During Sunday’s Montavilla Farmer’s Market – a local street vendor was seen cooking a huge batch of shrimp on the sidewalk. Here, they had placed the shrimp on a large silver sun panel which led to the cooking of said shrimp. As seen in the image below, there were probably thousands of shrimp being slowly cooked in the sunlight.

The photographer who snapped this claimed, “I guess this is just a scaled-down homestyle version of the commercial shrimp drying process?” and although social media users were quick to praise the creativity of the local chef, not everyone agreed.

Some claimed that this cooking method was dirty as it was so close to the ground. Obviously, the Portland city streets aren’t always the most hygienic at the best of times, with a mixture of litter, drug paraphernalia, and animal and human waste to blame for this.

One commenter said, “Just thinking about the literal poop that happens on Portland streets these days and now she’s drying what I’m assuming will be sold as food. On a poop-infested sidewalk”

However, according to others – this was common practice in countries like Vietnam, and due to the protective layer under the shrimp, it’s not that bad. Overall, you could argue that this picture has sparked a debate between Portland locals. On the one hand, food markets have always been a bit quirky and different from regulated food vendors. On the other hand, there probably is a need for some basic hygiene principles that is clearly missing in this instance.