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FAVORITE
STREET FOODS
No costly kitchen gear for these Vietnamese street vendors-a pole with a panier hanging at either end to carry ingredients and a few cooking utensils is all they need. Thus armed, they will create banh khoai pancakes and other delights.
The adventure begins with an alluring aroma of smoke and spices, or the glimpse of unfamiliar delicacies arrayed on a vendor’s stall. Exploring the byways of a foreign city or simply playing tourist in your hometown, you come upon a trader doing a roaring business among locals, offering an irresistible choice of traditional dishes and exotic snacks. Certain locations are so famous for their street food that the gourmet traveler scarcely needs another reason to visit. Singapore’s clusters of food stalls have become destinations in their own right, luring the grazer with mouthwatering specialties drawn from the range of Asian cuisine—noodles, charcoal-grilled meat, and savory pancakes partnered with curries. Sometimes, a single specialty turns into a symbol of a place: Fish and chips—when deep-fried to golden perfection—are as evocative of a trip to England as a visit to the Tower of London. Chili dogs in Los Angeles, tropical fruit shakes in the Mexican port of Veracruz, jerk pork in Jamaica—the variety of these and many other street offerings tells its own delicious story.
NEW YORK’S SIDEWALK CHEFS
Hot dog carts are a New York emblem. The dogs and pretzels are hot, the drinks cold.
Who needs smart restaurants when street carts and stands offer some of New York’s most exciting and least expensive dining?
The city that never sleeps needs to be able to refuel quickly, so the streets of New York are home to a legion of trucks, vans, stands, and pushcarts all selling food. Most of the vendors are immigrants bringing street versions of the world’s multifarious culinary traditions to this already international metropolis. You can snack on Jamaican goat patties, sample Chinese cheung fun (broad rice noodles wrapped around a savory meat, seafood, or vegetable filling), take a bite of Egyptian falafel, or enjoy vegan Sri Lankan curry and dosas (rice and lentil pancakes). New York takes its street food so seriously that there is an annual award ceremony, the Vendy Awards, for the best sidewalk chefs. Part of the fun is tracking down the best offerings. Trucks and vans often visit different areas of New York on different days; some chefs operate only at certain times of day or only on weekends. Even stalls with regular spots and hours occasionally vanish, as the owner finds a better spot or takes a week off. Follow the crowds, or ask locals for information—hotel doormen and concierges will often let you into the secrets of a neighborhood’s best vendors.
When to Go New York’s summers are hot and steamy, and its winters can be very cold. The best times to visit the city are in spring and fall, when you can eat your street food without either wilting in the heat or freezing your fingers.
Planning As well as asking people to recommend good street food, you can check the website of the Street Vendor Project for a list of the finalists in last year’s Vendy Awards. This tells you where and when they can usually be found.
Websites www.streetvendor.org, www.myspace.com/arepalady, www.halloberlinrestaurant.com
The ever-popular pretzel arrived with 19th-century German immigrants.
■ For an authentic German sausage cart, head for 54th Street in Manhattan. Near the Fifth Avenue crosswalk you will find Hallo Berlin, offering some of New York’s best wurst. Brothers Rolf and Wolfgang Babiel have been running the cart for a quarter of a century. Try the Democracy Special-your choice of wurst with sautéed potatoes, sauerkraut, and homemade sauces. If you want to enjoy your wurst and beer sitting down, the Babiels also operate beer garden restaurants.
■ Crisp, mouth-melting Colombian corn puffs, called arepas, are the specialty of the Arepa Lady, a regular winner of the Vendy Awards. Based in the borough of Queens, she operates only in the warmer months after 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays … the Fridays ani Saturdays when she feels like it that is. You would think this was bad for business, but customers flock from Manhattan in arepa-craving droves whenever she is around. Check her MySpace page to find out where she is.
PHILLY SANDWICHES
On East Oregon Avenue, Tony Luke’s proclaims itself in multihued neon splendor as home of the real Philly sandwich.
Sink your teeth into Philadelphia’s famous two-fisted sandwiches in their gritty urban birthplace.
For paradise on a bun—a cheese steak, garlicky roast pork, or a hoagie—ground zero lies in the old Italian row-house neighborhoods of South Philadelphia, where long, crusty rolls brimming with meat come with an extra side of “atty-tude.” The cheese steak—essentially, shaved beef grilled with cheese and onions—inspires the most passion, launching long lines from window-service palaces clad in steel and neon. Crowds gather at Ninth Street and Passyunk Avenue, where the sandwich’s inventor, Pat’s King of Steaks, duels every day with rival, Geno’s. But locals have ceded these titans to the tourists, opting for establishments in the deeper reaches of industrial South Philly—such as John’s Roast Pork and Tony Luke’s, both close to the Delaware River. Here, the sandwiches groan with heftier portions of meat and molten rivers of sharp provolone. John’s and Tony Luke’s are also prime spots for juice-drenched pork sandwiches, served with garlicky greens and spicy “long hots” (chilies). The hoagie has its roots among 19th-century Italian street vendors called “hokey-pokey” men, who sold “pinafore” rolls filled with antipasto salads. The best can be found in South Philadelphia’s corner delis, such as Lombardi’s, Cosmi’s, and Ricci Bros., where the cold cuts fall directly from the slicer onto rolls fresh from nearby bakeries.
When to Go For weather, the best months are March through May and September through November. The first week of July brings the Philadelphia Freedom Festival, with fireworks, parades, concerts, and other events commemorating the Declaration of Independence, signed in Philadelphia in 1776.
Planning Ninth Street and Washington Avenue also embrace Philadelphia’s Mexican and Vietnamese communities. At La Lupe, 1201 South Ninth Street, try the slow-roasted Mexican barbacoa lamb wrapped inside freshly pressed tortillas. On Washington, Vietnamese pho soup halls vie with restaurants such as Nam Phuong, where you eat off platters laden with spring rolls, “broken” rice, and meat cooked with lemongrass.
Websites www.gophila.com, www.phillyitalianmarket.com
The Italian Market
The awning-fringed sidewalks of Ninth Street near Washington Avenue are home to South Philadelphia’s Italian Market, one of the oldest continuously operating open-air street markets in the U.S. Here, a century-old roster of Italian merchants offers mouthwatering medleys at a variety of food stalls and stores. Make your choice among hundreds of cheeses, salamis, and olive oils at import stores, such as Di Bruno Bros. and Claudio’s. Fiorella’s, Cappuccio’s, and D’Angelo’s are old-school butchers, tempting you with sausages and house-cured wild boar prosciutto. For fresh pasta, try Superior Ravioli or Talluto’s. Finish your shopping spree at a pastry shop, such as Isgro’s, with fresh cannoli piped full of sweetened ricotta cheese.
KANSAS CITY BBQ
Racks of slow-cooked pork ribs, chilies, tomatoes, corn, garlic, and a horn-handled knife … the ingredients are assembled for a real KC barbecue.
World capital of barbecue, Kansas City was built on meat, and barbecued meat is still its gastronomic passion.
People wait in line by a gas station on the corner of 47th Avenue and Mission Road. They are not after fuel for their vehicles but fuel for their persons—the kind of fuel that includes a carryout “full slab” of barbecued pork ribs (enough for two or three hungry diners), slices of hot or cold beef brisket by the pound, or a “pig salad” of warm pulled pork. This is Oklahoma Joe’s BBQ, one of the most popular of Kansas City’s hundred or so barbecue eateries. The phenomenon that is Kansas City barbecue dates to around 1908, when African-American chef Henry Perry started slow-cooking pork ribs over hickory and oak, slapping on a tangy sauce of tomatoes, chilies, and molasses—and serving it all on newsprint for 25 cents a pop. In a city that had grown rich from its railhead, livestock exchange, and meatpacking plants, meat was king—something to be relished in as many different ways as possible, from “burnt ends” (savory tidbits from the end of a smoked beef or pork brisket) to Henry Perry’s barbecue magic. Add a touch of jazz and blues glamor—Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, and Charlie Parker were all barbecue enthusiasts—and the Kansas City barbecue was ready for elevation to heavenly status. While chefs since Perry’s time have added their own secret ingredients, the basic barbecue sauce and cooking method have remained much the same.
When to Go Fall offers clear skies and moderate temperatures, as well as the American Royal Barbecue competition. Summer brings tornados and triple-digit temperatures, but this is also when numerous barbecue competitions take place, including the Great Lenexa Barbecue Battle and the Laurie Hillbilly BBQ.
Planning The two holy grails of Kansas City barbecue are on Brooklyn Avenue-Arthur Bryant’s and Gates & Sons, both direct heirs of Henry Perry’s legacy. Among those who have feasted on Bryant’s brisket and ribs are U.S. Presidents Truman, Carter, and Reagan. Gates & Sons has other branches around town.
Websites www.visitkc.com, www.kcbs.us, www.americanroyal.com
World Series of Barbecue
In October, barbecue cooks from around the world descend on Kansas City for the American Royal Barbecue competition. Launched in 1980, this self-proclaimed “World Series of Barbecue” pits some 600 teams against each other in five categories: chicken, pork ribs, beef brisket, pork shoulder, and sausage. The four-day cook-off is the climax of KC’s barbecue season and the opening blast of the American Royal rodeo, horse show, and livestock extravaganza, held in the city’s Kemper Arena. Those aiming for Grand Champion must barbecue in all categories, except sausage. Winners are not always full-time cooks—the first was a psychiatrist. Running alongside the main event are side-dish and dessert competitions. And the best news: members of the public can feast on barbecued delights at vendor stalls.
L.A. FAST FOOD TOUR
The city lights up as dusk falls across downtown L.A. and the San Gabriel Mountains.
Los Angeles is known for its trendy restaurants with health-conscious menus, but Angelenos enjoy their fast food, too.
Pink’s is probably the world’s only hot dog stand with a parking attendant. You are in Hollywood, after all, and that limo pulled up alongside may belong to a star—when Aretha Franklin arrived in town for the Grammy Awards in February 2008, her first stop was at Pink’s to order eight hot dogs to take back to her hotel. Specialties of the stand, which opened in 1939, include its trademark chili dog (with mustard, chili, and onions), the 10-inch (25 centimeter) stretch chili dog, and the chili cheese dog. Go in, place your order, and watch your dog being built before your eyes. Then top it off with a bottle of YooHoo or Orange Crush soda. Still craving chili? The Original Tommy’s World Famous Hamburgers, which started in 1946 as a small walk-up stand on the corner of Beverly and Rampart, has several locations across L.A., all serving chili-slathered hamburgers and cheeseburgers (single-, double-, and triple-burger versions), chili cheese fries, regular fries, tamales, hot dogs, and chili dogs. Want music as you eat? Fatburger, The Last Great Hamburger Stand is now scattered across several U.S. states, but the original Fatburger is in L.A. Jukeboxes blast out everything from rock ’n’ roll to soul to R&B as you choose from a classic fast-food menu that includes homemade onion rings.
When to Go October through early June are the best months weather-wise. February brings even more stars than usual for the awards shows-the Academy Awards (Oscars) and the Grammy Awards.
Planning Pink’s opens at 9:30 a.m. and stays open until 2 a.m., Sundays through Thursdays, and until 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Original Tommy’s has most of its restaurants in northern Los Angeles, some open 24 hours. Fatburger has several locations in L.A.—you can order online. Philippe’s, a block away from Union Station, is open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Websites www.pinkshollywood.com, www.originaltommys.com, www.fatburger.com, www.philippes.com
Philippe’s: Home of the French Dip Sandwich
Philippe’s is unique in L.A., a place where patrons share tables with strangers and make use of any available seat. In business for more than 90 years, Philippe’s clings to its original ambience with sawdust on the floor, servers that keep the food line moving, and vintage photos and newspaper clippings. Its specialty-beef, ham, pork, and lamb French dip sandwiches-started with a mistake when the restaurant’s founder, Philippe Mathieu, accidentally dropped a French roll into a pan of hot roasting fat. The result was so delicious that customers came back for more. The menu includes other sandwiches, soups and stews, salads, and more esoteric items, such as pickled pigs’ feet. Philippe’s even has a wine list.
JERK PORK in BOSTON BAY
Brilliant tropical colors match the spicy hot seasoning on offer at a “jerk center” on Jamaica’s north shore.
The equivalent of about $2 buys you the best meal in Jamaica—a slab of jerk pork wrapped in butcher paper.
Jamaica’s biggest waves roll ashore in Boston Bay on the island’s northeastern shore, where the scent of sea mingles with the aroma of jerk pork from open-air stalls along the coast road. According to local legend, the jungle-shrouded John Crow Mountains rising to the south are where Jamaican jerk cooking originated among 17th- and 18th-century Maroons (escaped slaves), who roasted wild boar over pimento-wood fires. Nowadays, in Boston Bay they jerk just about anything: pork, chicken, goat, lamb, even fresh fish—poached in aluminum foil over an open flame. Seasoned with allspice (called pimento in Jamaica), Scotch bonnet (a very hot chili pepper), scallions (with a stronger flavor than the ones you buy in the U.S.), thyme, garlic, nutmeg, cinnamon, and whatever else the chef decides to throw in, the meat nearly melts in your mouth. “It was started by the Maroons,” says Devon Atkinson, chief cook and saucier at Mickey’s Jerk Center in Boston Bay. “They used to dig a hole and put it underneath the earth. They put some bushes and pimento wood on top, then covered it.” In modern times, the meat or fish is barbecued above ground, but little else has changed. Pimento wood and jerk sauce are still essential. “This is my secret recipe,” says Devon, offering a taste on the end of a wooden spoon. “It comes from my grandfather and my great grandfather before that. We jerk the original way.”
When to Go Jerk is a year-round treat in Jamaica and so is the tropical weather. Hurricanes occasionally hit the island between August and October, but otherwise the weather along the coast is nearly idyllic.
Planning Take home some bottled jerk sauce, sold at most of Boston Bay’s roadside stalls. Although every recipe is slightly different, they are all delightfully piquant. Walkerswood Plantation, near Ocho Rios, bottles different jerk sauces and seasonings, available in hotels, shops, and supermarkets around Jamaica.
Websites www.visitjamaica.com, www.walkerswood.com
Jerk Sauce
⅔ cup/2 oz/55 g allspice berries
2-3 hot chili peppers, seeded and chopped
3 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
5 cloves garlic, crushed
2-3 scallions (spring onions)
1 large bay leaf
½ tsp brown sugar
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp cinnamon, ground
1 tsp nutmeg, grated
2 tbsp lime juice or rum
Lightly toast the allspice, chilies, thyme, garlic, and scallions in a skillet (without oil), stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Transfer the toasted ingredients to a blender. Add the other ingredients and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Blend to a smooth paste, adding some water if necessary. Rub the paste into the meat and let stand for at least an hour before cooking.
AREPAS in CARACAS
From olives to cheese to hot chilies, the possible ingredients for arepa fillings are almost endless.
Feeling hungry in Venezuela? An arepera serving tasty cornmeal buns with a wealth of fillings is never hard to find.
All across the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, stalls and small restaurants serving piping hot arepas stay open throughout the humid tropical nights, catering to local crowds that never seem to dwindle. To Venezuelans, arepas are what bread is to people elsewhere in the world. Looking something like English muffins, they are delicious to eat and easy to make—precooked white cornstarch, water, and salt are the vital ingredients. Venezuelans have arepas for breakfast, as bar or café snacks during the day, with meals, or to fill that hungry hole in the stomach after a night clubbing. And as every good Venezuelan will tell you, arepas can be eaten in all kinds of ways. Once made, the dough is scooped into tennis-ball-sized spheres, then flattened between the palms of the hand into buns, which can be deep-fried, cooked on a budare (hot plate), baked, or simply made in an electric arepa-maker. After that, there is the question of the filling. You may just opt for a sliced arepa with butter. Alternatively, try a reina pepiada, with a chicken and avocado filling; or a dominó, with melted cheese and black beans, so that the inside looks like a domino; or an arepa de carne mechada (shredded beef), often served with cheese or a flavorsome tomato and vegetable sauce. If you want something sweet, ask for an arepa dulce, made with sugar instead of salt. Arepa in hand, make your way to a park, sit on a palm trunk, and watch a game of bolas criollas, the Venezuelan version of boules.
When to Go Venezuela is a year-round destination, but the best time to visit is during the dry season—September through April.
Planning In Caracas’s bustling Sabana Grande district, combine shopping with a visit to the funky open-air Arepa 24 Horas on Avenida Casanova—open, like many other areperas, 24 hours a day. Arepas are not confined to the capital—they are popular throughout the country and in neighboring Colombia.
Websites www.venezuelatuya.com, www.southamerica.cl
Tastes of Venezuela
■ Served with everything from arepas to meat, guasacaca is Venezuela’s version of Mexican guacamole-a spicy salsa made with avocados, chilies, onions, garlic, parsley, and cilantro.
■ Beef is boiled, then shredded-often by hand- and mixed with a black bean sauce to make the national dish, pabellón criollo. The meat is served with rice and fried plantain or fried eggs. During Lent, people sometimes use fish instead of beef.
■ Cachapas are corn pancakes, folded around a portion of one of the many soft, white, mozzarella-like Venezuelan cheeses. They are often eaten for breakfast.
Knock back a diablito (little devil), in which chili adds fire to a fruit shake.
VERACRUZ VARIETY
The street food in this Gulf Coast port city draws on an exotic mix of indigenous, Spanish, and Afro-Caribbean ingredients.
In the sultry climate of Veracruz, the best time to be outdoors is at night, when the air vibrates to the African-inspired rhythms of the ubiquitous musica tropical. And as you explore the waterfront or check out the nightlife around the main plaza, what better way to keep yourself going than with mouthwatering cold snacks—licuados (fruit shakes), paletas (frozen fruit bars), and countless kinds of helado (ice cream)? Since its founding by the conquistador, Hernán Cortés, in 1519, Veracruz has been Mexico’s main eastern port and a major gastronomic crossroads. Olive oil and a panoply of Mediterranean herbs and spices arrived from the Old World to add new layers of flavor to native Central American ingredients, such as corn, chilies, and different kinds of bean. The local Totonac people were the first to cure vanilla beans for culinary use. Later arrivals included pineapples, sugarcane, peanuts, and the banana’s savory cousin, the plantain. Today, this varied legacy is evident all around you. Puff pastry turnovers, called bolovanes, filled with a choice of crabmeat, tuna, or pineapple, tempt you from stalls along large thoroughfares. In the morning, freshly boiled shrimps straight from the docks set your taste buds dancing. Sample tamales wrapped in banana leaves, fried tortitas made from plantain dough filled with black beans, or thick corn tortillas, called picaditas, topped with salsa and cheese. And for a drink that packs a punch, try a toro—a milk shake laced with the local aguardiente, a potent sugarcane liquor.
When to Go The hot, humid climate makes fall and winter the best times to visit. Carnaval, the city’s major celebration, is held during the week before Lent. If traveling in summer, try for July’s Festival Internacional Afrocaribeño, a two-week celebration of African music and dance in the Americas.
Planning Spend an afternoon in the town of Boca del Río, south of Veracruz. Its seaside restaurants offer the region’s best fish and shellfish, some flavored with the local herb, acuyo. Take a day to visit Papantla, north of the city, to see the pre-Hispanic site of El Tajín, buy vanilla beans, and watch the astonishing dance of the voladores (flyers), in which four men attached by ropes to a pole fly through the air.
Websites www.planetware.com, www.carnaval.com, www.mexconnect.com
Tropical Fruit Treats
Veracruz and the surrounding area are paradise for lovers of tropical fruit. Whether eaten fresh or enjoyed in the form of cold helados, paletas, or licuados, the fruits include many that are familiar-mangoes, coconuts, papayas (or pawpaws), and pineapples. Others may be a new experience.
■ About the size of a grapefruit, the cherimoya has a segmented green skin and succulent white flesh. The flavor is fragrant, with hints of strawberry. If you eat a cherimoya fresh, beware of the large black pits.
■ The guanábana (or soursop) is recognizable by its spiky green skin. The creamy white flesh is often pulped and used in licuados or helados.
■ The pink or orange flesh of the mamey has a sweet pumpkin-like flavor. Try it fresh, with a little lime juice squeezed over it.
■ A favorite in licuados, the zapote blanco looks a bit like a large plum. The flavor of its yellowish-white flesh is often compared to a combination of peaches and vanilla.
TAKOYAKI IN OSAKA
A headscarfed chef in Dotonbori Street pours the octopus batter over a special grooved grill used for making takoyaki.
A spicy octopus mix cooked in batter provides a succulent street snack in the city often called Japan’s food capital.
The chef’s hand moves rapidly over a well-worn grill, using a chopstick to flick over the doughy contents of each golf-ball-sized takoyaki. As the mixture turns, a crispy casing forms on the outside of the balls, while the batter inside—thick with octopus chunks, pickled ginger, and cabbage—remains rich and creamy. Reaching for a thin cardboard tray, the chef piles it high with the freshly cooked takoyaki, adds a generous sprinkling of shaved fish flakes (katsuobushi), fine dried seaweed, and savory barbecue-style sauce, and passes it to a waiting patron. Surprisingly perhaps, Osaka’s favorite street-side snack was born out of hardship in Japan—caused by food shortages in the aftermath, first, of a devastating earthquake in 1923 and, later, World War II. At these times, batter-based dishes, such as takoyaki, were popular because they were cheap, and by the time the country had recovered, the people of Osaka had developed a lasting fondness for them. These days, you will find stalls, shops, and restaurants serving takoyaki throughout the city, but if you want to enjoy the tasty octopus parcels while taking in the pulsing beat of Japan’s second-largest conurbation, visit Dotonbori Street alongside the Dotomborigawa River. Here, flashing neon lights tower above you, while at ground level among a warren of bars and eateries takoyaki vendors ply their trade.
When to Go Year-round. If you go in early April, you will catch some of the cherry blossom festivals that take place around Osaka.
Planning Dotonbori Street is near Namba Station. To experience more of the local atmosphere, visit in the late afternoon or evening- and be prepared for crowds. Japan’s street food is generally safe to eat, but go for the busy places with longer lines of Japanese people as these will be selling the best octopus. Also, especially if visiting in summer, check that the octopus is being kept cool and out of the sun.
Websites www.osaka-info.jp, www.japan-guide.com
Make Your Own
■ Takamasa in Dotonbori Street offers a “hands-on takoyaki experience,” in which you cook your own takoyaki. Takamasa is one of Osaka’s best-known takoyaki restaurants, with other branches across the city. Sample the negi-takoyaki, with leeks (negi) added to the batter mix.
■ Tamagoyaki (or akashiyaki) is a soggier alternative to takoyaki, in which the octopus balls are dipped in fish broth (dashi) before being served.
■ The cult of the takoyaki has earned the dish its own miniature theme park, the Osaka Takoyaki Museum. You learn about the history of the takoyaki and sample offerings prepared by some of the city’s most popular takoyaki shops.
FAST FEASTS IN KOREA
Fresh vegetables combined with fish or seafood, then deep-fried, equals a perfect Seoul street snack.
In Seoul and other South Korean cities, take your pick from a rich repertoire of street-cooked seafood and other delights.
Evening falls in Seoul, and as food vendors fire up their huge woks in brightly lit stalls, pungent aromas start floating through the city’s back streets, transformed by the street chefs’ lighting and tent-like canopies into giant walk-in food halls. For an outsider, the tubes, cubes, balls, and other deep-fried concoctions on offer may not seem immediately appetizing, but if you plunge in, the reward can be an outstanding food experience. For a delicious light snack, try gimbap (rice wrapped in seaweed) or dwigim, the Korean version of Japanese tempura, featuring seafood and vegetables deep-fried in batter. Mandu (dumplings) are popular, as are odaeng (fish cakes), especially in winter. Or you can sample the ubiquitous dokbokki (rice cakes), stir-fried with vegetables and served in a spicy sauce, sometimes wrapped in a sausage. There are several varieties of pancake—including bindaetteok (pancakes made with mung-bean flour)—and numerous forms of skewered meat. Dessert items include a Korean version of the waffle and hotteok, thick floury pastries with cinnamon fillings. Although most people eat these snacks on the spot, vendors will wrap them for you if requested, so you can take them to a quiet place to enjoy them at leisure.
When to Go Most street stalls set up around dusk and close around 11 p.m., although some stay open later on weekends. There are a few seasonal specialties, such as refreshing iced bingsu (concoctions of fruit and other ingredients) in summer and warming soups in Korea’s frigid winters.
Planning Jongno, a major east-west thoroughfare, is a prime location for street food in central Seoul. Other good areas include Sinchon (around the university), the Myeong-dong shopping district, and around major railway stations. In the old alleyways of the Insa-dong district, you will find traditional Korean rice cakes (tteok) and a wide range of sweet cakes.
Websites www.visitkorea.or.kr, www.foodinkorea.org
Korean Dishes
■ Served with practically everything, Korea’s most famous dish, gimchi (or kimchi) has a salty, spicy, pungent flavor, which can be an acquired taste for Westerners. To make it, cabbage and other vegetables are mixed with garlic, chili, and ginger, then left to ferment in an earthenware pot.
■ Other Korean mainstays include gimbap (Korean sushi), numerous varieties of soup (guk), bulgogi (barbecued beef), and bi bim bap-an all-in-one dish that includes boiled rice, gimchi, meat or seafood (or both), all topped with a fried egg and served in a weighty iron bowl.
A customer makes his choice at a Newton Circus stall.
SINGAPORE FUSION
A satay seller in East Coast Lagoon Food Village
In Singapore’s “hawker” centers, you can sample one of the world’s most diverse culinary cultures for little more than pocket change.
Three great traditions come together in Singaporean cuisine—Indian, Chinese, and Malay. And in the clusters of hawker stalls, officially called “food centers” or “food courts,” that dot the island-state, you can join Singaporeans, from tycoons to taxi drivers, in their quest for the best of this rich diversity. Start with one of the city’s most famous dishes—roti prata (literally, flatbread), a crisp Indian pancake served with lentil curry. If you are still hungry and in an Indian mood, add a murtabak, minced mutton and onions stuffed inside a prata pancake. The national dish, Hainanese chicken rice, is Chinese in origin and found at nearly every hawker stall—you sprinkle it with soy sauce, chilies, and ginger slices, according to taste. Chinese immigrants also brought char kway teow, large rice noodles fried in a wok with seafood and pork sausage. Among Malay dishes, satay is the best known—tender bits of chicken, mutton, beef, or seafood, cooked on wooden skewers over an open charcoal flame. You can eat the meat unadorned, or relish it with peanut sauce, cucumber, and onion. Fancy a rich seafood soup made with coconut milk and chili? Seek out another Malay offering—laksa. Nasi padang, a heady blend of curried meat, vegetables, and rice, has its origins in a slightly different direction—the nearby Indonesian island of Sumatra.
When to Go Singapore’s balmy tropical climate is ideal for year-round outdoor eating. As nearly every food center is covered, the island’s typical afternoon rains will not dampen your appetite. The Singapore Food Festival in July and August includes events at food centers.
Planning As a rule of thumb, you can tell how good a food center is by the number of luxury cars parked nearby. With the sidewalks nearly clean enough to eat off and a government obsessed with rules and regulations, Singapore’s street food is as safe as you are likely to find anywhere in the world. Hawker centers are also ideal for watching the lively social intercourse that is an essential part of any Singaporean meal.
Websites www.visitsingapore.com, www.singaporefoodfestival.com.sg, www.laupasat.biz
Singapore’s food centers were established because of government concerns about the standards of hygiene among street hawkers. Although the centers are found throughout the island, a few are more celebrated than others, some for their food, others because of their outstanding locations.
■ Newton Circus is a horseshoe-shaped collection of more than 80 food stalls in the middle of a giant traffic circle on Clemenceau Avenue. Although open throughout the day, Newton is renowned as a late-night gathering place of taxi drivers and after-club eaters. Among its specialties are oyster omelets and popiah spring rolls.
■ Chili crab covered in a tangy red sauce and freshly steamed fish are among the specialties at East Coast Lagoon Food Village in the Bedok neighborhood between Changi Airport and downtown Singapore.
■ The multistory Chinatown Complex Food Centre on Smith Street may not offer much in the way of romantic ambience, but many locals swear by this place as the best collection of hawker stalls on the island.
■ Lau Pa Sat Festival Market offers typical Singapore hawker food in a Victorian-era market setting, beneath a filigree cast-iron roof manufactured in Scotland in 1894.
BEIJING’S BUDGET BITES
Many of Beijing’s most popular xiao chi (snack) restaurants have stalls at Jiu Men, so you can take your pick of the best.
Rub elbows with locals, and fill up with a banquet’s worth of flavors for bargain prices.
Wangfujing Xiaochi Jie is Beijing’s famous alley of snack stalls. Here, many a Western TV travel-show presenter has grinned bravely for the camera while trying exotic morsels, such as skewered scorpions. But these stalls are now strictly for the tourists. For something more authentic, head just opposite to the Gongmei Dasha Gourmet Food Street in the basement of the Artistic Mansion, where shoppers and office workers elbow each other for access to stalls collectively selling what amounts to a cheap culinary tour of China. To order, all you do is point to the snacks that take your fancy, from steamed stuffed buns and vinegary Shanxi pasta dishes to muttony dishes from China’s Muslim northwest. Choose a Qingdao draft beer to wash it down, or perhaps a Taiwan-style fluorescent “bubble” tea, thick with suspended tapioca balls. Then take everything to a central group of long tables abuzz with office gossip, where shoppers scrutinize their neighbor’s choices—you might make some local friends. For the best of Beijing’s own snacks, visit Jiu Men Xiao Chi (“Nine Gates Snacks”)—a rebuilt traditional courtyard house in the Houhai Lake area, where caged mynah birds greet you in Mandarin at the gate. Specialties include dumplings with assorted fillings, stews, noodles, stir-fried tofu, and toothsome sweets, such as candied haws and ai wo wo—balls of glutinous rice with a sweet bean paste filling.
When to Go Beijing’s weather is best from April through mid-May and in September and October, but food courts are cozy on even the bitterest winter’s day.
Planning Most food courts are open throughout the day until 9 or 10 p.m. They are at their busiest around noon and in the early evening on weekdays.
Websites www.shinkong-place.com, www.beijing2008.cn
Food Court Browsing
Food courts are the perfect place to sample dishes that are all too often unknown in Chinese restaurants overseas. If you want to combine shopping with eating, try the food courts located in the basements or top floors of most department stores and shopping malls. Beijing’s shiniest food court is in the marble-floored basement of Shin Kong Place in the Chaoyang district.
Most food courts operate a stored-value card system, with a minimum payment that includes a small deposit. Head for the cashiers’ counter first, hand over at least ¥30 (around US$4), then offer your card to be swiped whenever you make a purchase. If your appetite is bigger than your credit, you can top up the card. Hand over the card when you leave to recover any outstanding balance and your deposit.
STREET CHOICE IN BANGKOK
With her ingredients and equipment neatly arranged around her, a Bangkok street vendor prepares a feast.
Wherever you wander in the Thai capital’s streets, tantalizing food aromas hijack you and set your taste buds tingling.
Afresh fragrance leads you to a stall selling fruit. Nearby is another stand selling som tom (green papaya salad), or skewered cuttlefish, or ice cream—with toppings that include corn, red beans, and candied pumpkin. A recent survey showed that Bangkok has around 20,000 street vendors selling 213 different kinds of food. It is impossible to recommend any specific stall or cart. Few of them have menus, at least in English, so you just have to know what you want (and the Thai name for it) or peer at the ingredients to surmise what is on offer. Want curry on rice? Stir-fried pork? Noodles with beef or seafood in gravy (called radna)? Or perhaps something more sophisticated, such as noodles fried with dried shrimp, tofu, bean sprouts, almonds, and herbs (pad Thai)? Shuffle up to the cart of your choice, place an order, and watch the cook bend over the wok like the conductor of an orchestra. The ingredients sputter and sizzle in a gossamer of steam, and within minutes you are handed a heaping plate. Pull up a plastic chair and prepare to feast. You will find stands nearly everywhere in the city, but some of the best selections are in clusters off Silom Road, especially along Soi Convent, and on Samsen Road Soi 2, where the stalls stay open all night. The price for a typical plateful is 20 to 50 baht (50 cents to $1.40), and 5 baht (15 cents) gets you an extra piset (helping).
When to Go The best time to visit Thailand is November through February, during the dry, cool season, when almost every day is sunny and temperatures average 85-95°F (29-35°C).
Planning There are even more stalls and carts out by night than during the day. If you are concerned about sanitary conditions, Thailand’s Department of Health has developed a ten-step code of practice for street vendors, and regular inspections by field officers take place in some areas. In general, frequent stalls where lines are long, because the food is turned over more quickly.
Thai noodles on a bed of banana leaves
Noodles & More
■ Noodles are the most common kind of Thai street food, and there are many different kinds to choose from. They include chicken noodles, duck noodles, egg noodles with wanton, and yen ta four (noodles in red soy-bean paste with fish balls, squid, and morning glory).
■ Made-to-order food stalls whip up whatever you want, such as pad kaprao (stir-fried meat with holy basil leaves), kai jiaow (Thai-style omelet), moo kratium prik Thai (stir-fried pork in garlic and pepper), and moo daeng (red barbecued pork). Rice dishes include kaao laad kaeng (curry on rice) and kaao pad (fried rice).
UNUSUAL FOOD AND DRINK FESTIVALS
From eels to melons, rattlesnakes to cabbages, no food is too weird or too humble to have a festival in its honor. Many celebrations include parades, cook-offs, competitions, and races.
1 Rattlesnake Roundup, Sweetwater, TX
This rattlesnake rodeo is held every second weekend in March. The four-day festival includes snake-handling demonstrations, a rattlesnake-cooking contest, and a rattlesnake-eating race. Stalls sell fried adder meat, resembling chicken in flavor and alligator in texture, alongside serpentine by-products.
Planning Served by Greyhound bus, Sweetwater is 223 miles (359 km) west of Dallas or 412 miles (663 km) east of El Paso by road. www.rattlesnakeroundup.net, www.sweetwatertexas.org
2 Watermelon Thump, Luling, TX
Originally a frontier cowboy outpost, Luling achieved 19th-century notoriety as “the toughest town in Texas.” It is calmer now, but Luling still eschews table manners during this four-day thump, encompassing a seed-spitting contest, with a cash prize for anyone who beats the 1989 world record—68.77 ft (20.96 m)—and a watermelon-scoffing contest.
Planning The thump falls on the last Thursday through Sunday in June. Luling is 59 miles (95 km) northeast of San Antonio by road. Nearby Austin hosts a tongue-in-cheek Spam celebration, the Spamarama, around April Fools’ Day. www.watermelonthump.com
3 World Championship BBQ, Memphis, TN
Probably the world’s largest hog roast, encompassing some 200 teams, 90,000 spectators, and prize money exceeding $60,000, this three-day cook-off attracts some serious competition; many teams have big-name sponsors. Less seriously, there is also a porcine-themed Ms. Piggie drag show.
Planning Held at Tom Lee Park, the contest occupies a weekend during the Memphis in May International Festival. www.memphisinmay.org
4 Ice Cream Expo, Yokohama, Japan
The Japanese savor unexpected flavors at this two-week annual ice cream celebration. Past ingredients include beef tongue—a 2008 bestseller—caviar, Indian curry, cheese, crab, pit viper, octopus, prawn, raw horse, eel, and oysters.
Planning Held at the Red Brick Warehouse on bay front in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, the annual expo has no fixed dates. www.city.yokohama.jp
5 Cabbage Festival, Vecsés, Hungary
This small town next to Budapest Ferihegy airport lies in the heart of cabbage-growing territory, and its inhabitants enjoy nationwide renown for their purportedly health-giving sauerkraut. Vecsés’ brassica bash attracts some 20,000 visitors with cook-offs, food stalls, folk music, and a cabbage-themed pageant.
Planning The one-day festival occurs in October. Vecsés is 25 minutes by train from Budapest Nyugati station. www.hungarytourism.hu
6 Pourcailhade, Trie-sur-Baïse, France
Held in the town of Trie-sur-Baïse in southwest France since 1975, this celebration of everything porcine takes place in one of France’s biggest pig-rearing districts, and includes a piglet race, pig-costume contest, a pig-imitation competition, and charcuterie shopping at France’s last dedicated pork market.
Planning The festival falls on the second Sunday in August. Trie-sur-Baïse is 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Tarbes, capital of the Haute-Pyrénées department. www.bigorre.org
7 Xicolatada, Palau-de-Cerdagne, France
August 15 has long been a wine-fueled festival in this Pyrenean village near Andorra, and for 300 years villagers in need of a hangover cure next morning have drunk hot chocolate (xicolatada) served from giant cauldrons in the village center. Today, the villagers are joined by numerous tourists. The 11 a.m. pick-me-up is made by a guild of master chocolatiers from a secret recipe.
Planning You can reach Palau-de-Cerdagne by the narrow-gauge Train Jaune (Yellow Train) linking La Tour du Carol with Villefranche-de-Conflent; the nearest station is Bourg-Madame. www.midi-france.info
8 Fête des Fromages, Rocamadour, France
This medieval village in the Lot area of southwest France holds a vast annual cheese festival enticing some 50 artisan producers. Attractions include a pungent cheese market, music, and a wine-lubricated dinner dance. Pride of place goes to the village’s eponymous cheese, which is made with unpasteurized goat’s milk and often eaten very young on toasted walnut bread.
Planning Rocamadour is south of the market town of Brive-la-Gaillarde. The two-day festival spans a weekend in late May. www.rocamadour.net
Although eels give rise to its name, this small Cambridgeshire city has but one commercial catcher still in business. Held annually since 2004, the festival starts with a parade led by Ellie the Eel, a giant replica made by local schoolchildren. Chances to sample smoked and jellied eels abound.
Planning The festival is on a Saturday at the end of April/early May. Look out for smoked eel at Ely’s farmers’ market, held every second and fourth Saturday monthly. www.eastcambs.gov.uk
! Chili Fiesta, West Dean Gardens, England
Visitors to the fiesta, held in the gardens of West Dean center for arts, crafts, and rural studies, can learn about chili cultivation in the Victorian glasshouses and sample around 300 chili varieties at some 100 stalls.
Planning The ticket-only, two-day festival spans an August weekend. West Dean is north of the city of Chichester. www.westdean.org.uk
A 220-lb (100 kg) ice cream cake decorated with fruit is one of many attractions at the Yokohama ice cream expo.
KOTA BAHARU
Vendors in Kota Baharu’s night market serve local specialties from pushcarts that operate as portable kitchens.
Dine under the stars on some of Malaysia’s best street food in this small city in the northeast of the country.
Amid steaming woks and smoking charcoal braziers, food hawkers at the pasar malan (night market) of Kota Baharu, state capital of Kelantan, quickly boil, baste, grill and stir-fry a delectable array of ingredients to prepare traditional dishes influenced by the mingling of Indian, Chinese, Thai, and other cultures in the state. A man making murtabaks, a type of Indian crepe, flings a piece of dough on a hot grill, spreading it evenly with one hand to the thinness of parchment. Filling it with minced chicken, chopped onions and eggs, he neatly folds over the sides before flipping and cooking it to a golden brown Nearby a young girl carefully fans the smoldering coals with a palm leaf as her mother, with a baby balanced on one hip, deftly turns bamboo skewers of sizzling beef satays marinated in a peppery sauce of chilies and fiery spices. At other food stalls in the crowded market vendors sell ayam percik (Malay-style spicy barbecue chicken), beef rendang (spiced coconut beef), sambal udang (spicy prawns), and fish and lamb curries. A glass of teh tarik (“stretched” tea, made with black tea and condensed milk and poured back and forth between two mugs from a height until it cools and froths), tempers the heat of the Kelantanese street food.
When to Go Any time of year, although spring and fall are the wet seasons, with brief daily rains.
Planning There are daily flights to Kota Baharu from Penang and Kuala Lumpur and good road and rail links with other cities. Vendors begin setting up their stalls around 5 p.m. The entire market shuts down at 7 p.m. for about 45 minutes for evening prayers, when everyone must vacate the premises, and then opens again until midnight or later. The market, located just off Jalan Pintu Pong close to Pasar Siti Khatijah (Central Market), is within walking distance of many hotels.
Websites www.tourism.gov.my, www.tic.kelantan.gov.my
Market Etiquette
Supper at a Malaysian street market is a leisurely, social affair and should be tackled one course at a time.
■ Select your first course and then take it to one of the many small tables scattered throughout the marketplace.
■ Although cutlery is usually available, it is customary to eat with your hands, using the teapot of cold water in the center of the table to wash before, during, and after eating. Muslims use only their right hand to eat.
■ When you are ready, wander back through the stalls and pick your next course, returning to a table to eat.
■ Each set of tables is usually attached to a drink stand, so wait for someone to come and take your order. No alcohol is served, but a wide array of fruit juices is available.
VIETNAMESE STREET FOOD
Some street-food sellers provide low stools so that customers can sit down to eat.
There is no better way to sample Vietnam’s diverse cuisine than at the stalls and carts of its many street vendors.
If you want to know what the Vietnamese eat, look no farther than the street, as cooking and eating in the open is a way of life—shored up by an army of cart-pushing, yoke-carrying, bicycle- and motorcycle-riding vendors selling an unimaginable array of snacks and meals, sweets and drinks. Here a woman serves bo pia (spring rolls stuffed with Chinese sausage) to customers seated on low plastic stools; there another stuffs grilled pork, carrot and daikon (radish) pickle, and pâté and cilantro sprigs into a crackly-crusted baguette (a holdover from French colonial rule) for bánh mì. Amid the displays of fish, meat, and produce in the market in coastal Hôi An, a vendor squats by a charcoal brazier cooking banh khoai—crispy pancakes folded around bean sprouts, belly pork, and shrimp—in long-handled crepe pans; another serves ngo bap (a breakfast dish of hominy mixed with black beans, chopped peanuts, ground sesame seeds, sugar, and caramelized shallots) from behind a counter. And on Hanoi’s streets, holes-in-the wall offering bia hoi (draught beer) sit cheek-by-jowl with others serving Vietnam’s national dish, pho (beef and noodle soup), and lesser-known northern specialties like bun rieu, rice noodles in a rich crab broth, and bánh cuõn, steamed rice-flour pancakes rolled around chopped pork and wood ear mushrooms, crowned with sweet caramelized shallots, and served with slivered Thai basil and fish. Faced with such abundance, where do you start? The answer is: anywhere. In Vietnam, if it looks too good to pass up, it probably is.
When to Go December through February are relatively dry in the south, cooler and sometimes rainy in the middle, and damp and chilly in the north. The wet season starts in earnest in June; avoid the flood-prone months of September through November.
Planning Vietnamese street food is a seven-day-a-week, 24-hour-a-day phenomenon, though you will find the most variety from dawn through lunch and in the early after-work hours.
Websites www.spirithouse.com.au, www.luxurytravelvietnam.com, www.vietworldkitchen.typepad.com
A street vendor selling French loaves
Market Tips
Vietnamese wet (fresh food) markets offer the best opportunities to try a variety of street foods in one place.
All but the tiniest have a food court of permanent stalls selling everything from steaming noodle soups to fruit juices and shaved ice desserts called che.
Head for the most crowded stall, or the one that appears to be making the most deliveries to other vendors at the market (watch for women carrying trays of the stall’s specialty).
It is acceptable to order by pointing at what someone else is eating. Prices are rarely posted, so ask before sitting down to eat. And if hygiene is a concern, stick to hot dishes like noodle soups.
A vendor wheels his cart into place.
CHAAT IN MUMBAI
Bhelpuri is served with a variety of toppings.
On the way home from work or school, at the beach or in the park, Mumbaians snack on the city’s famous street foods.
The sidewalks of Mumbai, India’s largest and busiest city and its financial capital, are captivating places. Pick your way between the pavement dentists, the ear-cleaning men, the shoe-shiners, and street barbers, and you will find a huge variety of sweet and savory nibbles (chaat) on sale at roadside stalls and carts. Salty and crunchy, sweet and sour, chaats are made from fried chickpeas, puffed rice, ginger, or potato patties topped with yogurt, onion, and spices. Looking for a quick and tasty meal, some of Bollywood’s biggest stars are regularly spotted among the evening crowds that accumulate around the best stalls. Popular ballads have been written about the city’s street food—your only challenge is choosing from the hundreds of delicately spiced snacks on offer. Bhelpuri—a mixture of crisp puffed rice, spiced potato, sev (crunchy gram-flour fragments), onions, fresh herbs, chutney, and lime, all to be scooped into the mouth with your fingers or a piece of flaky bread—is king of Mumbai street snacks, every bite slightly different, and is especially popular at the city’s Chowpatty Beach. Vada, a highly spiced potato dumpling served on a piece of bread with chutney, is a staple food for the city’s workforce. Need to refresh? Try a lassi. This yogurt drink is available sweetened or with a pinch of salt—amazingly good at cooling down a mouth on fire from all those chilies!
When to Go If you are planning on eating plenty of street food, avoid the monsoon season between July and September, when there are a lot of flies in the city.
Planning Chaat stalls and houses are dotted all over Mumbai, but the stalls at Chowpatty Beach are famous throughout India. There are clusters of stalls outside railroad stations and the city’s colleges. To avoid an upset stomach, eat only from stalls where you can see the food being prepared and cooked in front of you. As always in India, avoid drinks containing ice and water that is not in a sealed bottle, and peel any fruit that you eat.
Website www.mumbai-masala.com/index.html
Mango Yogurt Drink Mango Lassi
Lassi originated in the Punjab region of India. The traditional version is made with yogurt, water, salt, and spices, but sweetened fruit lassis have become very popular.
Serves 4
1 fresh mango or mango pulp (available canned)
3 cups/24 oz/675 g plain yogurt
1 cup/8 fl oz/225 g milk
½ cup/3½ oz/100 g sugar
Crushed ice to serve
Ground cardamom
If you are using a fresh mango, slice it and remove the pit. Place the mango, yogurt, milk, sugar, and cardamom into a blender and blend until it is smooth, about 2 minutes.
To serve, fill each glass about halfway with crushed ice and pour in the lassi. Sprinkle a little more cardamom on top.
The lassi can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours.
PUCHKAS IN CALCUTTA
Keep an eye out for wandering salesmen who set up makeshift stalls to sell their puchkas to passersby.
If you are feeling hungry, fill the gap with a few of these liquid-filled snacks that literally explode in the mouth.
Two disparate experiences collide when you visit the Victoria Memorial Hall and its adjoining gardens in the heart of Calcutta in northeast India. The palatial-looking marble memorial to Queen Victoria, “Empress of India,” took 20 years to build and cost 10 million rupees by the time it was inaugurated in 1921. Across the road, the second delight, the puchka, holds its own. Unrivaled in its ability to astound the taste buds with its contrast of textures and flavors, this spicy street snack is the Calcutta-dweller’s pride and is sold to passersby from stalls, carts, and trolleys all over the city. The vendor takes a crisp, hollow shell of deep-fried dough, or puri, makes a hole in it, and fills it with a pungent, sweet and sour, soupy liquid. This rather formidable snack, which should be downed in one mouthful, explodes as you bite into it, a feat that is tricky to perform without mishap, but it is worth the effort as a succession of flavors assault your taste buds. A usual order is five to eight puchkas, and the vendor fills and hands them to you one or two at a time. With practice, devotees find ways to keep pace with the puchka walla’s (vendor’s) quick dip-fill-and-hand-out routine, and contests develop to see who can down the most puchkas without taking a break.
When to Go Calcutta is best in winter-November through March-when the air is crisp and less sultry and humid than in summer.
Planning Flights from most Indian cities and many international destinations come regularly into Net aji Subhash Chandra Bose airport. Local transport is cheap (car rental for half a day costs about 400 rupees/$8). Have some small change on you for paying for street food. And don’t miss a ride in the ramshackle trams that clang around the city’s crowded streets.
Websites www.indianholiday.com, www.kolkata.org.uk
Puchka Fillings
Called pani puri in Mumbai and gol goppa in Delhi, puchkas are a favorite taste-bud tickler in many parts of India. The liquid filling is usually spiced with tamarind extract, boiled and strained dates, cumin, ground mint leaves, chili powder, coriander powder, black salt, and cinnamon. The mix differs marginally from region to region.
Once limited to being street food, puchkas have become fashionable and are a constant at wedding buffet tables these days, with iced spiced water, vodka, and other exotic fillings finding favor.
STREET FOOD IN ISRAEL
Although deep-fried in hot fat, good falafel is not greasy.
Among the wealth of street food available in Jerusalem, drawn from many cuisines, the falafel is king.
Thanks to a centuries-old Arab population, and the Jewish state’s “ingathering of the exiles” from around the globe, contemporary Israel is where Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines meet. Nowhere is this combination of flavors more easily accessible than in the street food of the city of Jerusalem. The Old City is home to Jaffar’s Sweets, a long-established shop on Souk Khan es-Zeit (by the Damascus Gate), where kanafeh, neon-orange shreds of phyllo-like dough drenched in syrupy sugar water, and other Arab sweets are made daily. Other indigenous foods include maqluba, a casserole made from rice, sliced eggplant, sliced tomato, onion, cauliflower, and mountains of savory lamb or chicken. Hummus, a Middle Eastern staple, is best tasted in the alleyways of the Old City as well as at establishments like Lina and Abu Shukri, although New City blue-collar lunch counters, such as Ta’ami and Pinati, whip up a mean chickpea puree. And everywhere in between kiosks offer the quintessential Jerusalem street food, the deep-fried chickpea balls known the world over as falafel, sold wrapped in flatbread and served with a variety of toppings. Most of the city’s falafel recipes yield moist, hot fritters green from cilantro and parsley, but Yemenite-style falafel vendors eschew the herbs for a purer, golden variety.
When to Go The winter festival of Hanukkah, and the harvest-themed Jewish holidays of the midspring and midfall, are magical times in Jerusalem, but the city can be very busy and prices spike. The same can be said of summer, when the weather can be oppressively hot.
Planning Allow a few days to explore the Old City. Other key landmarks in Jerusalem are the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, the Mount of Olives, and the Israel Museum. Day trips to the Dead Sea, Bethlehem and the wineries, and the goat-cheese farms and olive-oil presses of the Judean Hills can be arranged.
Websites www.jerusalemite.net, www.jerusalem.com, www.goisrael.com
Falafel wrapped in flatbread is a favorite street food.
Falafel Accompaniments
■ Falafel is wrapped in laffa. Also called eish tanur (oven flame) in Jerusalem, laffa is a large flatbread brought to Israel by Iraqi immigrants.
■ Variously colored cabbage, or kruv, is usually pickled and sometimes drenched in mayonnaise.
■ Amba is an Iraqi sauce made from cured mangoes with fenugreek and turmeric.
■ A paste of peppers, called charif, of Yemenite origin comes in red and green varieties. Its spiciness varies.
CEVAPI IN SARAJEVO
The streets of Sarajevo’s Old Town are filled with outdoor restaurants, shops, and markets.
Cevapi are the national dish of Bosnia, and the best place to enjoy them is in the Bosnian capital’s Old Town.
If you wander the narrow, cobbled streets of Sarajevo’s 15th-century Bascarsija, or historic Old Town, built during the Ottoman occupation, your senses will be assailed by the aroma coming from the area’s many cevadznica, or eateries specializing in cevapi. These small, succulent, spicy, mincemeat sausages are grilled over an open coal fire and served inside a soft, pita-like flatbread called somun. Cevapi were probably introduced to the region by the Ottomans, and in predominantly Muslim Bosnia they are made with beef or lamb or a mixture of the two. Typically, they are served with chopped raw onions, but you can also enjoy them accompanied with kajmak, an unripened cheese similar to clotted cream, or ajvar, a spicy sauce made from peppers, eggplants, garlic, and chili, washed down with ayran, a thin yogurt drink, or fruit juice. If you enjoy a hotter flavor, try sis cevap—sausages made from ground beef mixed with chilies before grilling. Among the best and most popular cevadznica are Zeljo and its sister branch, Zeljo II, which are both located on Kundurdzi uk Street, just around the corner from the bazaar and the Gazi Husrev-Beg Mosque.
When to Go Anytime, but the best weather occurs May through September. There is an annual month-long festival in July called Bašcaršija Nights, with free outdoor performances showcasing Bosnian music, theater, and dance. The internationally renowned Sarajevo Film Festival takes place every August.
Planning Allow two or three days to explore Sarajevo. It has a compact, easily walkable city center. The Old Town is a short taxi or tram ride from the main bus station, and the airport can be reached direct by taxi, or via tram or bus stations near the airport. You do not need to reserve restaurant tables in advance.
Websites www.sarajevo-tourism.com, www.sarajevo.ba, www.bascarsijskenoci.ba
Snacking in Sarajevo
Sarajevo is full of shops selling delicious savory pies (pita) at all hours of the day. One of the most popular types is burek, made of thin layers of flaky pastry stuffed with meat and rolled into a coil, but there are numerous varieties. The range of fillings includes cheese (sirnica), cheese and spinach (zeljanica), pumpkin (tikvinica), and spicy potato (krompirusa).
Pies are sold by the slice or by weight. One of the most popular vendors is Bosna, on Bravadziluk Street.
FRENCH FRIES IN GHENT
Fries are sold all over Ghent, often in paper cones with a spoonful of mayonnaise.
Experience french fries cooked to perfection in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.
Belgium is a nation of food-lovers schooled virtually from birth in the fine arts of good cooking, and they apply this fastidiousness to their street food as well. And the ultimate Belgian street food? Unquestionably it is the humble french fry—frite in French, friet or frietje in Dutch—cooked to perfection: sizzling hot, crispy on the outside, and served with a large dollop of mayonnaise. In the old Flemish university town of Ghent, head for the Vrijdagmarkt, the spacious market square in the historic city center. There you will find Frituur Jozef, a classic wooden frietkot (a semipermanent frying van) that has been serving fries since 1898. No corner-cutting here: The husband-and-wife team running the show peel and chop the potatoes themselves each morning. Their frietjes could be a meal in themselves, but Frituur Jozef also offers the traditional range of accompaniments, such as meatballs in tomato sauce, deep-fried sausages, and stoofvlees (a rich, sweetened stew of beef cooked in beer, otherwise known as vlaamse karbonaden) served with mustard. This is a frietkot to be treasured: traditional friekoten, once ubiquitous, are becoming rarer as traders fall to the pressures of commercialism.
When to Go Frituur Jozef is open for business Monday to Friday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Any time of the year is a good time to visit. Ghent is pleasant in summer. In winter, it may be bitingly cold, but the low-angled sunlight gilds the spires, the canals are mirror-still, and the piping hot frietjes bring warmth and comfort.
Planning Ghent is one of the great Flemish cities, easily accessible by train from Brussels, or by motorway links from France, the Netherlands, and Germany. It has interesting churches and a number of good museums and art galleries. The cathedral has one of the great treasures of North European culture, “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb,” a multipaneled painting by Jan and Huybrecht van Eyck from the 15th century.
Websites www.frites.be, www.visitgent.be
The Perfect Friet
It has often been said that Belgian fries set the gold standard as the best in the world. Their quality rests on four essential factors, the most important of which is that they are double-fried.
Use an appropriate variety of starchy potato (Belgians prefer the locally produced Bintje).
Cut the potatoes to just the right size, about the size of a woman’s little finger.
Fry them in clean, hot oil (traditionally, beef dripping was used) until soft, then remove them, and allow them to cool.
Fry them a second time until crisp and golden on the outside and soft inside.
HERRING IN THE HAGUE
There is only one way to eat one of the raw herring fillets beloved by the Dutch-lean your head back and lower it in.
Each spring a festival in the port of Scheveningen heralds the arrival of the new season’s herring.
Met of zonder?” is the question. With or without—chopped raw onions. You are standing beneath the flapping awning and Dutch flags of a streetside van that advertises “nieuwe haring: new herring.” “Met,” you say, and over the counter comes a fillet of raw herring, complete with tail, laid on a polystyrene platter, along with a large spoonful of chopped onions. The herring is shiny, pearly silver, and pinkish, like a dawn sky over the North Sea. Pick up the herring by the tail, waggle it in the onion, then tip your head back, and lower the fillet straight into your mouth to savor its delicate oily freshness. The Dutch go wild for this snack, especially in summer, when the new season’s herrings are young and tender. You can buy raw herrings at any time of the year from the specialist streetside stalls (haringstalletjes), found everywhere in the city, and even from the supermarkets, but as the year advances the herrings become fatter, larger, and greasier. Behind their counters, the fishmongers prepare the herrings with astonishing speed, working with short, hyper-sharp knives to skin and fillet the fish (they are gutted onboard the trawlers). They preserve the fillets by storing them in a light brine called pekel (from which our word “pickle” is derived). Some street vendors attract passersby with little more than a barrel of nieuwe haring in its pekel, and a container filled with chopped raw onion. “Met of zonder?”
When to Go Early June is best, and you might catch the arrival of the new season’s herring; Vlaggetjesdag usually takes place on the second Saturday of June. The new herring season lasts about two months (June-July), but herring can be found year-round, and The Hague is an interesting place to visit in any season.
Planning The Hague is 30 miles (50 km) southeast of Amsterdam and 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Schiphol international airport. The port and seaside resort of Scheveningen is 3 miles (5 km) from the center of The Hague. The Hague is an elegant, vibrant city with good hotels, restaurants, museums, and shopping.
Websites www.denhaag.com, www.vlaggetjesdag.com
New-season Herring
Each year excitement mounts as June approaches. Any day, when the herring have grown to the optimum size and fat content, an official announcement will permit the sale of the first new season’s herring-de eerste vaatje Hollandse Nieuwe.
People flock to The Hague’s port of Scheveningen to feast at the herring stalls, and the first barrel brought onshore is auctioned for a colossal sum-more than 50,000 euros (about $68,000 in recent years), which is donated to charity.
On the first Saturday of the season the festival known as Vlaggetjesdag (Little Flag, or Pennant, Day) is held in Scheveningen to celebrate the official arrival of the new herring. Boats are bedecked with flags and thousands of people gather to enjoy entertainment, exhibitions of maritime crafts, and seafood.
FISH AND CHIPS
Newspaper wrapping is old news; most fish and chips are now served wrapped in plain white paper.
This popular pairing tastes best eaten outdoors in England’s coastal towns with a bracing wind coming in off the sea.
Fish fried in a golden, crisp shell of batter and served alongside hand-cut, fried potato wedges has been a favorite meal of English workers since Victorian trawlermen first started bringing in cod from the North Sea, off England’s northeast coast. Although this dish is available all over the country, it is often at its best in fish and chip shops (often called “chippies” by locals) in the north of England, where the busiest fishing ports are located and where southern suburban concerns about dietary fat fall by the wayside. The best of the northern chippies prepare their fish and chips in searingly hot beef dripping, the traditional cooking medium, which reaches temperatures so high that the fish cooks in moments, with a shatteringly crisp batter surrounding moist, flaky flesh. Traditionally, fish and chips are served with a cup of sweet, milky tea, a small dish of mushy peas (a savory pease pudding made from split, green marrowfat peas), and plenty of salt and malt vinegar sprinkled on the chips and battered fish. This dish has such powerful symbolism in England that, when he was in power, Prime Minister John Major took the time to advise people of the important fact that the vinegar should always be added before the salt.
When to Go Fish and chips is a year-round dish. The British climate is famously variable, but if you are seeking out northern chippies, the north of the country is often at its most beautiful and dramatic in the cold, glowering weather of winter.
Planning Something about the bracing air by the North Sea works on the appetite. All fish and chip shops offer takeout, usually wrapped in the traditional sheet of paper. Fish and chip shops come and go; to find the best, look up the winners of the Federation of Fish Friers annual Fish & Chip Shop of the Year award.
Websites www.federationoffishfriers.co.uk, www.clickfishandchips.co.uk, www.manze.co.uk
Despite the name, the real claim to fame of pie and mash shops is the eel, either jellied or stewed. Bright green, jellied eels are served cold. Stewed eels come with mashed potatoes and liquor (parsley sauce) on the side. The less adventurous can enjoy a meat pie—traditionally filled with beef, but other varieties are available, too—with their mashed potato. M. Manze—which has three pie, mash, and eel shops—and a few other traditional pie and mash shops can still be found around south and east London. You can recognize them by their wooden benches, marble-topped tables, and tiled walls.
A street vendor in the Djemaa el Fna waits for customers.
EVENING FOOD IN MARRAKECH
Grilled kebabs are popular in the market.
Each evening the main square in this beautiful city in western Morocco turns into a large, lively, open-air restaurant.
As dusk falls on the busy Djemaa el Fna—the central square in the medina (old quarter) of Marrakech—men and boys laden with makeshift tables, stoves, pots, and pans appear from every direction, and in what seems a matter of minutes, tables and chairs are set up, pots are filled with liquid, braziers are lit, and the air is full of the aromas of spice-infused smoke, kebabs, fried fish, and hot bread … And so it begins. This is the evening food market—the most intense, and spectacular, culinary experience Morocco has to offer. Against a background of beating drums, clanging bells, snake-charmers, storytellers, fire-eaters, and magicians, you can eat some of the cheapest and freshest foods in the city. Walk around the market first; this is an experience in itself and will give you a chance to see what is on offer before deciding if, and where, you want to eat. If you are new to Moroccan food, try a stall offering a little of everything: tagines, couscous, kebabs, vegetables, and salads. If you know what you want, plenty of stalls specialize in one or two foods, such as strips of slow-cooked lamb with cumin and warm bread, harira (chickpea and lentil) soup, spicy merguez sausage, or kebabs. Feeling adventurous? You could sample tripe stew or boiled lamb’s head. In this rose-colored city, where modern Moroccan cuisine is reaching new peaks of sophistication, the evening market is still the best and most varied eating experience around.
When to Go Any evening after 6 p.m. Morocco is best in the cooler months from September through May.
Planning Allow plenty of time to visit the square and the souks at its north end. It is always busy during the day, with orange-juice stalls, water-sellers in traditional costumes, and snake-charmers, and there are plenty of cafés where you can sit and watch the world go by–try the Café de France with its rooftop terrace overlooking the square. Allow three to four days to see the whole city and sample its fabulous restaurants. Try Riad Tamsna (23 Derb Zanka Daika) for lunch in a chic riad (traditional hotel). In the evenings, Le Foundouk (55 rue du Souk des Fassi) offers delicious French-Moroccan food; Dar Moha (81 rue Dar El Bacha) and Dar Yacout (79 rue Sidi Ahmed Soussiare) are two of Marrakech’s greatest gourmet restaurants.
Websites www.morocco-travel.com, www.cadoganholidays.com, www.darmoha.ma
Tagine
A traditional Berber dish and a central feature of Moroccan cuisine, the tagine is a slow-cooked, deeply aromatic stew containing meat or fish with vegetables, or vegetables on their own.
The stew shares its name with the earthenware cooking vessel with a conical lid that it is normally cooked in. In traditional Moroccan homes, the vessel is placed over a charcoal stove, where the embers are continually added to, to disperse the heat evenly around the base of the dish. The ingredients are therefore cooked gently so that they remain beautifully tender and moist in a flavorful sauce that is slowly reduced.
Tagines are usually chicken- or lamb-based, and traditional versions are distinguished by their cooking fats and spices. Some are cooked in butter and almonds; some are flavored with onions, others with ginger and saffron. Preserved lemons are added to many versions.