For something so fast, it was slow goin’.
24-hour noodle stands were the first fast food restaurants.
Noodle stands that stayed open all night were first recorded in a Han Dynasty text, dated back to 25–205 AD. Like ancient halal carts, but with noodles.
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Fast food has a long history of being gross and sleazy.
In Medieval Europe, cookshops provided ready-made meals — such as pies made with animal offals. Cookshops were unsanitary and often served spoiled food, like the infamous Tabard Inn from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Mm...organ pies.
Hulton Archive
Oysters were fast food once. Yep, oysters.
Street food carts appeared in New York City between the 1700s and 1800s selling oysters from the Hudson River's 350 miles of oyster bays. Jonathan Swift once said, "It was a brave man who first ate an oyster." Well, that guy's discovery essentially fed New York City on-the-go for decades.
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