Over the past decades, these dishes have evolved from an emergency food to a cultural phenomenon
Not so long ago, eating street food could be a sign of a lack of free time or even money. Today, many tourists specially go to different cities and countries to taste the local street food.
Friet/Frith
Belgium
Those who consider French fries an American invention are wrong . Those who are sure that the homeland of french fries are also deceived France. The Belgians are sure: deep-fried potatoes first appeared in Wallonia. Since the 17th century, it has been made during harsh winters when it was impossible to fish in the frozen Meuse River. Today in Belgium, frites are sold in bags on the street.
Tteokbokki/Teokbokki
Korea
Small cylindrical dumplings made from rice dough have been known since the 19th century. Served with meat, fish, eggs, seasoned with various sauces. Today, the version with chili paste is especially popular. Seoul's Sindang district, where such spicy dumplings were first sold in the 1950s, is famous for its teukbokki stalls.
See also and recipe for Korean guksu soup
Jalebi
India
Deep-fried ghee and drenched in syrup and rose water, dough swirls are sold everywhere in India. Jalebi is often prepared right in front of customers. Interestingly, the recipe came to India only in the 15th century thanks to the Turkic invaders. It appeared two centuries earlier in al-Baghdadi's Arabic cookbook.
Marrons grillés/Marron Grill
France
Paris is impossible to imagine without the Eiffel Tower, the embankment Hays and… roasted chestnuts. Their aroma is an integral part of the atmosphere of the city at any time of the year. If you follow the smell, you will soon come across a seller roasting chestnuts in a large perforated pan. Every year in October, in different cities of France, the Chestnut Festival is celebrated, when a lot of dishes with marron grillé – from risotto to mousses – are cooked right on the streets.
See also
- Assimilation of the “Indian”: the history of risotto and the recipe
Currywurst/Currywurst
Germany
The Berlin fried sausage with ketchup and curry has both an “official” birthday, September 4, 1949, and a mother, Herta Heuver, a saleswoman from Charlottenburg. Her invention of the post-war period actually became a symbol of democracy, equalizing hard workers and chancellors. According to statistics, more than 70 million currywursts are eaten a year in Berlin alone.
Churros/Churros
Spain
The best breakfast for many Spaniards are crispy sticks, horseshoes and choux pastry loops, which are usually eaten (and so tastiest), dipped in hot chocolate or coffee. Usually grooved, with an asterisk in cross section, churros are squeezed out of a special apparatus and deep-fried.
Read also
- Heart of Spain: Madrid in 10 postcards and facts | Publications
Chapulines
Mexico
Fried with garlic, lime juice and salt, often with agave worm extract, Sphenarium grasshoppers are especially popular in the state of Oaxaca, where they are served at every sporting event, and in the areas surrounding Mexico City. According to nutritionists, chapulines are much more nutritious than beef. And they cost twice as much.
Falafel/Falafel
Israel
They say that if there is no falafel in an Israeli cafe, then it is a bad cafe. However, you don’t have to go to a cafe for falafel, you don’t even have to go to Israel, because fried chickpea dough balls with spices are sold in small falafel shops all over the world. The classic serving option is in fried pita, with herbs and vegetables.
Arepa
Venezuela
Unleavened cornmeal tortillas: fried or baked, plain or stuffed are the daily food of Venezuelans. Arepa can be stuffed with cheese, avocado, tomatoes, meat – whatever. The street vendors of these flatbreads even have a special name: areperos.
See also
- Patterns on money: how Venezuelan refugees survive on the streets of South American cities | Publications
Tanghulu
China
Street food as diverse as in China, not in any other country in the world. And if a rare extreme seeker treats himself to a scorpion kebab, then no one will refuse the tanhulu fruit skewers. A dessert of apples, grapes, plums, pineapple slices and other fruits strung on a stick and covered with sugar icing is especially popular in Beijing.
Photo: GETTY IMAGES, ALAMY/LEGION-MEDIA < em>, GETTY IMAGES (X2), DPA, HEMIS, FOODANDDRINK PHOTOS/LEGION-MEDIA , GETTY IMAGES, ALAMY/LEGION-MEDIA (X2)< /p>
Material published in the magazine “Around the World” No. 12, December 2017, partially updated in July 2023
Svyatoslav Zelensky