street food

noun

plural street foods

: prepared food of a kind that is typically sold to customers on a street or sidewalk and that is often designed to be carried and eaten while walking

Pizza is quintessentially a street food: a quick lunch or a quick snack often eaten standing up or on the go.

—Don Lesser

Traditionally eaten as street food, empanadas are ideal for snacking on the go but are just as satisfying to sit down to for a simple dinner.

—Melissa Roberts and Maggie Ruggiero

Satays, which are skewered and grilled morsels of beef, fish, chicken, pork, or vegetables, are street food in Southeast Asia, devoured day and night with gusto.

—Karen MacNeil

Examples of street food in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

There's also a selection of shareable plates, including elevated street foods, seafood options, mesquite beets and maitake mushrooms in salsa verde. —Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press, 17 Apr. 2024

Inspired by night markets across Asia, a variety of organizations are putting on a version here with street food, music, dancing and a talent show. —Jared Kaufman, Twin Cities, 6 Apr. 2024

For months, Warren had been the driving force behind a crackdown on street food vendors selling goods without proper permits. —Priscella Vega, Los Angeles Times, 29 Jan. 2024

As The Star reported last year, the intersection of Central Avenue and 18th Street had transformed into a lively hub for Mexican street food, where mobile vendors sold elotes, burritos and raspados until midnight or later. —David Hudnall, Kansas City Star, 4 Apr. 2024

Both have soft spots for street food, tacos in particular, Ronnie Lee said. —The Courier-Journal, 22 Feb. 2024

Think of the ballpark as a giant buffet of Korean street food. —John Yoon Jun Michael Park Shawn Paik, New York Times, 19 Mar. 2024

But no one in her family has enough to eat or even space to cook, living off a shared bite or piece of street food each day. —Caitlin Stephen Hu, CNN, 18 Mar. 2024

Rosalita’s serves incredible Mexican street food in a backyard in the Bywater. —Lanee Lee, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1860, in the meaning defined above