Filter I Street- cities

STREET-FOOD CITIES Six of the

bestNo need to book a table. Feast on Portland Istanbul food the locals love at roadside stalls, 1 For vegan BBQ & chicken tortillas 2 For & custard 3 For stuffed mussels & chargrilled offal down narrow alleys — even in car What’s cooking? If it’s edible, Mississippi Avenue (a top spot for What’s cooking? ’s financial bubble and spit, as diners sit at low What’s cooking? Istanbul is the explain why lurks parks. Our experts reveal where… you’ll find it in Portland, Oregon’s shopping), is the place for tangy capital sucks in migrants, so it’s chairs outside matchbox-sized king when it comes to street-side inside kiosks or hole-in-the-walls, hipster enclave and birthplace of vegan barbecue fare (about £6 at rich in the regional dishes and restaurants with steamy . Dipped in molasses and called büfe (pronounced ‘buffet’). the food-truck trend: 420 fill the Homegrown Smoker Vegan BBQ), flavours they miss and crave. windows. Wander and you’ll soon rolled in sesame seeds before The Bambi chain (bambicafe.com. centre, in empty lots and car parks. or hit Portland Mercado (portland on (45p), crêpes trip over and jianbing, but do baking, tantalisingly crisp-crusted tr) is one of the best: try the one Where to get it: Hotfoot it to the mercado.org), SE 72nd and Foster, from province on the track down friendly couple Mr and simit rings (25p) are the city’s just off Taksim Square (itself büfe -on-wheels at SW 10th and for Latin American and Caribbean Yellow Sea: with green onions, Mrs Huang — guotie geniuses (102 answer to the American soft heaven). Cengelköy, on the Asian Alder, a 60-strong downtown cuisine (£4-£7). Finally, there’s the pickled mustard tubers, Gaoan Lu, nr Zhaojuabong). And . Plump mussels stuffed side of the Bosphorus, has more assortment. Nong’s is a favourite, late-night truck cluster Cartopia sauce and coriander, they go from try Liu Family Harbin Dumplings with rice, cinnamon and currants kokoreç vendors per square metre hence the queues for her fragrant (SE 12th and Hawthorne), where griddle to gob in seconds. Served (645 Jianguo Xi Lu) for shuijiao, (about £1) are as elegant as than probably anywhere on Earth, khao man gai Thai chicken (£6). hot, juicy rotisserie chicken is an sizzling from the , guotie (fried eaten out front in the mild dusk air. cocktail finger-food, washed while throughout the city you’ll And try the Yucatán-style art form at Chicken and Guns (£8). dumplings) are pork-filled, juicy, Go with a pro: Join expat — and down with fresh pomegranate or see glass-sided push-carts piled from El Yucateco; Mexican Go with a pro: Browse profiles of gingery — and 40p for four. Try, expert — foodie Jamie Barys on orange juice. And Istanbul’s crisp with simit or hawking rice pilafs owner Elloy knows just how to vendors at Foodcartsportland. too, the boiled type, shuijiao (55p a Delights wander with and juicy döner (about £3) with boiled chicken and chickpeas. serve the tortilla-wrapped black com. The site is owned and run by for five): the egg-and-leek kind Untour (untourshanghai.com; put our post-pub version to Go with a pro: Alternative City beans — thick with avocado, Brett Burmeister, who leads food- send you to veggie heaven. £58pp for three hours, including shame. Even tastier is kokoreç: Tours runs a five-hour Tasty shredded chicken and (£2). cart tours (£36pp for 60-90mins). Something sweet later? Go for food and a cooking class). chargrilled lamb’s intestine (stay Photo Walk along the most There’s also Tidbit, a clutch of 10 Get me there: North America baozi (pillowy buns, 15p a pop): Get me there: The China Travel with us), chopped and stuffed in photogenic streets (alternative or so vendors at SE 28th Place and Travel Service (0333 323 9099, often savoury, they’re delicious Company (020 8816 8399, crusty : more comforting citytours.com; £62pp). Division, with covered seating and northamericatravelservice.co.uk) with custard or red-bean paste. thechinatravelcompany.co.uk) than any sarnie. Get me there: Tulip Holidays (020 offering beer, wine and cider with has four nights at a four-star in Where to get it: Make your focus features Shanghai on a five-night Where to get it: Istanbul etiquette 8211 0001, tulipholidays.com) has music. Mississippi Marketplace Portland from £1,345pp, room the broad avenues of the former tour from £ 1,900pp, including tut-tuts at eating in view of those three-night packages, including (missmarketplace.com), on North only, with Heathrow flights. French Concession. Simple stalls flights and most meals. who might be hungry, which helps Luton flights, from £239pp, B&B.>

44 Sunday Times Travel May 2016 May 2016 Sunday Times Travel 45 Filter I Street-food cities

Mexico City 4 For grilled corn & grasshoppers

What’s cooking? Corn everything. churros (about 35p) with rich Kahlo’s old house. Top spots are Sweet golden cobs are the hot chocolate (£2). El Jordan and La Coyoacana. speciality of street grillers, charred Where to get it: Open from 12pm, Go with a pro: Join Eat Mexico ’til crisp then rubbed with chilli and citywide taco stands are abuzz for a four-hour foodie stroll a zip of lime (about 70p). Find it after dark. One of the best is (weekdays) through Cuauhtémoc, also in succulent — corn Taquería Los Parados at Monterrey one of Mexico’s oldest, most dough and spiced wrapped 333, in trendy Roma Sur. Breakfast mouthwatering central districts, in a corn husk (about 60p) — and staples tamales are dished out stopping at juice stands, taco juicy tacos (tortillas in the Zona Rosa entertainment stalls, tamales vendors and stuffed with pulled pork and district every morning. If you’re more (eatmexico.com; £60pp). pineapple; about £1). You’ll even serious about the grasshoppers, Get me there: Journey Latin it in atole, a sweet corn try the no-name stall in the plaza America (020 8600 1881, and cinnamon thirst-quencher. by the Anthropological Museum. journeylatinamerica.co.uk) has And if you’re not up to crunchy And get sticky with churros and four nights at a four-star hotel chapulines — fried grasshoppers Mexican caramel (cajeta) in the in Mexico City from £1,303pp, (£2 per 100g), popular with Coyoacán street market near the including Heathrow flights, Margaritas — try doughnut-like must-see museum at artist Frida transfers and an Eat Mexico tour.>

May 2016 Sunday Times Travel 47 Filter I Street food cities

Bangkok 5 For steamed lobster & crunchy scorpion 6 For saltfish & Hawaiian sashimi

What’s cooking? Curries, stir-fries, Seafood, rivals opposite each What’s cooking? What isn’t? From Shoreditch (devour luscious brisket meaty , seafood… All other at the top of Texas Street: go ceviche to ramen, sloppy burgers at Smokestak; £8) and Dalston (try bubbling, blazing, roasting and for steamed lobster and velvety to jerk chicken, London’s street- Mama’s Jerk’s jerk-chicken wraps; grilling, morning ’til night, on every curry-powder crab (mains £1-£6). food scene is the world on a plate. £6). Finally, with two hubs (City and street corner. Devour bagfuls of Over towards Golden Monk Where to get it: Borough Market King’s Cross), food-truck collective crispy, peppery fried crickets, Temple, blaze at Thip Samai, (boroughmarket.org.uk) is a Kerb (kerbfood.com) serves zingy cockroaches and scorpions; slurp a hole-in-the-wall famed for its Southbank lunchtime hotspot. Try Hawaiian pokē, similar to sashimi up spicy noodles served from the egg-wrapped parcels of Egyptian koshari (rice, lentils and (£6.50; Pokē), and Asian-style soft back of converted tuk-tuks; and (£1-£5). Seek out Ning’s Mango vermicelli) at Koshari Street (£4) or steamed buns (£4; Yum ). sip bowlfuls of tom yum goong Stand on Sukhumvit Soi 38 for Brindisa’s grilled chorizo rolls (£5). Go with a pro: Clued-up cook and (lemongrass and prawn ) at a late-night sweet ’n’ salty In Brixton — food-market central food writer Celia Brooks runs a pavement table, while the city’s of (£1.20). — grab on-the-hoof favourites three-hour tours of Borough 8 million residents bustle about Go with a pro: Unravel the city’s such as saltfish rolls (£1.95; First Market (celiabrooks.com; £75 per you. Save room for fried maze of food-packed alleyways Choice Bakery), and visit POP group). Or do Brixton’s flavours custards (khanom krok) and/or on a day-long Old Bangkok Brixton (popbrixton.org), a set of with a Mind the Gap Tours ‘Eat fragrant mango sticky rice. Food & Culture Walk (foodtours vendors operating in old shipping London’ circuit (mindthegaptours. Where to get it: is a bangkok.com; £35pp). containers; top traders include com; £45pp, three hours). cacophony of red and gold, revving Get me there: Audley Travel Kricket for Keralan Get me there: A base near the City engines and honking horns, and (01993 838115, audleytravel.com) (£7) and the New Zealand Cellar means you can easily dart to food the crash-bang of metal woks. has three nights in Bangkok on for Kiwi wines (from £10.90). hubs south, east and north. Try the It’s also, surprisingly, the best place a 12-night tour, from Street Feast hosts some of the trendy Hoxton Shoreditch (020 for Thai food. For a stellar lunch £1,990pp, B&B, with Heathrow city’s most exciting stalls across 7550 1000, thehoxton.com;

there are R&L Seafood and T&K flights, transfers and guides. four hipster locations, including from £89, room only).. SIMS FIONA REDMAN, NICK MILLER, ALICIA GERRIE ANTHEA FINKEL ANDREW LEE COBAJ, WORDS: STOCKFOODZ ALAMY, PHOTOGRAPHS:

48 Sunday Times Travel May 2016