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List of street food around the world. Street food is ready-to-eat food or drink sold in a street or other public place, such as a market or fair, by a hawker or vendor, often from a portable stall.[1]
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In South Africa, boerewors and other braai food are available in the street. In townships, ethnic foods are available.
In Cape Town, a popular street food is the Gatsby, a baguette filled with meat (often bologna sausage), salad, cheese and chips. It is said to have originated from a single restaurant, and has become popular throughout Cape Town.
Another popular food is bunny chow. It is a scooped out loaf with fufu or atchar inside and with the scooped out bread placed on top. A legend states that Indian golf caddies invented it during apartheid, as they were not allowed to use cutlery. Note that while there may well have been individual cases where such or similarly ridiculous prohibitions were foisted willynilly upon victims of apartheid—thus giving rise to the legend—there is no ordinance or law on record stating anything like it.
Injera bread is the method of eating several types of street foods. Tibs Wat, a spicy stew is placed on a plate with a folded piece of injera and fried Neeka stalks.
Street food in Ghana is mainly based upon local cuisine. Street food is available from travelling pedestrian vendors, street stalls, and ubiquitous "chop bars". Street breakfasts across the country consist of different assortments of porridges, as well as omelettes and bread served with tea. Traditional African dishes, such as fufu, kenkey, banku, fried yams, and bushmeat are popular across the country; regional varieties use local foods, such as tilapia in Ashanti Region, fresh seafood along the coastline and fried cheese in the Northern regions. Rice dishes are also common, consisting of rice served with noodles, baked beans, and can be garnished as according to the customer by extra toppings of egg, chicken, fish, gari, and vegetables. Fruits are also popular street food, ranging from Coconuts and bananas to seasonal oranges and mangoes. Kebabs made from beef and pepper are also widely available from travelling vendors. A wide variety of local snacks are also available, and can differ dramatically from region to region.
Beverages are often sold by food vendors. The most common street beverages, purchased from separate drinks vendors, are small plastic bags filled with purified water. Carbonated drinks in West Africa are usually available from permanent shops instead of temporary vendors, where the drinks are sold in glass bottles which must be returned to the shop for recycling and refilling. Local drinks are also sold throughout the day, such as iced kenkey, lemonade, and a cold ginger drink. As is the case in many members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ghanaian law prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages except within licensed establishments, and as such alcoholic drinks are not sold by street vendors except in smaller villages, where pito, the local wine is served in calabashes.
Typical street food includes: grilled corn on the cob, merguez, and snails.
Chin chin is a popular dish in Nigeria, and west Africa. Other popular Nigerian street foods include Suya (barbecued meat), Roasted plantain, Fried Yam and Fish, Roasted corn, Akara and Moi-Moi (Beans cake). 'Pure Water' (sachet water) is also very popular. It is not uncommon to see 'pure water' sellers (mostly children) run up to vehicles in traffic jams with their wares. Commuters are always grateful for cold water after spending hours in the hot sun. 'Pure water' is however not always pure as anyone can produce sachet water.
Sweet pastries are the most common street food, as well as the ubiquitous tuna baguette.
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Like other mega cities, Dhaka is populated with many vendors of street food of many different kinds including pitha, chotpoti, puchka, jhalmuri, badam and various fried items. Street food shops are very small, so vendors or hawkers can easily set their shop anywhere. In front of every school, university, office, footpath these shops are available, and they are very popular. These foods are very cheap so anyone can buy them.
Street vendors of snack foods (xiaochi) are becoming less common as local governments crack down on the practice, citing safety and traffic congestion as problems. Many vendors have also moved towards opening small restaurants and shops, and "street food" is now commonly eaten indoors at established locations.[2]
The variety of snack foods available varies from region to region. In Sichuan, a variety of such as grilled rice balls and pan-fried noodles are sold.[1] Beijing's Wangfujing Night Market is dedicated to street food vendors that feature many of the more unusual items one might purchase, like a large assortment of insects, as well as more typical foods like chuanr (kebabs).
Bing, a flatbread made of flour and fried in oil, were once a Northeastern street food that can also be found in many areas around the country. They can be served plain or stuffed with meat or eggs, or seasoned with scallions, sauces, or other flavours. One variety originating in Shandong and now found throughout China, jianbing guozi (煎饼果子), is made more akin to a crepe than its fried cousins, with the batter poured directly onto an iron skillet and evened out into a thin pancake. An egg is cracked on top, then various seasnoings are added. In the end, like a crepe, it is rolled for portability.[3]
Tang hu lu are skewers of fruit, usually Chinese hawthorn, coated by a hardened sugar syrup. Root vegetables such as the potato, taro, and sweet potato are sometimes also used.
In Hong Kong notable foods include skewered beef, curry fish balls, stuffed peppers and mushrooms, and dim sum. Street side food vendors are called gaai bin dong (Chinese: 街邊檔; literally "street side stalls"). Street food in Hong Kong can grow into a substantial business with the stalls only barely "mobile" in the traditional street food sense (see dai pai dong).
The quintessential Indian street food is Chaat—a generic name for a tangy and spicy mix, whose ingredients can be quite varied. The tangy flavor is usually imparted by the use of lemon, pomegranate seeds, Kala Namak (black salt), tamarind, and various chutneys. Chaat can be prepared with fruit, with popular ones including guava, banana, apple, melon, etc. It could instead be made using small crisp pancakes made from fried flour, called "paapri", along with yogurt. Potatoes sauteed with black cumin powder constitute another variant. In Indian cities, street vendors also sell drinks including Lassi (yogurt drink sold plain/salty, sweet, or fruit flavored), Sherbet and Jaljeera. Additionally, hole-in-the-wall kebab shops can be found in major cities.
India being a big country is rich with regional variations in street food.
Street food in Indonesia seems to be everywhere. A lot of times the street food is better than restaurant food, especially in tourist areas where the meals are over charged and the quality is usually poor. The cost can range from 10,000 Rp. - 100,000 Rp. depending how much food you take and how hungry you are. Street foods are sold by hawkers peddling their goods on bicycles or carts, known as pedagang kaki lima or makanan. The food being sold varies from mixed rice, fried rice, soups, satay, cakes, tempeh or beverages, such as Es kacang hijau, Es cendol, or Es cincau.
In Japan, udon, soba, and ramen noodles are ubiquitous, as highlighted in the film Tampopo. Takoyaki (octopus dumplings), nikuman and Castella (a kind of sponge cake) are also famous as street food in Japan. Sweet cakes such as taiyaki and imagawayaki are also popular. Yakitori is also popular. A yatai is a small, mobile food stall typically selling ramen or other hot food.
Tteokbokki, sundae, oden, mandu, gimbap, boiled silkworm pupa and river snail, fried squid, fried shrimp, and chicken skewers are among common street foods found in foodstalls throughout South Korea. Most street vendors will fire up their woks or large pots of frying oil in the evenings in anticipation of pedestrian traffic. For breakfast, Korean-style toast sandwiches are still very popular in Seoul and other large cities. Other commonly eaten snacks are sweet-filled pastries such as hotteok and bungeoppang.
Sometimes original street food concepts become full-fledged franchises, as seen in the case of Isaac Toast followed by Sukbong Toast and Toastoa, which are all large Korean toast and sandwich franchise chains.
Pakistan shares a lot of culinary parallels with India. Popular street food in Pakistan includes Dahi Bardhay or Vadas, which is essentially fried lentil dumplings soaked in salted water, drained and served with a spicy tangy yoghurt mixed with boiled potatoes and herbs. Then there is Pani Puri, which is fried semolina puffs with a tamarind based dip. Spiced fruit salad Chaat is a common street food too. Other common items which are available all over Pakistan are Bun Kebab (Karachi) or the Pappu Burger (Lahore) served with halal shami kebab, mash potato Kebab and omellete and condiments, also Gunnay ka Rus with lemon and ginger(sugar cane juice). Other foods are Paratha roll which is either beef or chicken stuffed in a shallow fried flat bread made with plain flour; onions, tomato, and raita (mint & cilantro yogurt) are also added. Jalebi is a popular sweet dish served throughout Pakistan.
Roasted or slow baked Corn or chick peas are sold all over the city by moving vendors. They are dry roasted in very a hot sand/salt mixture and then sifted through before serving. In winters especially in northern parts of Pakistan, Chicken corn soup with or without eggs, and Yakhni plain chicken stock (referred to as pathan soup in Karachi) (traditionally made with free range chicken with its skin and feet) are the regular delicacies. In Gujranwala Punjab Chiras Accentor are the local delicacy, which are wild birds char grilled on charcoal fire and eaten whole.
The most common Philippine street foods include fried squidballs, fishballs, kikiam—a type of processed chicken and pork, which is served on a stick, with a variety of dipping sauces.
Roadside stands also serve barbecued pork, chicken and offal, such as pig's blood or dried chicken blood (colloquially, Betamax after its rectangular shape resembling the Betamax tape), chicken heads (helmet), chicken feet (adidas), pig's ears (tenga) and chicken intestines (isaw). Among more esoteric foods are balut and penoy (duck eggs; with fetus and without, respectively), tokneneng and kwek-kwek (battered, deep-fried chicken and quail eggs similar to Tempura) and deep-fried day-old-chick.[5]
Taho, a type of soft beancurd served with syrup and tapioca balls is another snack, as are other offerings, such as burgers, hotdogs and cotton candy.
Palamig (literally, coolers) are sold, such as traditional offerings like halo-halo to fruit juices. Sorbetes (or, colloquially, "dirty ice cream" locally-produced usually with coconut milk as popularly called Pinoy sorbetes ice cream in flavors such as mango, cheese and yam) and Halo-Halo - a Filipino cold treat made up of crushed ice with fruits (nata de coco, kaong or palm fruit, jackfruit meat, sweet beans, mung beans, yam, macapuno - gelatinuous coconut meat, tapioca, and jelly, with skim milk and toppings - usually rice crispies, leche flan, and ice cream that brings nostalgia to Pinoys.
Calamares (battered squid pieces deep-fried in cooking oil ([a lot cheaper than the traditionally available]) is also widely consumed throughout the country. It is gaining its popularity because of its cheap price.
Taiwan's street food is well known in Chinese culture, especially that from the area of Tainan.
Influences include the Hoklo (Min Nan) flavor brought by the emigrants during the Ming loyalist rule era and Japanese tastes in the Japanese colonial period, to 1949, when the Nationalist retreated to the island with people from every other province of the mainland.
Bubble/Boba Milk Tea originated on the streets of Taiwan.
Taiwanese street food includes fried stinky tofu, oyster pancakes, Zongzi (especially in Tainan), fried meatball, sugarcane juice (Taiwanese sugarcane was sweet famous with Cuba), soup of boiled Trionychidae, fish ball soup, Baozi and water fried Baozi, rice cakes made with pork blood, and rice and noodle dishes.
Street food in Thailand includes noodle dishes, among them are Pad Thai, Rad Naa, flat noodles with beef, pork, or chicken and vegetables, topped with a light gravy, and Rad Naa's twin, Pad See Iw, the same flat noodles dry-fried(no gravy) with a dark soy sauce, vegetables, meat, and chili. Other dishes include Tom Yum Kung (a soup), Khao Pad (fried rice), various kinds of satay, various curries. Japanese chikuwa and German sausages have also appeared in Bangkok. Canal food has been sold from boats on Thailand's rivers and canals for over two centuries, but since the early 20th century King Rama V's modernizations have caused a shift towards land-based stalls.[2] In Bangkok parlance, a housewife who feeds her family from a street food vendor is known as a "plastic-bag housewife", which originated from streets vendors packaging the food in plastic bags.
Many Thai people will eat four or five meals a day, and often these will be taken with friends or family at streetside dining carts. In some areas of Thailand, an inconspicuous car-park or roadside area may be empty by day, but turn into a bustling food district as the sun goes down, when local street vendors arrive with their carts. This is the case in most provincial capitals.
Shawarma is popular and is usually made of chicken or lamb. Ful, a dish made from fava beans, is common in many Arab countries. In Syria and Lebanon, pastries made with a soft dough are sold, either open like a mini-pizza or filled, and are termed fatayir, man'oushe, or basbouse depending on the type. Toppings or fillings include zaatar, chili, spinach, meat, sausage meat, cheese, and olives. Fruit juice counters in Syria and Egypt provide fresh juice from all seasonal fruit as well as sugar-cane.
Sweets such as knafeh, made from cheese and pastry, and madlu'e, made from sweet cheese curds on a rich biscuit dough, are also sold from counters, drenched in syrup, and eaten on the street in Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Israel. "Cheese sweets" are a specialty of Hama in central Syria.
In Israel, street eaters enjoy sabikh, a pita stuffed with hard-boiled egg, eggplant, tahini, and a mango pickle similar in taste to chutney or atchar. It was introduced by Iraqi Jews. Bourekas are common, being sold out of carts in front of bakeries.
In springtime in Syria, whole green almonds are sold from carts on the street. In summer, prickly pears and whole fresh pistachios are sold. Pavement vendors, as well as drink sellers in traditional costume with their goods in a pot strapped to their back, sell mulberry and liquorice juice. Falafel and Shawarma are the most common Syrian street food.
The most common street food in Australia is the sausage sizzle, usually consisting of a thin sausage or sandwich steak cooked on a barbecue and served on a slice of bread with optional fried onions, cheese, mustard and tomato or barbecue sauce. The stalls are usually run by local sporting or charity groups as fundraiser.
A pie floater is a meal served at pie carts in Adelaide and elsewhere in South Australia. It was once more widely available in other parts of Australia, but its popularity waned. It consists of an Australian meat pie covered with tomato sauce, sitting in a plate of green pea soup.
People can buy soft serve and other ice creams from vans which drive around the streets. The vans alert potential customers with a tinkling tune, for example Greensleeves or The Entertainer.
In Melbourne and Sydney, kebabs and souvlakis have taken over as the main street food due to the high percentage of Greek and Lebanese people in both cities, and is popular as a late night snack, especially after a few beers. They are known to curb late night drunken violence as punters gather around and enjoy a meal together and share stories of their night.[citation needed]
Vans selling burgers, New Zealand hotdogs (a battered sausage on a stick), toasted sandwiches and chips are the most common type of street food in New Zealand. The White Lady food van in downtown Auckland is a well-known icon of the city. There are many coffee carts and coffee vans operating the streets, both independent ones as well as vans operating as part of a franchise system such as The Coffee Guy.
Like Australia, ice cream vans and sausage sizzles are also common in New Zealand. The most well known ice cream franchise is Mr Whippy, a franchise that originally came from England, and also operates in Australia. Mr Whippy softserve icecream is an iconic symbol of a New Zealand summer to many Kiwi.
There are many national street foods in Europe, but some foods have transcended borders. A good example of this is shawarma, brought to Europe by Arab and Turkish immigrants. The Quartier Latin in Paris is packed with shawarma vendors.
Street food in the Balkans, like the rest of Balkan cuisine, is heavily influenced by the cuisine of the Ottoman Empire. Variations of the burek, a filled flaky pastry, are common throughout the Turkey and the Balkans. Ćevapi, a sort of kebab, is popular throughout the region comprised by the former Yugoslavia, and Romania where it is called Mititei.
In the Netherlands and Belgium, french fries are served with sauces such as mayonnaise, ketchup, curry or tartar sauce (the latter mainly in Belgium). The combination mayonnaise, ketchup or curry and chopped onions is called "speciaal" (special) and mayonnaise mixed with peanut sauce is called "oorlog" (war).
In Belgium, a thicker variety of fries is used, called "friet" or "frieten". In the Netherlands, they are thinner and generally referred to as "patat" (the word for 'potato' in the south of the Netherlands and in Flanders) or sometimes "friet" (from the French verb 'frire' meaning 'deep-frying') or "patat friet". Some shops in the Netherlands also sell "Vlaamse friet" (Flemish fries, similar to the type sold in Belgium) but this is less common than the thinner variant. In Belgium, french fries are traditionally fried in suet (beef fat) whereas in the Netherlands, vegetable oil is preferred.
In the Netherlands, street foods are usually sold by a small store which is a mix of a cafe/bar and a fast-food restaurant, known as a snackbar or cafetaria. These stores may also contain the typically Dutch vending machine called an "automatiek". While "patat friet" forms the main portion of the foods sold, many other items are also on offer including different types of deep-fried snack meats such as "kroketten" and "frikandellen", and cheese snacks such as the "kaassouffle" (cheese deep fried inside a crispy bread crumb crust). Often, the product range includes other foods such as hamburgers, ice cream, bread rolls with different fillings, and occasionally pizza, falafel, doner kebab and shoarma. Deep fried Vietnamese spring rolls and other, originally Asian and/or Surinamese snacks such as "bapao" (a baozi filled with minced meat) and "barra" (a kind of deep fried savoury doughnut), have become increasingly popular since the 1980s.
In addition to the snackbars, one can also find street stalls selling different fried, smoked and raw fish products called a "viskraam" or "haringkar" (Dutch for fish stall or herring cart). Besides the popular raw herring served with chopped onions (bread rolls and pickled cucumber are optional), these stalls also sell fish products such as smoked mackerel, smoked eel and "kibbeling" (deep fried cod nuggets).
At festivals, markets and especially on New Year's Eve, street stalls around the country sell a type of beignets called oliebollen (literally 'oil balls'). In addition they might have other sweet pastries such as waffles and apple beignets.
In Belgium, "friet" or "frieten" are mainly sold by street vendors (see picture), known as a frietkot.
In Belgium, Liège-style waffles (Dutch: "Wafel" or French: "Gaufre") are served warm as a street snack, similar to what is known in other countries as "Belgian Waffles". The pancake is also popular here, being sold fluffier than the French crêpe or the Russian blin.
The most common and traditional Czech street food is Smažený sýr, which is a soft piece of cheese deep-fried and served on a hamburger bun. It is typically served with tartar sauce, but some prefer ketchup.
In Finland, street food can mostly be found at market squares and kiosks, although hamburger chains Hesburger and McDonald's are also available. A variety of savoury pastries such as lihapiirakka and karjalanpiirakka and sweet pastries such as pulla, usually served with coffee, are very common. Fish stands at the market squares also serve cured salmon (graavilohi) on rye bread as an open sandwich or loimulohi. Regional specialties sold at the market squares include sultsina and kalakukko.
In addition to hamburgers and hot dogs, Finnish meat pastries with sausages are available at kiosks, especially a sausage sandwich called a porilainen. Condiments include ketchup, Finnish mustard, pickle relish, mayonnaise and mustard relish as well as lettuce, tomato and onion. Another common late night street food fare found at kiosks is Finnish meatballs (lihapulla) and french fries with condiments. Doner kebabs are readily available at both kiosks and kebab restaurants and extremely popular.
In France, sandwiches are a common street food. Most of them are baguette bread sandwiches with different kinds of fillings such as "Jambon/Beurre" (ham / butter), "Jambon/Fromage" (Ham with cheese) or "Poulet/Crudités" (Chicken with vegetables). In France, crêpes are another street food. A crêpe complète containing ham, shredded cheese, and an egg provides a filling lunch. Sweet crêpe or Waffle, containing Nutella and banana or Grand Marnier and sugar are also popular snacks.
Other street foods include slices of pizza, "kebab" (actually Gyros) type sandwiches and panini, a grilled and pressed sandwich.
During the winter, roasted chestnuts can be bought.
Germany, with its high Turkish population, has a number of Turkish street foods beyond the pan-European shawarma. Döner is similar to shawarma and available everywhere, especially in Berlin Kreuzberg. More traditionally, there is the Bavarian Fleischkäse (also called Leberkäse), which is similar to meatloaf, sliced to the thickness of a finger and generally served with either hot mustard or sweet mustard in a roll. Germany is also known for its various types of sausage, as well as the recent hybrid curry-sausage, Currywurst. French fries ("Pommes" in German, derived from French but pronounced according to German orthographic rules) are popular, served with ketchup and/or mayonnaise, and sometimes with sausage. Beer is sold at all sidewalk snack stands, which usually feature beers and small bottles of whiskey, schnapps, or vodka.
There are an increasing number of North African stalls that sell shawarma, falafel and halumi.
Street food is not particularly common in Hungary, although gyros shops are becoming more common. Rétes (strudel) is fairly common, and lángos (a deep fried bread) is usually available at markets and during celebrations. In general, Hungarians looking for quick food will stop to sit down and eat, even if only at a Chinese buffet or a főzelékfaló (vegetable purée bar).
The most notable Italian street food is pizza, sold in take-aways and bakeries. Take-away pizza (or "Pizza al taglio") is quite different from pizzeria pizza. Unlike the round pizza normally found in restaurants, which originated in Naples as a street food itself, it is generally baked on large square trays, and square or rectangular portions are sold. It usually has quite a thick base, again unlike the traditional Italian restaurant pizza.
Toppings include margherita, mushrooms, Italian sausage, ham, and vegetables.
Other street foods are the Genoese Focaccia di Recco, a double layer of thin dough filled with quark cheese and baked, Farinata, a thin, baked chickpea-flour batter, topped with salt, pepper and olive oil, often served with focaccia (a thin bread, also with salt and olive oil), Florentine trippa and lampredotto, ox stomach cooked in a seasoned broth and served in a bread roll, Roman "supplì", rice balls filled with cheese and/or various fillings, covered in egg and breadcrumbs and deep fried, similar to Sicilian arancini, where the usual filling is a meat sauce with green peas.
In Palermo, a street food would be "Pani ca meusa" (bread rolls with sliced, cooked pork spleen), and "Panelle", deep-fried chickpea flour batter. In central Italy "porchetta" is common, a spicy roasted pork meat (from the whole, boned animal), usually served in a panino (bread roll).
In Naples, fried food stalls, known as friggitorie, sell filled, deep-fried pastries and other foods. A street food made of offals, commonly found in fairs and religious festivals in Naples and in the whole Campania, is the 'O pere e 'o musso (The paw and the muzzle), calves heads and pork paw boiled: sliced and chopped at the moment, they are seasoned with salt and lemon juice before being served. Locally, it is also named also Musso re puorco (pork muzzle) although only calf heads are normally used.
Vendors sell watermelons during the summer months, as well as roasted chestnuts ("caldarroste") stalls during the winter, and especially before Christmas.
Rosticcerie, while most often selling food to be eaten at home, also sometimes have a counter for immediate consumption of their goods, the most common of which are roast chicken, roast potatoes, fried polenta and other accompaniments.
Substantial immigration from Turkey and the Middle East has also gained Shawarma (best known in Italy as kebab), as well as other middle-eastern traditional dishes an increasing popularity.
Gelato (ice cream) is commonly available.
In Romagna region, and especially in Forlì-Cesena province, a flatbread called Piadina is available. It is sold in kiosks, usually as sandwich filled with mixed cold cut meats, cheese and/or vegetables. A widely used variant is the Crescione, a Piadina cooked like a turnover; in this version the most common filling are "tomato sauce - mozzarella" and "pumpkin - boiled potato - sausage".
Pastizzi are small, ricotta cheese or pea-paste filled puff-pastry squares that can be bought from vendors in practically every village in Malta. "Pastizzi", or its singular form "pastizz" is also a derogatory term in colloquial Maltese which refers to female genitalia, probably due to the similarity in shape of these local delicacies. Ricotta pastizzi (Pastizzi tal-irkotta) are diamond shaped with a hole in the middle where the ricotta stuffing can be seen whilst pea pastizzi (Pastizzi tal-pizelli) are of the same shape but are more like an envelope of puff pastry with no holes.
The shops selling these pastries are called "Pastizzeriji" and they occasionally sell items such as pies, pizza slices, sausage rolls, baked rice, baked maccaroni (timpana) and sometimes arancini.
Another local street food found in such pastizzerias is the "Qassatat". This is a ball-shaped pie crust with an open top, filled with the same two basic fillings of ricotta or peas, and sometimes a tuna and spinach mixture.
Imqaret are deep fried pastries filled with a mashed date mixture.
Hamburgers, hot dogs and other such products being sold from vans, replace perennial Maltese favorites such as Ħobż biż-żejt, bigilla and timpana.
However Ħobż biż-żejt is another street food, usually bought from the inside of shops rather than stalls. This is the local sandwich, a local flat-bun called a "ftira" or a rounder one called "hbejza" are filled with various ingredients available at the counter displays. The basic Ħobż biż-żejt recipe consists of filling the bread with oil and kunserva (tomato paste), tuna-fish, pickles and other delicacies which vary from shop to shop. These shops usually serve tea with milk in small glasses to their regulars.
Occasionally a street vendor will sell Sinizza but this is a rarity nowadays. Sinizza is deep fried ball of fish, batter and other ingredients.
Popular street snacks in Poland include: zapiekanki -- essentially Polish-style French-bread pizzas with a variety of toppings—the obwarzanki of Kraków, which are like bagels (only with bigger holes); and precle (or pretzels). The most common street food in Poland, however, seems to be lody, or ice cream. Long lines outside ice cream shops, and scores of pedestrians toting cones, are a regular fixture of Polish streetscapes.
In Romania there is a fair amount of street food. The most commonly available during the day are covrigi, hot pretzels covered in sesame or poppy seeds, and "plăcinte". "Plăcinte" can refer to sweet or savory pies with various fillings or to large pieces of fried dough eaten with garlic sauce, sour cream, cheese, or jam similar to Hungarian lángos. In the south and along the Black Sea, "plăcintă dobrogeană" is available. This type of plăcintă is more like the burek encountered in other parts of the Balkans. Doughnuts called gogoși are also commonly available. At fairs and in winter time kürtős kalács (tulnic in Romanian) with nuts or cinnoman is very popular. Mititei or "mici", small grilled skinless sausages, are often available in the summer in marketplaces and at fairs. Other street foods include popcorn, steamed ears of corn, roasted chestnuts in winter, and ice cream in summer.
Traditional Eastern European items such as blini, pirozhki and sausages are widely available.
The cuisine of Russia's Turkic minority is popular, with dishes like shawerma, rotisserie chicken, shashlik, chebureki and plov.
Kvas, a small beer made (usually) from bread, with honey being a frequent additive (myodniy kvass), is sold out of tanks or barrels on the street.
In areas with Chinese immigrant populations, Chinese dishes are sold.
Ice cream is enjoyed even on the coldest of Moscow days. Pizza is also available.
Kiosks sell candy, snacks, produce, beer and other beverages, in addition to cigarettes and household products.
In Slovakia street offerings include steamed sweetcorn cobs, fried flat bread loaves with garlic and salt or other condiments (langos), fried buns with poppy seed, jam or cream cheese filling (pirozky); seasonally, ice-cream is eaten in summer and roasted chestnuts in autumn. Ciganska pecienka (gypsy-style roasted pork), roasted sausage and more are sold at Saturday markets. Crepes and fresh sandwiches are available.
The concept of eating in the street is very rooted in the Spanish culture, even though in the last few decades the law has forbidden the sale of food in the streets due to hygiene concerns. The most common way to eat is still inside a bar with friends (tapeo), however, in winter, roast chestnuts can be bought in the street, especially in the north, and during fiestas, churros are also sold. Additionally, the typical bocadillo is the most common snack all around Spain for school children and workers. Bocadillos can be filled with various foodstuffs typical of the province (anchovies, sweet peppers, tortilla de patatas, tuna, ham, meat, cheese, Empanada Gallega, etc.) and are very convenient as "food on the go". Some major cities will have vendors selling ice cream, nuts and snacks from kiosks.
During summer in Málaga (and many small towns nearby), the fruit of the higo chumbo (a local cactus) is often sold.
Street foods available in Switzerland are sandwich-like, either the typical grilled panini, but also pretzels, grilled chicken, hot dogs or the traditional Bratwurst served with a slice of bread and sometimes mustard. Sweet foods include ice cream and crêpes. Stalls will typically be motorized trucks, rather than smaller wheeled carts. Other foods eaten on the go include the doner kebab, although these are uniformly sold in indoor stores with their own seating rather than from a mobile stall.[citation needed]
Turkey can be considered a paradise for the one who loves street food, the varieties are not only numerous, but show considerable change from region to region. It is possible to speak about a full-fledged "Street Cuisine", apart from the mainstream one. There is a very important culture turning around street food in Turkey, and all this food is also separated in two as some are eaten by day, some by night.
Here is a comprehensive list of most of the typical street foods that can be found around large Turkish metropolises:
Ankara is a rather poor city when it comes to local cuisine in general, but a few street specialties are still to be counted:
Converted vans sell kebabs, jacket potato, hamburgers and chips, especially at night. At fairs, stalls sell candy floss and doughnuts. In Lancashire, hot parched peas (black peas) are bought from stalls, especially in the colder months. During winter there are stalls selling hot chestnuts.
Ice cream vans are considered one of the signs of summer, and they usually play well-known tunes such as Greensleeves or Teddy Bears' Picnic through a PA system. Street carts can be seen in some cities selling products such as roast nuts and hot dogs, especially in places frequented by tourists.
While most major cities in Canada offer a variety of street food, regional "specialties" are notable. While poutine (french fries with gravy and cheese curds) is available in most of the country, it is far more common in Quebec. Similarly, hot dog stands can be found across Canada, but are far more common in Ontario (often sold from mobile canteen trucks, usually referred to as "chip wagons") than in Vancouver or Victoria (where the "Mr. Tube Steak" franchise is notable). Montreal offers a number of specialties including Shish taouk, the Montreal hot dog, two-dollar chow mein on St. Laurent and dollar falafels. Although falafel is widespread in Vancouver, 99 cent pizza slices are much more popular. Shawarma is quite prevalent in Ottawa, while Halifax offers its own unique version of the Doner kebab called the Donair, which features a sauce, made from condensed milk, sugar, and vinegar. Ice cream trucks can be seen (and often heard) nationwide during the summer months.
In the United States, hot dogs and their many variations (corn dogs, chili dogs) are perhaps the most common street food, particularly in major metropolitan areas such as New York City (the Easy-Bake-Oven was said to have been inspired by New York City carts roasting chestnuts[6]). Roasted nuts and gyros are often sold in the cities. Cheesesteaks, breakfast sandwiches, and pretzels are common in Philadelphia. Throughout the US, ice cream is sold out of trucks. Tacos and Tortas are sold from open food stalls. Pizza and eggrolls are available from window counters.
Some vendors operate out of food trucks and food carts, which offer a low overhead for entrepreneurs and often serve a huge variety of cuisines. Like restaurants, they are regulated and subject to inspections by the local municipal or county health departments.
Diversity and the lack of a strictly defined national cuisine means that, in most urban areas in the US and Canada, vendors sell frankfurters, pizza, falafel, gyros, kebobs, tortilla based snacks such as tacos and burritos, panini, crêpes, french fries, eggrolls, and other various dishes.
In Mexico, there is a great variety of antojitos mexicanos that are found at street food vendors, at any time of night or day: tacos, tortas (traditional Mexican sandwiches), garnachas, tostadas, picadas, quesadillas, guaraches, panuchos, sopes, gorditas, tamales, atole, aguas frescas, etc.
In Barbados, fishcakes are a common street food. Fishcakes are made with bits of saltfish, seasoned and mixed with flour and then deep fried. Fishcakes are sold at community events such as school fairs and concerts and can also be found at fish fries such as those in Baxter's Road in the capital city of Bridgetown or the Friday evening event in the southern fishing town of Oistins. Fishcakes are commonly eaten with saltbread, a thick, round bread; the sandwich is called a "bread-and-two" and can be found at most village shops throughout the island.
Fried foods are common in the Dominican Republic. Empanadas are a very typical snack, made of fried flour, though empanadas made out of cassava flour, called catibias, are also common. Fillings include cheese, chicken, beef, and vegetables, or a combination of these. Yaniqueques are sold at many empanada stands. Yaniqueques (from Jonnycake) are essentially round flour shaped cakes which are fried and usually eaten with salt and/or ketchup. Other vendors sell plantain fritters and fried or boiled salami.
Hamburgers are sold at stands called chimis, which also offer sandwiches called chimichurris, though these bear little to no resemblance to the South American sauce of the same name. Chimis occasionally also offer hot dogs and other sandwich varieties.
Corn on the cob can be bought on the street, usually sold by traveling vendors who move around on a tricycle. Sweets vendors who sell treats such as candied coconut and dulce de leche sell their goods at major intersections in cities and sometimes have their own stands.
In Haiti street vendors sell dishes such as fried plantains, griot (deep-fried pork or beef), frescos (fruit soda drink), cassava bread, and Haitian patties (pastry filled with choice of chicken, fish, beef, or pork).
The most common Jamaican street food is jerk chicken or pork and can be found everywhere on the island. Jerk is marinade that is a blended primarily from a combination of scotch bonnet peppers, onions, scallions, thyme and allspice. Once marinated, it is often barbecued on converted steel drum or whatever else locals can construct as a grill/smoker. It is often accompanied with breadfruit and/or festival, a sweetened fried dough.
Beef patties in a sweet bread called "coco bread" are the most popular street food. Bun and cheese is also eaten.
Puerto Rico is well known for its street foods (referred to collectively as cuchifritos in New York City) and is popular both in the Caribbean and in mainland North America. Typical Bastreet foods include pinchos (a kebob of skewered pork, seafood or chicken, usually spicy and topped with barbecue sauce on bread; often fried whole).
Empanadas are very popular. Fried flour or yuca flour pastries stuffed with chicken, ground meat, potatoes, corn, fruit, cheese, or seafood. There are also combinations such as cheese with meat, cheese with fruit, potatoes with meat, even pigeon peas with coconut and pizza empanadas.
There's the papa rellena, fried potato balls stuffed with meat or cheese.
The alcapurria, a ground malanga croquette filled with meat or ground yuca filled with seafood. The malanga can have a combination of potatoes, plantains, green bananas, and/or calabazas (tropical pumpkins). Picadillo is the typical stuffing.
There are also arepas stuffed with fried meat, seafood salad or usually seafood cooked in coconut milk if one likes.
Dishes based on plantains or green bananas are popular as street food throughout Puerto Rico. Pasteles are a combination of mashed tubers, plantains, or bananas filled with pork and wrapped in banana leaves and then boiled. Pionono a sliver or ripe plantain sliced down the middle, fried and then stuffed with ground meat, cheese, raisins, capers, and olives. Plátano relleno similar to papa rellena but with ripe plantains rather than potatoes.
Bacalaítos are a fried pancake-like dough that are served with salted codfish. These foods can be found on the side of just about any busy street, but also typically in kiosks, often near the beach.
Sorullos a fried cornmeal batter shaped like fat fingers; they can be sweet or savory. Sorullos are stuffed with Puerto Rican white cheese, Cheddar or mozzarella and is served with Russian dressing. Sweet sorullos contain sugar and are filled with Puerto Rican white cheese and fruit paste such as goiabada.
In Trinidad and Tobago there are roti and shark & bake stands that provide quick foods like roti, dhal puri, fried bake, and the most popular, Doubles.
Roti is a thin flat bread originating from India that is fluffy on the inside and crispy and flaky on the outside. It is cooked on a flat iron plate called a tawah (< Hindi tawa) or platain and served with curried chicken, pork or beef.
Dahl puri is similar to the roti but is softer and pliable and has crushed dahl lentils cooked with saffron and placed in the centre of the dough before it is rolled out and cooked. This is also served with either curried chicken, pork or beef.
Fried bake is made by frying flattened balls of dough that becomes fluffy and increases in height as it is fried. It can be served with fried ripe plantains, any meat or gravy. At the shark & bake stands fried bakes filled with well-seasoned shark fillets and dressed with many different condiments including pepper, garlic and chadon beni can also be found.
Doubles is made with two flat breads called baras (from Hindi bara, "big") that are filled with channa (from Hindi "chick peas") and topped with pepper, cucumber chutney, mango chutney, coconut chutney or bandania/chadon beni. It can be eaten either wrapped up as an easy to eat sandwich, or open it up and eat each bara separately.
Popular street foods in the Virgin Islands include patés, fried fish, fried chicken leg and johnnycake (fried dough). Pates, similar to the empanadas of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, consist of fried flour filled with various meats, including conch, saltfish, beef, chicken and lobster.
Pão de queijo, which can be translated as "cheese bread", is a street snack in the southeast of Brazil and, increasingly, the rest of the country. Hot dogs, cooked in a tomato-based sauce with bell peppers and onions, are often sold with grated cheese, ketchup, mayonnaise, green peas, corn kernels, fried potato sticks (batata palha), potato salad or mashed potatoes (São Paulo only) as choice of toppings. Hamburgers are also offered with an assortment of toppings, such as mozzarella cheese, bacon, fried eggs, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard, the popular "X-Tudo" (or cheese-all, a souped up cheeseburger). Calabresa (Pepperoni) sausage sandwiches are also popular.
Rio de Janeiro beach vendors sell Mate Gelado (erva mate iced-tea), biscoitos de polvilho (sour manioc flour puffs), roasted peanuts and queijo coalho (grilled cheese on sticks, barbecued on the spot) as well as popsicles, cold beer and home-made sandwiches (sanduiche natural). In the northeastern state of Bahia, the region's African heritage is reflected in the iconic acarajé (deep fried black eyed pea bun filled with caruru, made from salted dried shrimp, and vatapá, a creamy combination of coconut milk, palm oil and cashew nuts) or sweets like cocada (candied coconut) and pé-de-moleque (peanut brittle). All over the country, popcorn is always offered in push carts both savory or sweet (with sugar and cocoa powder). Churros push carts (sausage shaped deep fried dough filled with a choice of doce-de-leite caramel or chocolate sauce) are also found on any major city street.
In Colombia, the empanada, a deep-fried meat-filled patty, is sold. It is also a very popular side dish. Arepas are also a common street food with others mixed in.
In Peru, anticuchos, a type of kebab, are often sold by street vendors called anticucheras. Also, cuy, a species of Guinea Pig is served as a delicacy on religious holidays.
In Argentina, vendors sell Choripan, a barbequeued sausage served wrapped in french bread, or morcipan, using a blood sausage (morcilla) instead.
Pizza is very popular, in part due to the country's heavy Italian immigration in the early 20th century. Local versions include the fugazzeta, a pizza made with mozzarella cheese and onions, and the fainá: a pizza made with garbanzo bean flour with no toppings, generally served as a side dish to regular pizza.
The empanada, which in gourmet versions is baked, is usually deep-fried in this case. Empanadas can be made with beef, fish, ham & cheese, neapolitan (using the same toppings as that pizza) or vegetarian.
Sandwiches are usually served hot, like the Tostado or the Lomito, the latter having a great number of versions, with food courts offering all kinds of ingredients and combinations.
Other local street food includes local versions of the hotdog called pancho, and the hamburger or hamburguesa. Despite being very popular in the past, these have been displaced by a number of reasons, mainly a local perception that American-style foods are unhealthy and of low quality.
Sweets and desserts usually found in Argentine streets include caramel apple (manzana acaramelada), cotton candy (algodon de azucar), sweet popcorn (pochoclo) and a local snack called garrapiñada, which is made of peanuts, cocoa, vanilla and sugar caramel, and sold in small bags in the shape of tubes.
In Venezuela, the "arepa" is a common fast-food meal. It consists of a flattened cornmeal bun, about the size and shape of an English muffin, split open and usually stuffed with soft cheese. Other fillings include shredded chicken salad with mayonnaise and avocado (reina pepiada), shredded brisket cooked with onions, red bell peppers and tomatoes (carne mechada) and pickled octopus.
In Chile, sopaipillas, a deep fried dough made out of flour and pumpkin, Anticucho, completo, calzones rotos, Jugos Naturales(natural juice), soft drink, French fries, pizza, churros, empanadas, Sweets, Etc...is sold by street vendors.
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