Grill your own streetfood

Street food stalls are popping up in cities worldwide, and they’re serving more than the average two-bit burger with a side of soggy chips. Each and every paper plate that leaves these stalls comes with a story. Sometimes it’s a literal story, relayed through the pleasant banter that’s exchanged between chef and hungry customer that is so unique to the street food scene. Sometimes it’s the story of the food itself: which farm the cow was raised on, and how that spice came all the way from the hills of India to the streets of London. Either way, a street food meal is never just about fueling up before trudging back to the office. It’s about experiencing your meal.

Richard Johnson, founder of the European Street Food Annual Awards and author of the best-seller Street Food Revolution, thinks this is what lends the movement such universal appeal. “Everything is about the experience,” he says. “To see someone cooking properly, from scratch, with products they know about, that they understand, that they’re passionate about: that is very inspiring.” So inspiring, in fact, that it often only takes one meal before people start dreaming of how they can bring the street food movement home, to their own barbecues and dinner tables.