Snacks and street food around the world
Street food, things served before the meal, and food eaten with the hands.
A snack in this collection is more often street food than a plate before the hot course. Pasties, stuffed flatbreads, fried dough: they are sold on corners and eaten standing, and they are built not to fall apart in the hand.
Nearly everything here is fried, and the oil temperature turns out to matter more than the recipe. It is given in degrees each time rather than as "get it good and hot".
43 dishes
- Argentinian empanadasArgentina
Pastries of chopped beef, onion and egg. The filling is chilled cold, or the dough will not seal.
75 min · Medium
- Bánh mìVietnam
A French baguette with Vietnamese filling: pâté, pork, pickled vegetables and coriander in one sandwich.
40 min · Easy
- BitterballenNetherlands
Balls of stiff meat ragout in breadcrumbs, deep-fried and served with mustard.
100 min · Takes practice
- BolaniAfghanistan
An Afghan flatbread with a potato or leek filling, cooked on a dry pan.
80 min · Easy
- BrikTunisia
A thin sheet of pastry with an egg inside, fried so the yolk stays liquid.
30 min · Medium
- Buffalo wingsUnited States
Unbreaded wings in a sauce of hot pepper sauce and butter. Salt draws the moisture out before baking.
65 min · Easy
- CarimañolaPanama
Torpedo-shaped cassava croquettes with a meat filling, deep-fried.
95 min · Medium
- ChakkaTajikistan
Strained cultured cheese with herbs and garlic, the Tajik spread for flatbread.
25 min · Easy
- ChawanmushiJapan
A savoury egg custard set on dashi and steamed, with a prawn and mushrooms inside.
40 min · Medium
- CompletoChile
A hot dog under mounds of mashed avocado, tomato and mayonnaise, coloured like the Italian flag.
30 min · Easy
- CoxinhaBrazil
Deep-fried teardrops of cooked dough with a chicken filling, shaped like a drumstick.
115 min · Takes practice
- Empanadas de pinoChile
Baked pastries with a meat filling, an olive and an egg. Chilean food for 18 September and for any Sunday.
90 min · Medium
- Gỏi cuốnVietnam
Fresh rice paper rolls with prawn, pork, noodles and herbs, never fried.
65 min · Medium
- GravlaksNorway
Salmon cured for two days under a weight with salt, sugar and dill. No heat and no smoke.
20 min · Easy
- GromperekichelcherLuxembourg
Potato fritters with onion and parsley, deep-fried crisp. Christmas market food.
50 min · Easy
- Gua baoTaiwan
A steamed folded bun with braised pork belly, pickled greens and peanut sugar.
220 min · Takes practice
- GuacamoleMexico
Avocado, lime, onion and chilli crushed with a fork. No blender and no sour cream: both turn it into a dip rather than guacamole.
15 min · Easy
- Ham croquetasSpain
A thick béchamel with ham, chilled until firm, breadcrumbed and deep-fried.
55 min · Medium
- Home-cured saloUkraine
Pork back fat dry-cured with garlic and spices, matured in the cold for a week.
30 min · Easy
- HummusIsrael
Chickpeas whipped with tahini, lemon and iced water to a cream. The skins come off.
110 min · Easy
- Jamaican pattiesJamaica
Pastries of turmeric-yellow flaky dough with a spiced beef filling.
120 min · Medium
- KhuushuurMongolia
Mongolian fried lamb pasties, flat and crisp, made for Naadam.
105 min · Medium
- LángosHungary
A yeasted flatbread deep-fried, rubbed with garlic and buried under soured cream and cheese.
110 min · Medium
- MandaziKenya
Triangular doughnuts on coconut milk with cardamom, lightly sweet, for tea.
100 min · Easy
- MuhammaraSyria
A paste of roasted red pepper, walnuts and pomegranate molasses, from Aleppo.
55 min · Easy
- PastelitosHonduras
Fried corn turnovers with meat and potato under a cabbage salad.
85 min · Medium
- PastizziMalta
Flaky pastries filled with ricotta or mushy peas. Maltese street food on every corner.
125 min · Takes practice
- Patatas bravasSpain
Twice-fried potato under a hot paprika sauce. The Madrid version has no tomato in it at all.
50 min · Easy
- PlăcintăMoldova
A flat pie of stretched dough with cheese, pumpkin or apple, cooked in a dry pan.
90 min · Medium
- PoutineCanada
Chips with cheese curds under hot gravy. The Québécois street classic.
70 min · Medium
- Puff puffNigeria
Yeasted balls of loose batter, deep-fried crisp outside and airy within.
50 min · Easy
- Pulpo a feiraSpain
Boiled octopus on a wooden board with paprika, coarse salt and olive oil.
75 min · Medium
- SalteñasBolivia
Baked pastries whose filling stays liquid inside. The Bolivian mid-morning snack.
120 min · Takes practice
- SamosaIndia
Triangles of potato and pea in a ghee-rich pastry. Fried on a moderate flame, never a fierce one.
90 min · Medium
- SamsaUzbekistan
Flaky triangles of chopped lamb and onion, baked to a crisp shell.
125 min · Takes practice
- SfihaLebanon
Open flatbreads with minced lamb, tomato and pomegranate molasses, from Baalbek.
100 min · Medium
- SmørrebrødDenmark
An open sandwich on rye with butter. The order of the layers and the thickness of the butter both matter.
25 min · Easy
- SuyaNigeria
Beef skewers in a ground peanut and spice rub, applied twice — before and after grilling.
55 min · Easy
- Toast SkagenSweden
Prawns in a dill mayonnaise on fried bread, with roe on top.
30 min · Easy
- Torta fritaUruguay
Flat rounds made on rendered fat and deep-fried, which Uruguayans make when it rains.
65 min · Easy
- TostonesCuba
Green plantain fried twice, flattened between the fryings, with a garlic dip.
40 min · Easy
- Whitebait frittersNew Zealand
Whitebait bound with egg and fried as a thin cake, with lemon and nothing else.
30 min · Easy
- Zemiakové plackySlovakia
Thin potato pancakes with garlic and marjoram, fried crisp.
50 min · Easy