Roadside dining

ROADSIDE DINING

Go to a back alley in most capital cities in the early evening and you will find the ‘soup kitchen’. Usually run by an organization such as the Salvation Army. This entity will have a gathering of the homeless or down and outs of the city around it waiting for a hand out of food of any description.

Move to another street in that same city and you will have diners seated at tables on the foot path outside some fashionable restaurant or coffee house sipping at their lattes’ or having a meal.

The words dining out now have a new meaning. People leaving their homes to almost sit in the gutter to have a meal and chat with their friends. Exhaust fumes permeating through the air from the passing vehicles only a few metres away, covering their food and invading their nostrils and mouths.

Move out of the city and onto the country byways and you will see caravaners sitting either in their vans or just outside enjoying a break from the driving and perhaps having a biscuit with their coffee. A little further along is a family out for a drive and having a picnic lunch in a quiet little spot not too far from the road.

As we move further towards the outback we find a wedge tail eagle feasting on the day’s road kill only in real roadside dining manner.

The meal has been supplied by humans (sometimes at great expense to their vehicles) and ensures their survival in a harsh environment.

From the homeless to the kings of the air our obsession with road side dining appears to be on the rise