Skip navigation
Reports & Analysis Strategic Insights Research Subscriptions
Sign In / Create Account Cart
Sign In / Create Account Cart
  • Reports & Analysis
  • Strategic Insights
  • Research Subscriptions

Resources

  • Analyst Buzz
  • Press Releases
  • Blog
  • Resources & Downloads

The Freedonia Group

  • Contact
  • About
  • Our Staff
  • Help Center
  • Career Opportunities
Freedonia Market Research Blog Move over hot dogs and pretzels, the new wave of American street and grill foods reflect an internat

Move over hot dogs and pretzels, the new wave of American street and grill foods reflect an international culinary experience

by Sarah Schmidt

December 5, 2014

It wasn’t that long ago when street foods would too often bring to mind, for many American, ambivalent associations with foreign and “underdeveloped” countries, along with trepidations about cooking hygiene and food safety. 

Sure, nothing could be more American than street, fair, and festival foods such as pizza, hot dogs and corn dogs, soft  pretzels, ice cream and snow cones and cotton candy.  And there was even occasion for more pronouncedly ethnic or regional options.  Ordinarily speaking, nonetheless, street foods tended to be seen as make-shift meals for laborers who could not attain to sit-down dining.

The pendulum has swung very far in the other direction, with fresh, local, distinctive, and mouthwateringly good now being the primary associations for street food with fashionable consumers, and especially urban and millennial hipsters.  No less a trendmaker than chef-turned-cable TV star Anthony Bourdain, speaking at the inaugural World Street Food Congress 2013 in Singapore, declared street food to be “the salvation of the human race”-with most of us, after all, doing more labor than tablecloth dinners.

Packaged Facts’ Street and Grill Foods:  Culinary Trend Tracking Series focuses on street and grilled foods of disparate geographic heritage:  the Ecuadorian llapingacho potato and cheese mash; the Turkish half soft pretzel, half sesame bagel-like Simit; the East Asian bao filled dough buns; and charred fruits and vegetables or grilled meat skewers of multinational origins.

Packaged Facts’ report on What America Eats: Paradigms Shaping Food Choices (November 2014) notes  a subtle juxtaposition:  a slightly declining share of consumers who view fast food as fitting their busy lifestyle, but a slightly increasing percentage who prefer fast food over home cooking.  Part of the explanation here is that the fast casual genre has helped improve the quality of fast food offerings, including internationally or regionally inspired options that aren’t easily replicated at home.   This opening for quality, geographically pedigreed fast foods is only one of the ways that new street and grilled menu options can find their place at the American table.

Add Street and Grill Foods: Culinary Trend Mapping Report to your intelligence library and receive a 5% discount during our promotional period effective through January 31, 2015. Use code PFCUTTS1205.

Have unique research needs?

Freedonia Strategic Insights listens intently to your needs and objectives. Then we work diligently to define and deliver a service to meet them.
Learn About Our Custom Research Services

Subscribe to Our Blog

Stay up to date with the latest information about new market research and news in areas relevant to your business from our analysts and team members.

Packaged Facts Blog Subscription

Provide the following details to subscribe.

The Freedonia Group needs the contact information you provide to us to contact you about our products and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For information on how to unsubscribe, as well as our privacy practices and commitment to protecting your privacy, please review our Privacy Policy.
  • Contact
  • About
  • Help Center
  • Career Opportunities
  • Press Contact
  • User Agreement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Map

Additional Resources

  • Market Size Resources
  • Lawn & Garden Market Research
  • Roofing Market Research
  • Pet Products Market Research
  • Countertops Market Research
  • Power Tools Market Research
  • Publishing for the PreK-12 Market Research
  • Insulation Market Resaerch
  • Cabinets Market Research
  • Flooring Market Research
  • Pet Supplements Market Research
  • Agricultural Equipment Market Research
  • Open Access Publishing Market Research
  • Silicones Market Research
  • For Legal Inquiries, contact Cohen & Cohen
Copyright © 2025 The Freedonia Group, Inc. All rights reserved.