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

Topics range anywhere from street food to fine dining, along with CPG such as ... —Andrew Watman, Forbes, 8 Jan. 2025

This is a popular Hanoi street food dish and can be found everywhere throughout the city. —Christina Liao, Vogue, 27 Dec. 2024

The grocery store is known for its food court serving Filipino and pan-Asian street foods and fresh seafood. —Reia Li, The Arizona Republic, 13 Dec. 2024

Over at Ancestral, open-flame cooking techniques influence the menu, and La Paz’s favorite late-night street food, anticucho (a beef-heart skewer), inspires its emblematic entrée: a pommes soufflée filled with chili, peanuts, and heart ham. —Megan Spurrell, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1860, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

street food

noun

: 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