Beijing has street snacks aplenty, all easily transportable: chuanr, baozi, scorpions. These are sadly disappearing as hutong are demolished and impersonal skyscapers absorb dining options into their recesses.

One argument is that removing such stands--small, sometimes dingy, and potentially dirty--will help Beijing become a "world-class" or "First World" city. Look at New York City's growing--not shrinking--street food varieties, however, and perhaps the opposite argument should be made. Easily accessible, on-the-go treats create a rich pedestrian culture, the likes of which are also seen in cosmopolitan urbs like Barcelona, Bangkok and Berlin.

Here are four of the venerable ambulatory vendors avidly pursued by New Yorkers, which I had the chance to re-visit on a recent eating blitz through the Big Apple.

One of the newest kids on the block is the Dessert Truck, which has garnered such cached attention as the NYT and eater.com (a hipster-turned-mainstream foodie blog). It was serving high-end sweets produced by dessert sous chefs formerly of Le Cirque at University Place; it's since moved eastward to 3rd Ave at St. Mark's.

In Astoria, Queens, El Rey del Taco truck feeds day or night, whether during a business break or drinking binge. People come city-wide to taste its treats, and its reputation extends even further beyond.

Of course, no discussion of New York's transient food stands would do without mention of hot dog stops (my preference: Hebrew National). Before stopping into MoMA, I simply picked up a dog and soda pop--which is, in my POV, as convenient and classy as it gets. Here we see one half of Brangelina, along with Maddox, following suit.

Not unique to New York, but all-American and crucial to any child's conception of food-on-the-go: the Good Humor truck. Many a child has squirmed in anticipation when the ice cream truck approached (and some, admittedly, ran in the opposite direction--those ice cream guys could be scary!). This dude looks kind cool, though. Don't you want him as a friend?

In fact, don't you want all street vendors as your friends? Shouldn't we all encourage other transient taste purveyors to continue populating the streets of Beijing?