You Picked Your Favorite Street Food…We Picked The Winners!

by  Paul Eisenberg | Mar 20, 2012
Street food in Jerusalem
Street food in Jerusalem / efesenko/iStock

And the winners of Lonely Planet’s The World’s Best Street Food guide are…Sebastiano from Naples, Italy and Preeti from Amsterdam. It was a pleasure to give them the news yesterday and have them confirm that they love winning free books almost as much as discovering and eating the perfect street food. My congratulations to them as well as my thanks again to Lonely Planet for donating the guides. And, of course, thanks to those of you who were willing to share your favorite street food picks as a condition for entering the giveaway.

The biggest winner, however, is me, as you all did my work for me this week by reporting on the best street food you ever ate. Here now, some highlights.

Of the 21 comments received last week, India and Thailand were the frontrunners with three entries each, followed by Italy with two.

At Pizzeria Di Matteo, in the Via dei Tribunali in Naples, Sebastiano wrote affectionately about the fabulous Frittatina,” which he described as “a few hundred grams of bucatini pasta, cheese, meat, and green peas all breaded and deep fried. Just a little piece of fried heaven!” Jennifer from Tuscany says in her estimation, the best ever street food is the lampredotto or cow stomach sandwich, which she describes as “very tasty [and] cheap” at €3.50, "and it is the institutional Florentine food.”

Over in India, commenter Kris as well as Preeti are fans of roadside chaat (snack) stalls. Among Preeti’s favorites is ragda pattice. “It’s a delight to see them make it in front of you,” she says. “In a few minutes you will have a mix of spiced potatoes, puffed rice, chick peas garnished with different chutneys, coriander, spices, and a dash of yoghurt. Yum!”

In describing the journey to seek out pista kulfi (ice cream) in India, Halldór evokes Dr. Seuss at his narrative best: “In the small town of Pune, three to four hours drive inland from Mumbai, opposite the train station, there is a very small corner shop right on the road called Shiv Kelash,” says Halldór, where the pista kulfi “is beyond this world!”

Both Justin Dooley and Christine praised the pad thai in Thailand - citing Chiang Mai and Bangkok, respectively - while Jimmy Sylakowski writes that anywhere in the country, “the fresh dried squid on a cart with garlic and chili sauce” is his favorite street snack.

Irresistible in Brazil and Argentina, says Alex Ward, is a “churro filled with dulce de leche,” words that brought tears of longing to my eyes.

Head over to last week's post to read more about these and other street food picks. And my thanks again for visiting the ShermansTravel blog and chiming in on this topic.

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