The Best Street Foods across the Globe

It’s 8:30 in the morning, the office is already just a few blocks away. Your clothes are a bit ruffled and your hair needs a little more combing. This is just the result of waking up 20 minutes later than the usual and so you had to skip breakfast too. You snake through the morning rush hour traffic and as you walk to your office, you smell a hint of good food in the air. Despite being hungry and in a hurry, there is still time to enjoy a meal thanks to foodcarts such as this.

Street food vendors offer the city’s hungry something good to discover in their packages. And as times are lean, it is also filling to chow down on these eats without breaking your budget. It is this reason that street food is again gaining momentum in several US cities. Metropolis like San Francisco, Portland in Oregon, and New York have taken their love of the street to another level with people gushing about their favorite takeaway meals in their blogs and professional chef paying respect to the street vendor.

Cities have a long standing romance with street vended foods. In the city of Pompeii for example, where things are preserved by dried lava, there are several corners where signs of vendors and small eateries still exist. In a research conducted by the UN, it shows that there is at least 2.5 billion street food eaten every day.

The special allure of street food comes from its roots. If there is a measure of tradition and authenticity behind the preparation of the snack, chances are people will take a bite. People demand no less of their kebab than it taste like the ones prepared around the Mediterranean.

People are warming up again to the cuisine of street foods. According to several experts, much of the food carts around that are getting people’s attentions come from Asia. A chef believes that the culture of Southeast Asian culture of hawking food in open environments and the convenience of being able to finish these items quickly while working are the primary reasons street foods are a hit.

Food carts are now leaping over cultural borders and promoting their originating cultures through their cuisine. This explains the sudden popularity of food carts and the growing legion of admirers who want to sample what they have to offer. Street food are now giving various tongues a world tour. Here are some of the best food carts out there.

Dumplings

In New York, there is a truck making the rounds of the city and serving hungry commuters with delectable dumplings. Anita Lo, David Weber and Kenny Lao started this roving business as a paean to a dumpling bar. There are various flavors to choose from like pork herbed with chives, or chicken cookies with Thai basil. People can get six of these dumplings for only six dollars. These dumplings are sure to transport you to China.

Empanadas

Consider a pastry pocket filled with meat, chicken or cheese, these snacks from the countries of South America are filling and hearty. Although they don’t stack up that much in health or fitness benefits, people from South America love this dish because of the delectation they provide in such a concentrated package. Empanada vendors are a dime dozen on every country on the continent.

Fish Tacos

There are a lot of mini taquerias on wheels out there featuring their take on the much loved fish tacos. Some of them cook the fish deep-fried while some grill them. The sauce is also an area of contention. Does salsa do the job a lot better than the white sauce can? Is adding guacamole a turn off? However, despite these considerations, a lot of people believe that the pearl of fish taco street vendors can be found in San Diego in Encinitas’ North Coast Highway. The store, Juanita’s Taco Shop, continues the tradition of classic fish tacos since the 70s just the way many prefer it – fillet covered in batter and then fried deep in oil and covered with rich helpings of salsa and lettuce and lime.

Frittelle di Baccalà

Anyone wandering the streets of Rome on a holiday are in for a treat in among the street vendorss. Frittelle di Baccalà are common staples found in Italy’s streets. The main ingredient in this snack is Baccala, cod cured using salt which was a common dish served in Italian households during the years the country was rebuilding itself after the war. Because of these lean times, the cod is returning in full force across this European nation. Now instead of being served as itself, they are fried in fritters and the flavor they produce is nothing short of addicting.

Kebab

The smell of roasted lamb wafting across a New York avenue is enough of an advertisement for the many trucks selling these Middle Eastern skewers. Critics and locals have their own favorites among these mobile establishments. One of the sought after is a vendor selling chicken pitas in Canal Street. The chicken pitas have that secret ingredient factor that keeps people coming back. Some chefs think that the champion for this roasted treat is a Chinese vendor in Division. Their take? Roasted lamb spiced with chili and a sprinkle of cumin. The performance of the establishment is rather consistent as people rave about the chicken and beef kebabs too.

Onigiri

Onigiri are rice balls or triangles covered in seaweed wrapping or kelp and are traditionally served by Japanese mothers as lunches for children to eat at school. The usual fillings consist of fish, meat, tofu or pickles. Today, the rice ball has many versions that can be found in convenience stores in Japan with various flavors like curry and corned beef. However, one cart in Portland, Oregon has a healthy incarnation which uses brown rice instead of the starchy white and fills it with vegetarian items.

Pani Puri

Imagine a crisp fried ball made of a special batter of plain and wheat flour and Urad Daal flour (Urad Daal is a bean, similar to the mung bean, growing in the Indian subcontinent.), salt and water. This crispy shell is then filled with tamarind yogurt, mint and spicy chickpeas. Pani Puri is synonymous to gol gappa. Traditionally it is served by the vendor on a ratio of one is to one. The hungry customers who want more will have to queue again while the vendor cooks the ball according to their individual preferences.

Peas Topped Meat Pie

Because of the uniqueness that each street food vendor brings on the table, the food they serve is affixed with their stamp. It is also this uniqueness that people seek out these stalls to taste what they offer. Through the years of their operation, certain stalls create traditions through the food they serve. Harry’s Cafe de Wheels in Sydney exemplifies this. Started in 1930, the stall has been serving meat pies topped with a concoction of crushed peas. After biting on the pie and tasting the peas, the unmistakable flavor of lean beef comes in.

Pho

Pho instantly makes the one eating it feel better thanks to the lingering scent it produces. Credit goes to the lime, the Thai basil, and sometimes the Ca Cuong which provide the noodle broth with its efficacious smell. Aside from these herbs, a typical bowl of pho contains beef chunks as well as cinnamon, and cilantro. It so popular in its country of origin that people eat it three times a day in the various cities across Vietnam. Street vendors sit customers on stools and serve them with bowls and tailor the garnishings of lime, bean sprouts and other herbs for each hungry buyer.

Poutine

This messy snack is sure to delight even the more poised street gourmands. The Canadian take on the french fries, Poutine is an interesting mix combining the snack with curds of cheese and gravy. There is quite nothing like being served a hot heaping plate of Poutine after a late night’s stroll. Poutine is quickly gaining patrons all over who are converted by the convincing mix of cheese, gravy and potatoes. People from Toronto flock to Mr Tasty Fries, a fixture in the square just across the City Hall of Toronto. Bite into the hot potato slices and let its taste melt away with the cheese and the sudden beefy burst of the gravy.

Takoyaki

These lovely octopus balls from Japan are sure to make your mouth water after the first taste and keep you coming back for seconds. Properly cooked, each piece of Takoyaki is packed with umami – the Japanese take on delicious. To cook this dish, the Japanese put little pieces of octopus on a batter and stuff it with pickled ginger and onions. Each of these balls are covered with mayonnaise and then topped with spring onion and bonito flakes. Since a trip to Japan is not readily possible, try searching your nearest Japanese restaurant for these treats.

Ramen

Not all ramen are the instant and artificially flavored ones you buy from the supermarket. For the best experience of the authentic dish, stroll through the Tsukiji market before dawn and sit in one of the ramen stalls there. The stools can get occupied but the it is worth the effort as the filling noodles are sure to satisfy and the broth will warm your belly out of the cold. Since each ramen stall has its own signature take on the ramen, you will not run out of choices when you visit Japan.