Street Food in Melbourne - Where do you go?

You can't have a great city without great street food, food you can either grab and eat while walking or maybe sit and eat outside at a roadside cafe. Melbourne doesn't have its own signature style of street food but with its wave of immigrants over the years it gives you the chance to try a huge variety of quick and easy dishes for under $10. Everyone's probably got their own particular favourite which hardly anyone else knows about, but in alphabetical order here are five of the best we've visited in the last couple of years.


Andrew's Hamburgers
A great antidote to the rubbish served by the fast food franchises. Big enough to require two hands to eat, slightly sloppy but with great flavour from the grill, with a quality beef patty with ingredients you can actually taste, it's a reminder of what summer used to taste like. But please, can somewhere make a great hamburger with onion rings?


Flora
There is one thing which keeps me and Snooze returning to Flora, fresh somosa. Three things set these above all others around town. The turnover, which ensures that they are always fresh. The sauces, which give it a tangy sweet and sour flavour. And the best pastry around, full of flavour and delicious. Just follow the taxi drivers to find some of the best value street food in town.

Mankoushe
Small and only open for half the week but with some of the most reliable baked Lebanese goods in town. My pick - the cheese and spinach triangle, the haloumi cheese pie and the zaatar. Cooked fresh to order, the triangles slightly salty with fetta, the pie full of teeth squeaky cheese and the zaatar tangy and delicious, somewhere where you can order enough food to feed three for under $10.


Sunny Café
A tiny little known bakery in Springvale, the pride in the quality of the food here is evident in every mouthful. Head for the egg wrap with Chinese doughnut/roll, the beef wrap and the bowl of soya milk. A great mix of sweet and savoury flavours and a clearly the best Taiwanese style café around town.

Shanghai Street Dumpling
Tiny but well known and extremely popular, producer of the most consistently good dumplings around. For something a bit different, try the wantons with peanut and chilli sauce.
It feels wrong not including Laksa or Banh Mi (Vietnamese rolls) just because we don’t have one special place, and on another day Nam Loong could have made it for great pork buns over the decades, or My Restaurant and Takeaway, for the best sweet roti dishes and tea tarik going.

Now you've seen my list ... where do you go for the best street food around town?