In most of the world, street food is a way of life, an expression of culture, and a great tourist attraction. I have fond memories of sampling Icelandic fish kabobs, Dutch pickled herring, and real Belgian waffles.

In Vancouver, everyday street food is currently limited to hot dogs (JapaDog is creative, but still a hot dog). Well, things are about to change. The city of Vancouver is expanding street food licenses and encouraging entrepreneurs to be creative. Hopefully we’ll see some tasty new options plus some of the vendors who make appearances at the Folk Festival and the Farmer’s Markets take up permanent locations. La Bohème Crêperie is an amazing crepe van that routinely has 30 minute line-ups at the farmer’s markets. If they took up residence near my work, I’d be ecstatic. My other wish is for someone to sell good tamales like we found in Portland.

The city is expecting new food carts to be on the street mid-July, with all the 17 spots taken by the end of the month. The map below shows the locations of the new carts – mostly downtown, with a few at the beaches and Main Street SkyTrain station.