Why can't our street fare be the freshest?
William Shakespeare has captured the sentiments of anyone who really cares about matching seasonal produce to the seasonal mood: "At Christmas I no longer desire a rose than wish a snow in May's new fangled mirth; But like of each thing that in season grows."
Maybe he could have added that, when it comes to food, "each thing that in season grows" should be served up by trained caterers who are knowledgeable about health and hygiene regulations and well aware of the huge and potentially lethal dangers of not abiding by them.
After all, this time of year is meant to be one of goodwill to all, not a time for the incompetent to be putting people in hospital by allowing untrained staff to serve up poor-quality, badly prepared food from unhygienic kitchens.
Christmas image
One popular Christmas-card image of the festive season involves people doing their shopping on a cold, dark night, with the warm glow of Christmas lights cascading from shop windows and cheery-looking gentlemen and women offering hot food and drink from street stalls.
In reality, we rush around frantically, doing our last-minute preparations in the run-up to the Christmas holiday.
And customers run a huge risk when they grab something to eat from a street seller peddling cheap frankfurters, stale bread and greasy onions from grubby catering trolleys.
Is it any wonder, then, that every form of food poisoning is increasing almost exponentially in this country? What are the Government and the environmental health departments of our local authorities really doing about this modern tragedy, apart from expending a lot of hot air?
In other countries, street food is the pinnacle of local pride. In Prague, for instance, people are happy to buy simple street fare in their droves - finest Czech sausages or steaming plum dumplings freshly made in clean food huts on street corners.
Further west, in Vienna, people doing their Christmas shopping find the already festive atmosphere - traditional, folksy, smart and, above all, tasteful - enhanced by street vendors selling hot gluhwein and slices of delicious smoked ham on dark, moist bread.
Bangkok's street food is reckoned by all who frequent that exotic capital to be some of the healthiest and most exciting in the world.
Taste-buds are constantly tempted by the Thai-style fast food served at open-air stands that flourish all over the city. Alternatively, people can buy from ramshackle tricycles and noodle barrows overflowing with utensils and ingredients.
Bangkok also plays host to makeshift counters, pots balanced precariously on shoulder poles, and its waterways are full of little boats transformed into mobile kitchens, which manoeuvre from dwelling to dwelling.
Carefully prepared food
In places like these, people don't have to make do with a handful of burnt chestnuts or hot sugared nuts. No, they can choose from a wide variety of dishes, all carefully prepared in advance, so that in most cases the food only needs reheating.
Thai people who order kuoy tiaw will find that, in a matter of minutes, the noodles are tossed into the hot stock, retrieved with a special long-handled sieve, poured into a bowl with pork or prawns, and seasoned with sauce and fresh coriander.
Alternatively, they can eat khao phad, fried rice wrapped in that perfect natural packaging, the banana leaf, which is sold cut to all sizes.
Street chefs in other countries are a joy to watch and the food they prepare is safe to eat. I cannot think of one here who does not, at best, make the skin crawl and at worse, make the blood boil - not least because they are actually being allowed to get away with what they have the gall to call food and sustenance.
Roger Wilsher is a marketing consultant and an award-winning editor and writer. His wife Louise is a restaurant manager who has worked in catering for 20 years
