World's Best Cities for Street Food
GettyHo Chi Minh City, Vietnam
The scene: To eat well in Saigon is to master the art of balancing on a tiny plastic stool and slurping hot broth in 100-degree heat while swarms of motorbikes whiz past your table. The sensory overload is both overwhelming and amazing. Whatever you do, make generous use of the table condiments: They’re there so that you can achieve your salty-sweet-sour-spicy ideal.
The dish: bún cha cá, vermicelli noodle soup with fish cakes.
GettyFukuoka, Japan
The scene: Fukuoka is famous for its yatai pop-up food stalls, which date back to the 1600s but really came into their own after World War II. The open-air mobile stands cram in six to ten diners, and the vibe is chatty and communal. (It helps to speak Japanese, of course.) The carts are only open after dark, with many concentrated in Tenjin or lining the north bank of the Naka River in Nakasu. Adventurous eaters can hop from one vendor to the next, digging into steaming hot pots, yakitori, and even classic cocktails.
The dish: Tonkotsu ramen, famed for its transcendentally creamy pork-bone broth.
GettyAmman, Jordan
The scene: Jordanian street food is a tantalizing hybrid of Persian, Mediterranean, and North African cuisines. Manakish, for example, is a type of Arabic pizza smothered in za’atar, olive oil, halloumi, eggs, and ground meat (give or take an ingredient). The dough is baked in a brick oven and hawked on nearly every street corner in the city—along with the most heavenly charcoal-grilled meats you’ve ever smelled.
The dish: juicy lamb kofta, a.k.a. shish kebabs.
GettyMumbai, India
The scene: The only thing more colorful than India’s savory snacks, or chaat, are the hand-painted carts from which they’re sold. Just a few cents buys multi-layered vegetarian delights like vada pav, a spiced mashed potato ball stuffed into a fluffy slider-esque bun smeared with tamarind and/or garlic chutney. If you’re concerned about hygiene, eat only at stands where the vendor prepares the food to order; avoid thin sauces (they may be watered down with contaminated H20), and always carry hand sanitizer.
The dish: bhelpuri, a medley of puffed rice and crispy sev, topped with potato, onion, and tomato, and drenched in yogurt and mint or tamarind chutneys.
GettyBangkok, Thailand
The scene: Despite the recent shutdown of several major food thoroughfares by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the hawkers persist—and the demand for their sour Isaan sausages, crispy-edged oyster omelets, and bubbling-hot vats of singe-your-face-off curry is higher than ever. If you’re keen to sample many foods in one shot, head to a concentrated area like Yaowarat (Chinatown), Wang Lang Market, or Victory Monument.
The dish: pla pao, whole fish stuffed with lemongrass, crusted in salt, and grilled to blackened perfection.
AlamyCartagena, Colombia
The scene: Whether you’re exploring the old walled city on foot or venturing to a locals-only market farther afield, Cartagena de Indias’ street food is fascinating because it’s a hybrid of Spanish, Caribbean, African, and South American influences. Like Vietnam, vendors here are expert in one dish and one dish only, be it tomato-shrimp cocktail or garlicky fried patacones.
The dish: Buttery, griddled sweet corn arepas stuffed with melty mozzarella cheese.
GettyKuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The scene: A delicious convergence of Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Portuguese cuisines, served from dawn till midnight. Sellers hawk their specialties in the streets, but also in thrumming outdoor bazaars (Jalan Alor, Sri Petaling, Taman Connaught), lively wet markets (Chow Kit), and tourist-friendly food courts (Lot 10 Hutong, Suria KLCC) housed in air-conditioned shopping malls.
The dish: Penang-style fruit rojak, a medley of papaya, green mango, pineapple, dried squid, cuttlefish, deep-fried tofu, and shrimp fritters tossed with toasted peanuts and sticky-sweet fermented prawn sauce.
AlamyTaipei, Taiwan
The scene: When it comes to variety, nothing beats a Taiwanese night market. Shilin, Raohe, Tonghua, and Ningxia are all popular choices; stall after lit-up stall tempts the seething crowds with grilled squid on a stick, barbecued snake beans, and deep-fried taro balls. Stinky tofu is a staple; you’ll always smell it before you see it. For the less adventurous, there’s fried chicken and delightful black pepper pork buns.
The dish: Stinky tofu, the love-it-or-hate-it dish made with cubes of fetid, fermented tofu, pickled cabbage, and chili sauce.
GettyOsaka, Japan
The scene: Dōtonbori and Shinsekai are hubs for good street eats. For a quicker snack, seek out kushikatsu, or protein and veggies on sticks. Hot dogs, quail eggs, lotus root, chicken nuggets, scorpions—there is almost nothing this city won’t bread in panko crumbs, skewer on bamboo, deep-fry, and dip in a sweet-tart ponzu sauce. Osaka is also the best place in Japan to try takoyaki, fried octopus balls topped with Japanese mayo and bonito flakes.
The dish: Okonomiyaki, a savory egg-and-cabbage pancake you customize with seafood, pork belly, and a bevy of vegetables.
AlamyBerlin, Germany
The scene: Meat, meat, and more meat. For years, that’s what constituted Berlin street food—with a side of hand-cut spätzle and crispy potato pancakes. Berlin is still meat-obsessed, but nowadays the offerings are as diverse as the city: For every five wurst vendors, you’ll find a Thai pop-up, Indian chai wallah, Turkish kebab stand, or Beijing-style dumpling slinger.
The dish: Currywurst, chopped brats doused in tangy ketchup and curry powder.
GettySeoul, South Korea
The scene: Loads of street carts dot heavy shopping areas like Myeong-dong, but you’ll also find amazing indoor markets chockablock with standalone vendors. Most specialize in one dish, be it gyeran-bbang (sweet egg bread), gimbap (Korean sushi), mandu (steamed dumplings), haemul pajeon (seafood pancakes), or bindaetteok (savory mung bean pancakes). And let’s not forget Myeong-dong’s pastel-colored soft serve ice cream that stands a foot tall on your cone—it’s Instagram gold.
The dish: Tteokbokki, chewy stir-fried rice cakes coated in spicy gochujang sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds and chopped scallion.
GettySingapore
The scene: The little red dot rewrote the rules of street food when it moved its vendors off the sidewalks and into hawker centers back in the 1970s and 80s. Today, the open-air food courts dominate the cheap-eats landscape, dishing up an array of ethnically diverse dishes including Peranakan laksa (spicy seafood and noodle soup), Malaysian char kway teow (flat rice noodles stir-fried with blood cockles and Chinese sausage), and South Indian roti prata, or fried flatbread, with mutton curry. Hawker fare is so revered in Singapore, the Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle stand in the Chinatown Complex earned a Michelin star in the city’s inaugural guide.
The dish: Hainanese chicken rice, tender slices of boiled bird served over rice cooked in stock.
GettyPortland, Oregon
The scene: There are hundreds of food carts, trucks, and buses in PDX, and the vast majority of them are clustered in pods. These outdoor food courts make it easy to crawl from vendor to vendor, sampling several cuisines at once—think Russian, Korean, Oaxacan, Nordic, Scottish, Mauritian, and more.
The dish: The Original Schnitzelwich from Tábor—a Czech-style breaded pork loin served on a Ciabatta roll with lettuce, sautéed onions, and horseradish.
GettyHonolulu, Hawaii
The scene: No shirt, no shoes, no service? Not on this island. Oahu is famously laid-back, and those chill surfer vibes extend to its street food. From dawn till dusk, it’s not uncommon to see people in swim trunks and bikinis chowing down at food trucks: malasadas (Hawaiian donuts) in the morning, poke bowls and fiery shrimp plates for lunch, hula dogs for dinner, manapua (pork buns) for snacking. If you’re in the capital and want to top off a workweek in style, stop by Kaka’ako Park for the “Eat the Street” food truck rally, which takes place on the last Friday of each month.
The dish: Spam musubi, a thick slice of Spam piggybacking on a bar of rice, wrapped up nice with scrambled egg and a strip of nori.
GettyMexico City, Mexico
The scene: Tacos are just the tip of the iceberg. You can’t walk half a block in Ciudad de México without stumbling across a panoply of street eats: tortas, tamales, tlacoyos, sopes, huaraches, flautas, tortas, chilaquiles, chicharrones…the list goes on and on. Might as well pull up a stool and give in to temptation.
The dish: tamales, a log of grainy corn dough steamed in a corn husk or banana leaf and eaten for breakfast.
Editor's note: Shortly before we were to publish this gallery, a powerful earthquake struck Mexico City. While we are aware that the tourism industry will no doubt be affected, we decided to leave the city as a selection to show one of the many reasons we at Traveler love—and will continue to travel to—Mexico City.