Cheeses for street food
Arepas, quesadillas, poutine, tequenos and paneer rolls: cheese for a fast hand.
Street cooks everywhere reach for cheese: it is filling, melts fast and sells well. Venezuelan and Colombian arepas, Mexican quesadillas, Canadian poutine, grilled oscypek in the Polish mountains, Turkish gözleme, Brazilian grilled coalho on the beach, and Indian paneer rolls, paneer tikka and the grilled cheese sandwiches of Mumbai's stalls are all eaten standing up.
The Americas
Arepas, corn cakes split and stuffed, are filled with queso blanco, queso de mano or telita in Venezuela and Colombia. In Mexico City, quesadillas are sold with fillings from squash blossom to mushrooms, and whether a quesadilla must include cheese is a long-running local debate. Poutine, from rural Quebec in the 1950s, covers chips with fresh cheese curds and hot gravy. On Brazil's beaches, vendors grill queijo coalho on a stick over a small charcoal stove.
India's cheese streets
In Indian cities paneer is street food: paneer tikka from tandoors, paneer kathi rolls and frankies wrapped in paratha, paneer pakoras from roadside kadais, and chilli paneer from Indo-Chinese stalls. Mumbai's sandwich makers grate processed cheese thickly over grilled sandwiches, and in Jammu, kalari kulcha is a well-loved snack. In Kolkata and Bhubaneswar, chhena sweets are eaten straight from the shop counter, often still warm.
Europe and the Middle East
Grilled oscypek with cranberry jam is sold from stalls in Zakopane. Turkish gözleme fold white cheese and herbs into flatbread cooked on a griddle, and börek is breakfast from the bakery. In Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon, kunafa is cut hot from huge round trays. Italy has arancini and pizza al taglio, sold by weight, and Swiss raclette is scraped onto bread at Christmas markets across the Alps.
Worth knowing
- Arepa: Corn cake filled with fresh cheese
- Quesadilla: Tortilla folded over a filling
- Poutine: Chips, cheese curds and gravy
- Oscypek: Grilled with cranberry jam in Zakopane
- Gözleme: Turkish griddled flatbread with white cheese
- Paneer tikka: Charred spiced paneer
- Kathi roll: Paratha roll with paneer
- Knafeh: Cut hot from the tray
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Street food on EveryCheese
The cheeses written up so far, best known first.
Nothing matches those filters yet. Take one off, or check back: new cheeses are written every day.