Do ‘chicken joys’ in the streets taste better?

THE proliferation of fried chicken stalls along the roads of the city seem to be an attraction to employees, students, workers, and bystanders. They buy their lunch or dining meal from these carts frying these breaded chicken cuts without being called for attention by the City Health Department.

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In their efforts to beef up their economic status, these vendors are hired by the master chicken cart owners to ensure that they are able to feed hundreds, even thousands of buyers, said an insurance man. But, he added, what is amusing is that City Health is blind to the so-called health risk that the chicken fries get.

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That is why the insurance man told this writer that maybe, the so-called chicken joy in the streets taste better that City Health finds them superdelicious or supercalifragilisticexpiadelicious. That long word, huh.

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Now, the City Health is frowning at this column because this insurance man is expressing his opinion. Take note that the health of buyers is a major matter. And if City Health is strict about the multi-million restaurants and food establishments of their toilets and lavatories, the more reason they should be strict with street food cooked while jeepneys and cars pass by to blend their carbon monoxide exhausts into the fried chicken that is joyful – ends the statement of the insurance man.

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Another beer drinking guy mentioned that for him, he finds the dirtiest place in the country and in the cities are the public markets. Truly, the drinking guy told his group that he finds it ironic that the establishment where the basic food of the human being, say pork, chicken, vegetables are sold in dirty public markets. He could not fathom why local governments could not spend millions of money to make a clean market.

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Many agreed with him and one guy from Pasig City even added that he finds the public market of Marikina City as a clean one, far out much better than the rest in the country. In a way, this writer agrees because this writer lived for a short while in Marikina City and truly, it is clean. No such thing as foul smell or dirty flooring or stinking garbage bags around. Even the parking space in the market place of Marikina is limited for an hour of parking because former Marikina Mayor and former MMDA Chair Bayani Fernando tells this writer that you do not buy in the market for more than an hour. There is indeed logic in Fernando’s reasoning. After two hours of parking, the market police will confiscate your driver’s license. That’s simple discipline.*