The World's Best Street Foods

Nov. 19, 2010 - PRLog -- If you want to taste the real essence of a place, you need to hit the streets and see what’s cooking. Food is a sure-fire way to get straight to the heart of a country and its people. Michelin stars aren’t the only yardstick to measure a city by, and all too often some of the tastiest - and cheapest – delicacies can be easily overlooked.

So to get your curiosity rumbling along with your stomach, the whl.travel team presents some of the world’s greatest street foods - the perfect fuel for a day’s sightseeing or touring.

Man'oushe – Lebanon (http://www.lebanon.travel/)
This tasty snack comes in a variety of different flavours and it can seem as if each neighbourhood has its signature version. It can be baked in a brick oven for a slightly plumper bread or rolled out thin and cooked on top of a domed griddle called a saj. There are number of variations, including a cheese topping using jibneh arabieh (similar to feta) or a ground beef topping called lahmeh.

Pastizzi – Malta (http://www.maltahotels.com.mt/)
The quintessential Maltese snack, pastizzi are pastries baked with either a ricotta-cheese or mushy-pea filling. These delectable diamond-shaped morsels can be bought from small fast-food shops called pastizzeriji, which open especially early on Sunday mornings to serve late-night revellers headed home from a night out.

Kapana – Namibia (http://www.tour-namibia.com/)
The beef-loving nation of Namibia prefers the Kapana, a dish grilled to perfection on open stoves, generously seasoned with chilli, salt or peri-peri and served wrapped in newspaper. These tasty morsels can also be sandwiched in fried doughnut-type buns, fittingly called ‘fat cakes.’

The perfectly prepared kapana has a strong, smoky barbecue flavour, with the meat succulent and juicy and the fat crisp on the outside.

Rujak – Indonesia/Malaysia/Singapore
Rujak (or Rojak) consists of sliced fruit or vegetables that are then covered in a sweet, sour and spicy dressing and topped off with chopped peanuts. Popular ingredients in a typical fruit rujak include water apple, pineapple, mango, turnip, cucumber, hog plum and raw sweet potato. The tartness of the fruit is nicely offset by the sweetness of the sauce, but those preferring a saltier flavour can ask for some sambal garam powder (salt and ground red chilli) on the side. No two rujaks are exactly the same.

Sopaipilla – Chile (http://www.tourism-in-chile.com/)
Doughy, greasy and stodgy, Chilean sopaipillas are the ultimate comfort food for cold, rainy days. They can be found all over Latin America, but the Chilean version packs a little extra something. Here, the fried circles of dough are made with cooked squash (a Chilean staple) and this versatile comfort food can be either sweet or savoury. Jalepeño sauces are also popular for a bit of kick. Sopaipilla vendors can be found throughout the country plying the streets with their pushcarts.

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