08/01/2020
Best Street-Food Cities in the World
Singapore
Wontons, oyster omelets, and all-duck everything. Singapore even knows how to make stingray taste good (a heavy dose of sambal). And (gasp!) durian. If you walk down the right street at the right time in any of these cities you could make a case for them being the best in the world, but Singapore's massive scope, creativity, breadth of dishes available, and the fact that you can devour all this stuff with relative sanitary confidence earns them the title of best street-food city in the world.
Known for: Dumplings, curried fish heads, bak k*t teh (meat bone tea!), oyster omelets, duck rice
Bangkok, Thailand
Sure, you'll find the best pad Thai of your life, but the streets of Bangkok are paved with more than just stir-fried noodles. Roasted chickens and ducks hang from carts, bountiful papaya salads serve as some much-needed veggies, and basically any protein you can imagine is fried up and satayed. Literal buffets of curry line the streets. The seafood game is on point with everything from fried-to-a-crisp mussels to barbecued catfish to live "dancing" miniature shrimp. Super-heavy meals like deep-fried pork belly are contrasted by lighter fare like sour tom yum soup.
Expect mounds of basil, garlic, and chiles on top of everything, and plenty of sticky mango rice to combat the heat from those same chiles. It's impossible to do justice to the massive scope of the offerings here, and the complexity of those flavors helps push Bangkok to the number two spot on our list.
Known for: Curries, noodles, roast duck, shrimp from fried to dancing
Mexico City, Mexico
Mexican food sometimes gets flack for just recombining the same ingredients in different ways, but that only serves to buttress its ability to create some of the greatest street food known to man. At any hour of the day you can find street corners crowded with Mexicans huddling around a cart with a flat grill frying up meats to fold into fresh tortillas. Or see a sizzling circular pit of meats stewing for the next order. Or whole blocks lined with spinning al pastor or rotisserie chicken.
You could go a month without eating a single veggie other than onion and cilantro, but those deficiencies are combated by the plethora of stands slinging freshly squeezed juice, cups of mango powdered with savory chile, and mayo-slicked corn on the cob. Sugary churros, fresh pastries, or steaming-hot tamales have you covered in the morning. Although it's mostly traditional Mexican, less-conventional ethnic food trucks are also starting to make their mark on the scene, although the jury's still out on whether or not to trust Mexico City street sushi.
Known for: Street corn, al pastor tacos, gorditas, fresh juice, churros
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam
Stateside Vietnamese cuisine is all bánh mì and pho, which alone would make Ho Chi Minh City a must-eat destination, but the streets of Ho Chi Minh City are paved with more than beef broth and French bread. From sprawling markets to sidewalk stands, the food of Ho Chi Minh City is a mosaic of savory soups, fired meats, and fried crustaceans. Naturally, beef broth pho is huge, with chicken broth just as widely available. Crabs range from sitr-fried with tamarind to soupified with thick udon-esque noodles in bánh canh cua. And while bánh mì flourishes, don't sleep on the city's turmeric-loaded bánh xèo crispy pancakes.
Known for: Bánh mì, bánh xèo pancakes, pho, com suon grilled pork chops
Marrakesh, Morocco
When night falls, the Jemaa el-Fna square becomes one huge outdoor cafeteria, without those mean kids in high school who said you couldn't sit with them. Like anywhere in Morocco, the locals are relentlessly friendly and a chorus of "my friend, where are you from?" reverberates from most stalls, but thankfully they're selling goods much more delicious than leather sandals and rugs.
The lantern-lit square is like an open-air sauna of spice, bathing everyone in the rich smell of cumin and turmeric. Sausages hang like Christmas lights, earthen pots hide steamy tagine, and more exotic fare like fried sardines and unusual cuts of meat are as ubiquitous as mint tea. Marrakesh might've jumped another spot or two if it was easier to find alcohol to wash it all down with.
Known for: Maakouda potato fritters, tagine, steaming snail soup, skewers of meat, sheep's head, orange and grapefruit juice
Mumbai, India
It's hard to turn down a good samosa, and it's even harder when there's a near-endless amount of varieties. Mumbai's famed street-food lanes known as khau gallis are teeming with fried chaat, and samosas of all sizes, shapes, and stuffings. Kebabs (with naan) may be the most ubiquitous meat, and range from well-known proteins like chicken tandoori to rarities like grilled cow udders, but the most popular dish is not-surprisingly vegetarian: a potato fritter sandwich called vada pav that's topped with either red or green chutney. The sheer breadth of mouth-watering grilled meats available in the top-five cities keep Mumbai out of that stratified air, but there's still plenty to love here.
Known for: Fried pani puri dough balls, yogurt-marinated goat and chicken kebabs, vada pav fried potato dumplings burger, biryani masala rice