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Street Food Festival Zurich

I love street food. Almost everybody does and after this weekend there is no denying it: Zurich needs urgently a permanent Food Market. How else can you explain a million people standing in line for hours to get a bite of a wagyu beef bun or some truffle popcorn?

But let me start from the beginning.

When I heard that there would be a Street Food festival at Puls5 in Zurich my first reaction was: Ok, I can eat a greasy kepab or a burger at almost at every corner of Zurich and I have been to the Caliente several times with its so-called exotic food. Why bother then to go to an always empty place with less charm than the waiting room of a public hospital and eat some trashfood? But after seeing some pictures on FB and receiving a couple of feedbacks from friends I got curious and I am glad I finally attended the event.

Firstly I was surprised by the amount of effort put into the decoration of the stands and secondly by the enormous variety of food. This was truly the deluxe variation of street food and I had to agonize for a while about the decision on what to eat. Unfortunately this was not the only agony to be suffered that night. After the decision came the queuing and waiting…It was like waiting for Godot with an empty stomach.

Of course the waiting was nobody’s fault and will not be held against the owners of the food stands or food trucks. But if there was a small complaint to make it would be the following: Either make larger portions or lower prices. I would opt for cheaper prices because that would mean that attendants would have the chance to try more food from different regions of the world. My budget restricted me to three dishes, therefore I selected the wagyu bun, a 65hour cidre steak, a shish taouk plus a couple of bites of a waffle that I scrounged off my girlfriend.

The food I tried went from good to pretty awesome for being cooked in a food truck, although purists may criticize that it missed some of the authenticity by being way too sterile, you know just too Swiss. But I was just happy not to go back home with a delhi belly or have to eat next to a highway with the smell of exhaust gases. Authenticity is good, a refrigerator and running water are way better.

As a last remark for the organizers: Please spread the loudspeakers to all the corners of the event, but play only background music. There was no audible Music in most of the hall and it was way too loud by the stands near the DJ. People want to talk while eating and not shout (or in some unlucky cases spit) at each other. Imagine taking your date to this place and spitting accidentally some tzatziki into her ear…

Other than those very small complaints I believe that the event was a great success and most people enjoyed it and I will attend the next one in May for sure since there are still many dishes I need to try. And that leads me back to my initial question: Dear Zurich, why can’t we have this on a permanent basis or at least regularly on weekends?