Tour around the Streets for Street Foods

Filipinos are known to be people who are fond of racing down the streets to look for Street foods that would satisfy their hunger. In Jeepney and buses or even tricycle terminals street food vendors are camping around amounting to large variety of choices for food to satisfy their hunger from day to day work. Almost everywhere in the urban area : schools, churches, parks, offices gates, you can see foods being sold in nearby streets whether be it through push carts, bicycle carts or even via folding tables. You can even see them in mall stalls. I for one is fond of eating street foods like barbecue, kwek-kwek and fishballs.

Let’s take a hike to the streets of Philippines and rediscover Pinoy street food. Here are the common Filipino street food:

Balut- It is a fertilized duck or chicken egg with a nearly developed embryo inside, boiled and eaten in its shells. Balut is rich in protein, hearty snack and believed to be an aphrodisiac. This chicken egg can be bought usually from balut vendors who roam around the city at night.

Adidas- is the term used for sticks of chicken feet. Chicken feet are a common street food of Filipinos. After the claws and tips of the toes are sliced off, the feet are washed in hot water and tough layer of the skin is scraped off.

Kwek-kwek- is a boiled chicken egg, dipped in orange colored dough and fried in deep oil. It tastes best when paired with sliced cucumber and vinegar with chili. Kwek kwek is almost the same street food compared to Tokneneng but quail eggs are used instead of chicken eggs.

Isaw or grilled chicken intestines can serve a good meal with rice in Philippines. The intestines are prepared with repeated process of being turned inside out and cleaned again and again until it is clear from anything inside it. They are then either boiled then grilled or immediately grilled in barbeque sticks.

Betamax- Betamax is the term for dried chicken blood served and cut into small cubes resembling the aged Betamax tape. Betamax is served in barbeque sticks which are grilled until cooked.

Walkman- Pork ears are so tender that Filipinos made it a street food to hit the local eating scene, in streets. It is dubbed as Walkman as it means ears of the pig. These tender ears are cleaned, seasoned then grilled in bamboo sticks.

Ukoy- pronounced as Okoy is a batter-based, deep-fried street food in the Philippines. It normally includes bean sprouts and very small shrimps shells and all in the batter. It is commonly dipped in a combination of vinegar and chili.

Processed deep fried snacks are also part of the line of Pinoy street food known as squid balls, fish balls and kikiam. They are skewered on bamboo sticks then dipped in a sweet or tasty sauce. These processed snacks are usually sold frozen in markets and peddled by street vendor

One-Day Old Chicks-Poultry farms reject one day old male chicks because they only pick female chicks for egg production. One day old male chicks wind its way to streets as one day old chick street food. The baby birds are eaten batter-fried. You eat the whole chick because the bones are so soft. These chicks are usually dipped in vinegar and/or red chili sauce. One-Day Old Chicks are also a popular pulutan (finger food) while drinking Red Horse Extra Strong or San Miguel beer.


However, Filipinos are not the only ones known to be fond of street foods. Countries around the world have their own street foods too. Here's let's tour to different streets worldwide and see what their street food vendors can offer.

Street Foods in China:
China street food offers a wide variety of Chinese of from non-exotic to exotic food choices. They certainly have a lot , it's hard to cope up. Showing you just some:

Squids, cuttlefish, etc.

scorpions too..

and snakes and centipedes too..

Japan has their own version of street foods too. There are lot of vendors in the streets making a variety of food. Littered in the streets of Japan are stalls that sell udon, soba, ramen, takoyaki, nikuman, castella, taiyaki, imagawayaki and yakitori, just to name some. Look at the photos below.

Takoyaki Stand
Fried and battered octopus balls! Delicious!

Middle East Countries like Dubai have their own street foods too. In the United Arab Emirates, shawarma is the most extremely popular food. Shawarma is a popular local snack consisting of rolled pita bread filled with lamb or chicken carved from a rotating spit, vegetables and tahina sauce.This is due to the relatively low price, the ease in which a shawarma is prepared, as well as its taste being appealing to many of the UAE's residents.

Chicken Shawarma

Though you may not find a lot of street vendors in London due to health and safety reason., Street Foods are not uncommon on countries of the Great Europe. Even the superior race in the world have their taste for street food too. There is this Borough market on a Friday. There's all sorts of nice foods from wild boar sausages, to falafal, to scallops and noodle dishes available from the stands at the market.


In the United States, hot dogs and their many variations (corn dogs, chili dogs) are perhaps the most common street food, particularly in major metropolitan areas such as New York City. Roasted nuts and gyros are also often sold in the city also. Cheesesteaks, breakfast sandwiches, and pretzels are common in Philadelphia. Throughout America, ice cream is sold out of trucks. Chinese cuisine is sold in many large cities and Chinese neighborhoods; Mexican foods such as tacos and tortas are sold in neighborhoods with Mexican population. Pizza is available from window counters.

Some vendors operate out of food trucks on college campuses, particularly in the Northeast, where American, Greek, Middle-Eastern, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, and other cuisines are available. Like restaurants, they are regulated and subject to inspections by the local municipal or county health departments.

Street Food vendor in New York City

Street Vendor on Los Angeles serving bacon-wrapped hotdog.

The above are just few of the examples of the street foods from different zone in the globe. With the increasing pace of globalization and tourism, the safety of street food has become one of the major concerns of public health, and a focus for governments and scientists to raise public awareness. Though we may love street foods a lot and crave for them, we have to be careful on the food that we eat especially if these are found on the streets. We have to be aware on the health issues that go along with them. Remember , we are what we eat. What we eat affects our whole well-being.