, the last few decades have been great for diners in America seeking out those quintessential street food flavors. Asian immigrants to the U.S. have developed an entirely new genre of Asian American dining, mashing up the flavors and forms of baos, pho, and chaat with those of gnocchi, burritos, and burgers. Whether you enjoy this kind of third-culture cooking sitting on the curb or in a plush banquette, these foods are the product of a hemisphere-wide, longstanding collaboration that has come to influence the ways people dine across cultures today.