Packed with history and regional flair , street food is a culinary gem hidden in plain visual sense . These days , thanks to the stride of contemporary life , many of us are eating on the run . That ’s where street food comes in – these pleasant-tasting specialties are custom - made for high - speed living . As befit a nation ofimmigrants , we rust immigrant street nutrient . The 10 street foods that follow were all born abroad but grew up stateside , and there ’s a distinctly American twist to their fascinating stories . Read on to find out what part of apizzais native to the New World and how a Jewish guy from Wisconsin made a Greek snack into a classic American street food .

10. Falafel

Grind up some garbanzo , add garlic , parsley and coriander , and electrocute until crunchy . According to some , it ’s a recipe as old as the Bible . In all likeliness , it ’s even older , having started out in Egypt as a bag made with fava bean . But even today , felafel ’s origins are in difference of opinion . Some Israelis take it as an ancient Judaic nutrient , while many Palestinians bristle at the idea . Cooler head maintain that falafel is a regional delicacy , not a religious one . But politics are of little issue when you ’re standing on the sidewalk at lunchtime waiting for your favorite vendor to wind some pocket bread bread around a pick of pickled beets , tahini sauce , refreshful veggies and , above all , crispy , delicious falafel .

9. Hot Dogs

If you live in Chicago , it ’s a beef frank and you eat up it on a poppy seed roll with mustard , relish , onions , jam , tomatoes and celerysalt . If you ’re in Rochester , N.Y. , it ’s a spicy pork blimp – rip , grilled and nestled in a toasted bun . The varieties are as endless as the stories of its root . Are they called franks because they were invented in Frankfurt , or are they call wieners because they come from Wien ( aka Vienna ) ? Nobody know for sure , but one thing ’s certain : Ahot dog’snot a hot andiron until it ’s sitting in a bun . And that authoritative innovation is all - American .

8. Pizza

archaeologist have poke ancientpizzaovens out of the ash of Pompeii in southerly Italy . But the classic pizza pie that we ’ve come to know and love would n’t exist without a small help from the New World . When thetomatowas first brought to Europe from South America , the upper classes reject to eat it because they were convinced it was venomous . But barbarian were too poor to be picky , and they started spreading the blood-red fruit on their pie . Several century later , fresh basil and mozzarella were added , and the Graeco-Roman pizza pie Margherita was born . Today , U.S. pizza pie toppings are as varied as the American palate . From pineapple to pickles , the only limit is your imagination .

7. Burritos

Steamed or grilled , occupy with kick or rice and beans , all burritos commence with the same round , flat flour tortilla . They probably get their name from an former Spanish saying : " If I had a horse , I would go make my chance , but I only have a slight donkey . " In Spanish , the Good Book for " little donkey " is " burrito . " Like its animal namesake , the burrito can carry anything : beans , rice , sour cream , cheese , avocado tree , crybaby , boeuf , pork barrel . You name it . In Sonora , Mexico , their likely provenance , burritos are small , simple social function , but over the tenner , as burritos made their style northward and west to their modern day uppercase , San Francisco , they grew in size and complexity until they became a great Mexican - American goody .

6. Gyros

The Grecian wordgyromeans " twisting , " and that make sense when you believe of those huge cones of secret meat spinning on their axes in pavement restaurants around the creation . Before it became street fare , the gyro was popular long ago in Greece . Traditionally , these meat retinal cone were made by hand from a combining of kick and lamb trimming , breadcrumbs and oregano . Then , one day in Milwaukee in the early 1970s , a Judaic - American entrepreneur named ( believe it or not ) John Garlic was brainstorm with his wife Margaret when they dreamed up the idea of people - bring about that spinning meat . Voila – Old World met New World to create an enduring street - side favorite .

5. Crêpes

Legend has it that in the 1930s , the great French chef Charpentier fabricate crêpes suzette with its signature orange tree sauce for the next King Edward VII of England . But long before that , it was the favorite food of Gallic peasants . uprise in Brittany in northwest France with the simple ingredients of buckwheat flour , testicle , butter and milk , the crêpe has proven to be one of the most versatile foods ever create . Made on the bit by sidewalk vendors around the world and fill with everything fromcheeseand ham to strawberries and cream , crêpes are beloved by all .

4. Ice Cream

Frozen cream andsugar : simple , yet unadulterated . Was it manufacture in the 1600s in the court of Charles I , or even earlier by the Emperor Nero who sent slave to fetch meth from the mountains ? Actually , the historical record points to ancient China as the place of origin of the creation ’s favorite portable dessert . It was in 1774 , on the even of the American Revolution , thatice creamfirst arrived in the United States . But it study closely another century before an clever New Jersey fair sex named Nancy Johnson excogitate a hand - cranked ice cream maker and America ’s love intimacy with that miraculous confection train off . hot chocolate or vanilla , scooped or soft - serve , in a cone or a loving cup – possibly some of ice cream ’s popularity is due to its versatility . After all , you’re able to prefer to sit down to an luxuriant banana rip concoction , or you’re able to just walk down the sidewalk with a waffle cone and let your favorite tone disappear in your mouth .

3. Churros

This toothsome breakfast pastry owes its name to its strange curvy condition . Once upon a time , Spanish shepherd stuck high in the mountains for day on goal became despairing for a goody . Using the limited available ingredients of butter , eggs and flour , they concocted a deep-fried pastry that resemble the horn of the sheep they tend . Those sheep were calledchurros . In metre , that humble shepherd ' food made its means to Latin America and then northerly to the United States . In late X , Americans have taken to churros with relish . disperse with sugar and served with a steaming cupful of hotchocolate , churros make an awe-inspiring sidewalk breakfast .

2. Cotton Candy

For hundred of years , aristocrats savored soft webs ofsugarspun by elect chefs , but for regular masses , that sweet , melting - in - your - rima oris maven was far too expensive . Then , in 1897 , John C. Wharton and William Morrison invented a car that melt and whirl the sugar with ease . In 1904 , they brought their machine to the St. Louis World ’s Fair , where it was a huge success . In the 1970s , a further innovation fully automated the process all the way through packaging the sweet in paper or charge card travelling bag . Today , it ’s hard to opine a street fairish without those pink , sky-blue and ultramarine cloud of what used to be called fagot dental floss .

1. Soft Pretzels

In 610 , a monk curve some leftover dough into the shape of crossed arms and have it to children as a payoff for acquire their prayers . Pretzelswere a hit across Europe , and nine C later , when the Turks were tunneling under the wall of Vienna , it was the former - bird pretzel baker who take heed them and sounded the warning signal . Even today , the coat of arms of the Viennese bread maker proudly hold a pretzel . But it was the Pennsylvania Dutch who perfected what would become a famous Philly bite . concord to The New York Times , the soft pretzel , sprinkled with Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and suffocate in table mustard may be the definitive street food for thought .

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