The recently concluded World Street Food Congress threw up many questions, and while the answers are still tentative, the concern about a fading heritage is apparent across the nations. Fan Zhen reports from Singapore.

Vibrant and varied, street food is about as essential to pop culture as music or literature are in the preservation of heritage. The inaugural World Street Food Congress held in Singapore in early June was precisely all about the survival of street food, and how advocates can seek ways to preserve, professionalize and identify new possibilities and opportunities to keep it alive.

The congress was held in Singapore, where street food culture is doing famously, but still facing the common challenges that also threaten this culinary genre, from New York to Portland, to India, Thailand and China.