Street food | Page 7 of 7
Kokoreç: Traditional Turkish Street Food Made from Lamb Intestines
Kokoreç is a traditional Turkish dish made from lamb or mutton intestines, which are wrapped around a metal skewer and slowly grilled over charcoal. Once cooked, the meat is chopped into small pieces, seasoned with spices, and typically served in a fresh baguette. There is also a spicy variant called "Atom kokoreç." Kokoreç is an example of traditional Turkish street food, especially popular in Istanbul.
Kumpir: Turkish Stuffed Baked Potato
Kumpir is a popular Turkish street food in the form of a stuffed baked potato. The base is a large potato baked until crispy, whose insides are mixed with butter and salt after being slit open. This creates a fluffy mashed potato. The potato is then filled with a wide variety of ingredients. Kumpir has its counterparts in other cuisines, such as the British jacket potatoes.
Balık Ekmek: Turkish Fish Sandwich
Balık ekmek is a popular Turkish street food dish. It consists of grilled fish placed inside half a loaf of bread. This specialty belongs inseparably to Istanbul and the shores of the Bosphorus. The main ingredient is fatty mackerel and soft bread. The taste is complemented by fresh onion, lettuce, and lemon juice. Preparation takes place on grates right on the street before the eyes of customers.
Cachorrinho: The Portuguese Hot Dog
They call it the Portuguese hot dog, yet it has almost nothing in common with the classic hot dog. Cachorrinho is Porto's beer snack - a sandwich with two sausages and melted cheese, chopped into small bites. The best-known address is the Gazela beer bar, which Anthony Bourdain put on the map in Parts Unknown.
Bifana: The Portuguese Pork Sandwich
A bifana looks modest: a few thin slices of pork in a papo-seco roll. Even so it ranks among Portugal's signature dishes - it spread from the Alentejo countryside to every counter between Lisbon and Porto, and every place keeps its sauce recipe to itself. What the beefy name means, where the sandwich came from and why you shouldn't bite into one straight away at Conga in Porto.
Genny street food: Frittatina and Fried Naples in Sorrento
Genny street food is a small bistro serving fried Neapolitan specialties on Sorrento's Via degli Aranci - frittatine, arancini, crocché and montanare, all done Naples-style. The frittatina, a flat fried disc of pasta and béchamel, has barely made it beyond Campania, and in Sorrento nobody pretends it is anything but an import. Reviews put Gennaro and Rosa's place among the best rated in town.
Plăcintă: The Romanian Stuffed Flatbread and Pie
In Romania, plăcintă is more a word than a single dish: from a fried flatbread over the counter to a baked cake cut from a tray. In Oradea I had the fried potato one for 2.5 RON (0.50 EUR); in Iași I walked out of a bakery with the baked one, dusted with powdered sugar. Here I explain the difference between the two, how the word survived from Latin, and how the Czech palačinka became its linguistic granddaughter.
Gogoși: Romanian Doughnuts the Size of Your Palm
Gogoși are Romanian yeasted doughnuts that bakeries sell plain with sugar, filled with jam or chocolate, and even with a salty filling of cheese and dill. They belong to the Central European family of Krapfen, fánk and pączki, go by four different names across Romania, and the same word also means a lie. I ate them in Sibiu, straight out of the fryer, before a rideshare to Cluj-Napoca.