13 Street Foods From Around the World Americans Don’t Know About

Let’s be honest: America is spoiled for choice regarding street food. The country is a vast melting pot of cultures, all contributing to what you see on the streets daily.

While an abundance of choice may exist, a variety of unique and exciting street foods remain that have yet to grace America’s soil. Let’s tour the world and peek at some exciting street foods that might have evaded your stomach until now. Prepare to gain new cravings!

Bunny Chow

From the far-off land of South Africa, we give you the Bunny Chow. Imagine you get served what looks like a chicken curry pie until you realize the crust consists of bread instead.

You can enjoy the delicious curry while polishing it off with some curry-soaked bread. It’s such a popular dish that it has spread to other countries like India.

Suppli

Suppli means surprise in Romanian. Suppli works like any other crumbed and battered snack except you don’t know what’s in it. The delicious coating will always have the same savory crunch, while the inside could be almost any good texture you can imagine.

You may find anything from mozzarella to tomato-based risotto inside. Let’s be real: anything that’s warm and fried is going to taste delicious.

Halo-Halo

One of the most diverse dessert ingredients comes from the Filipino dish Halo-halo. It consists of taro ice cream, sweet kidney beans, jam, coconut shavings, purple and yellow yams, condensed milk, and more.

The term halo-halo means mix-mix, which makes perfect sense as you mix the dessert to blend all the flavors before eating it.

Banana Cue

Yet another diverse dish from the Philippines is fried plantains coated in sugar. The typical versions include straight melted sugar or a sweet egg batter. The term “cue” is short for barbeque, since the fried bananas on sticks look similar to barbequed meat.

While far from conventional, banana cue is a great way to add a serving of fruit to your diet.

Käsespätzle

Imagine you were eating mac ‘n’ cheese, except the macaroni was spaetzle (a German dumpling), and caramelized onions were mixed in with the cheese. The lovely dish comes from the Schwaben region in Germany, though it can be found in any region of Germany and even some neighboring countries.

Now, if Käsespätzle doesn’t satisfy some cravings, what will?

Arepas

Think tacos, but closer to a sandwich. The dish comes from Columbia and features a fried or baked corn patty stuffed with meat, cheese, tomato, and egg. The crust crunches in your mouth while the stuffed ingredients melt in your mouth, creating a cacophony of savory flavors and acidic textures dance over your tongue.

You can’t go wrong with a fancy sandwich like this one, and there’s a reason why Disney’s Encanto featured these incredibile snacks several times throughout the movie!

Crocche

Do you love breaded French fries drenched in cheese? Are you a fan of tater tots? The Italian Crocche, originally inspired by the French Croquette, takes a slightly different approach. It utilizes mashed potatoes with mozzarella and mint.

The mixture gets rolled in breadcrumbs and thrown into a searing hot oil pan.

Okonomiyaki

Would you ever consider a cabbage pancake for your street food of choice? It may sound unusual but don’t knock it on until you’ve tried it. You might think the idea of a sweet pancake with cabbage sounds ridiculous, but that’s not what we have here.

Japan effortlessly mastered the art of savory pancakes, using cabbage, eggs, and many exciting spices to create a moderately healthy and delicious snack.

Beguni

You usually picture a stir-fry or sauce-based variation when you think about eggplant. The Beguni takes your eggplant, batters it with some excellent spices, and deep fries it for good measure. It doesn’t get much better than that!

People in both India and Bangladesh typically eat Beguni as a snack or pair it with rice for a main meal.

Meat Pie

Greece created the original pie concept centuries ago. While America loves fruit pies, countries like Australia and New Zealand love meat pies. Instead of a sweet open-lid crust, you get a buttery, savory pastry that fully encapsulates the meat, lid and all.

The most common and well-loved types of meat pie include mince and cheese, steak, pork belly, and bacon ‘n’ egg.

Sheftalia

Cyprus created a hybrid between kebabs and sausages known as Sheftalia. It consists of minced lamb and spices wrapped in caul fat, the inner lining of a cow’s stomach. The favorite method of consumption involves either coal or smoke, then pairing the final result with a yogurt-based sauce and some pita bread.

Any meat lovers out there need to watch for this one.

Tahdig

Have you ever wondered what to do with all that brown, crunchy rice sticking to the bottom of your wok or rice cooker? Iran figured it out ages ago by creating Tahdig.

You take any creamy curry and cover the bowl with an upside-down version of the rice at the pan’s bottom. Not surprisingly, Tahdig translates to “bottom of the pan.” Who would’ve guessed?

Bungeo-Ppang

South Korean Bungeo-ppang, crucian carp bread, takes snacking to the next level. The waffle-like batter is poured on both sides of a waffle iron mold, and red bean paste is spooned into the middle.

The result coats your tongue with flavors from the sweet red bean and the savory, perfectly brown waffle. Who’s hungry?