I get why things like hot dogs or bratwurst are readily available as streetfood, it's logistically easy - but so is soup! You need like a pot, maybe two if you're getting crazy with it, maybe some bread rolls and that's it. It's cheap to make, cheap to buy, you could get hot soup on a cold day to warm you up or something like a gazpach or okroshka on a cold day to have a chilling meal. They're stupidly easy to make, all the ingredients basically cost zilch, very easy to adjust for all kinds of different dietary needs if you offer some sort of toppings optionally instead of throwing it all in there.
So why isn't there more soup? It's a style of meal you can find in basically any cuisine yet in all my travels I remember like two instances where I could just get a soup. What drives streetfood and why is soup shafted?
It's not really a thing in the global north, but in many places in the global south you'll find street vendors selling soup and other whole ass meals.
First reason that comes to mind I think is how many (official or ersatz) public spaces to sit down and eat (you can't really eat soup on the go) exist, and also how soup-centered the local food ways are.
I'll go to my university's library to see if they have anything on the anthropology of street food, and report back.
Insane commitment, thanks
I do food studies (food justice, culture and aesthetics) research for a living lol, so it's a bit of a tangent on my usual duties.
Besides, these are the kinds of questions that unless I get a satisfactory answer they won't leave my mind.
Soup in a cup is a winning strategy. However being able to sit would be good as well
Food not Bombs vegan soup cup stays winning
I've seen soup in a cup working well, too. But I've only seen it in contexts where the people buying it are really strapped for cash, like people living in the street who really struggle putting together the few coins the cup of soup costs.