The world's most delicious street foods

FROM South Korea to the UK, here are five of the best street foods in the world - and they'll all fit in your hands.

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MUCH as people might suspect that my life is more or less an unending procession of leisurely gourmet meals accompanied by more than a few glasses of wine, the reality is actually very different.

My travel schedule is pretty hectic, and far too many of my meals are grabbed on the go, guzzled down while rushing through an airport or consumed in the back of a cab that is taking me from one meeting to the next.

It's for this reason that I am such a devotee to the humble, pan-global, everyman's friend, the handheld food. Handheld food knows no national boundaries and is available on street corners all over the world. When you're too busy to sit down and have a proper meal, it's comforting to know there's a street vendor out there who has your back. Here are my top five favourite hand held foods on earth.

The Kolkata Kati roll, India

Imagine taking a large bite from a hot and flaky paratha wrapped around a filling of egg, sharp raw onion, fresh green chili and tandoori meats or fish, and you will begin to see why few portable snacks can compete, in my opinion, with the kati rolls of Kolkata. They originated at the famous Nizam restaurant and are still as popular with the local office workers as they were when they first hit the scene in the 1930s. Whenever I return to Kolkata, this is one of the first places I head to.

The Cornish pasty, United Kingdom

The Cornish Pasty is one of the United Kingdom's great contributions to the world of portable food. The empanada-like snack is stuffed with lamb, onions, potatoes and rutabaga. The pastry case is pleated to create a perfect handle. The pasty dates back to the 18th century and was the go-to lunch for local tin miners who did not have time to wash their hands before eating. The pastry pleat was discarded the feed the “knockers” -- the spirits who haunted the mines. For those who collect snippets of food trivia, the pasty is also a favourite treat in Butte, Montana, where many Cornishmen emigrated in search of mining work in the 18th century.

The Jamaican patty

Visit the stunning island of Jamaica, and you will rapidly find, as I did, that people fall into one of two rival camps when it comes to sourcing their favourite portable treat. Everyone is in full agreement that the spicy beef patty is the way to go, but people are capable of arguing all day about where you should buy them.

I met fierce proponents of the patties sold at both the Juicy Beef chain of fast food outlets and those offered by its competitor Tastee. I tried both, and all I can tell you is that I would happily offer up a limb or two for either one to be delivered to my door as I write this.

The Bosnian cevapi

Some of the best food I encounter on my travels often comes from the most unexpected places. On a recent tour of the city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, my frequent complaints of hunger led our guide to introduce me to one of the best portable meals I am ever likely to encounter. The cevapi (or to give it its full name, the cevapcici) is a snack made of hot flatbreads wrapped around a filling of grilled minced beef or lamb kebabs, and a salad of onions and sour cream or cheese. They were so good that the tour had to be put on hold while we each insisted on downing two of them before returning to our walk.

The Korean Hotteok

Although my preference is always for savoury snacks, sometimes my lonely sweet tooth wins out, and I find myself scouring the streets of wherever I happen to be in search of the perfect portable pastry or dessert. While I often find plenty of tasty dishes, few of these quests lead me to food that I might crave after they have done their job. In the case of the hotteok that I discovered in Busan, South Korea, I have no hesitation in listing it as one of the best things I have ever eaten. Hotteok are plump wheat dough pancakes with a filling of brown sugar, cinnamon, chopped peanuts and sesame seeds that are sold from street carts that draw long lines. They are cooked fresh to order, so the wait can be a long one, but the first bite will assure you the wait was worth it.

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