Examining of street foods in terms of awareness, admiration, gastronomic mobility and food safety

The streets reflect the tempo, habits, socioeconomic aspect and cultural depth of city life as an important part of the cities. City life and time affect the eating and drinking habits of cities as concepts that are in close relation with each other, and bring new life habits. Street foods prepared and consumed at a fast pace within these life habits play an important role and help to preserve and recognize the local culture by reflecting the authenticity of the country cuisine. The place of local products and street food in gastronomy tourism are the concepts that should be considered together. And city life, street food and gastronomic tourism are in close relation. In this study, street food and gastronomy were discussed and a survey on street food was carried out in Istanbul, where our country cuisine was reflected with examples from every region. The aim of the study was to determine the differences among the participants in terms of knowledge, taste, gastronomic mobility, food safety preferences, age, gender, education, income level, frequency of arrivals in Istanbul and the frequency of street meals and to examine gastronomic mobility in terms of consumer approaches. In this context, the sample of the research consisted of 159 local tourists who participated in the research among 13 street vendors in Istanbul. In line with the findings obtained from the study, it was concluded that street food has a high level of awareness and admiration, street food affects gastronomic mobility, and food safety is not very important for the participants. Among the variables of frequency of arrival in Istanbul, frequency of trying street flavors and income status; Between the frequency of arrival to Istanbul variable and the admiration factor; It was determined that there was a significant (p <0.05) difference between the frequency of experimenting street flavors, age and gastronomic mobility factor. On the other hand, no significant difference was found between the food safety factor and any variables. Key words: Gastronomy, Street Food, Gastronomic Product, Street Food and Restaurant Menus, Istanbul Street Food