Six cities that serve up the finest food on the go.

Whether a roadside stall in Mumbai or a huddle of trucks in London, street food is always an unpredictable joy. Will there be a queue? Will they have that fried chicken/poké bowl left? Can I eat it in my car without endangering my new shirt? From such small pleasures life is made.

Part of the fun is the first approach, when you breathe in a diversity of smells, hear the crackling sound from the grills, see something being made in front of you, then hold it in your hands to eat. It is sort of primal and wholly delicious – and totally different from the experience you get in a restaurant.

The whole restaurant industry has benefited from the revolution that’s taken place in food markets over the past five years. It has become something of a culinary-proving ground for the very best ones, and there are now countless examples of businesses that started out trading on pavements before becoming bricks and mortar. Just think of Pitt Cue, Pizza Pilgrims, Smokestak and Bao in London, Komodo and Eggslut in Los Angeles, The Halal Guys in New York or Smack Shack and Foxy Falafel in Minneapolis. Its influence stretches far and wide, so we have scoured the globe to find you the very best street food, wherever you are.

Berlin’s street-food scene has spread out like melting butter in recent years, and now encompasses a large chunk of the city. We couldn’t be more pleased. Start in Kreuzberg, at Martkhalle Neun, an old building that was revitalised by the local community seven years ago, having been empty for a time. It’s a good place to get a Berlin-brewed beer and excitingly flavoured bratwursts from The Sausage Man Never Sleeps, run by trained master butcher Mr Simon Ellery. On Thursday evenings, rungs of street-food traders turn up to offer yet more. Bite Club, often considered the city’s main street feast, travels between different areas, although its summer base is at Hoppetosse. It’s no quiet farmers’ market-style affair. Expect well-made fast food, loud music and not a little booze. If you want to buy hot food to take away or stock up for the weekend, head to Boxhagener Platz Food Market on Saturdays.

Old-school faves such as Harry’s Cafe de Wheels might have been churning out wholesome quantities of pie and mash to passing truckers since God was a boy, but when it came to more elevated street food, Sydney was a relative unknown until recently. The main players are the produce markets, where you can buy beautiful tomatoes and salad vegetables as well as an array of worryingly addictive pastries, dumplings, and egg and bacon sandwiches in the morning. Bondi Farmers Market and the Friday Foodies Market at The Rocks are two worth checking out, while the Carriageworks Farmers Market, in a colossal former train yard in Darlington, is a visual and literal feast – greenery and vegetables topple from innumerable crates and bags. Download the Sydney Food Trucks app to check where traders pitch up, and prepare to loosen your belt.

Should you wish to, you could do an entire day’s worth of eating in the street-food markets of Mexico City. Start with tacos served from the back of bikes in the central district, snack on corn chips and chicharrónes (pork belly and crackling), which are served all over, lunch on tortas, quesadillas, flautas and tostadas galore, perk up on fruit covered in honey, and then finish with chocolate churros or elotes (corn on the cob splodged with cheese, chilli and mayonnaise). You will find street food all over Mexico City, but the main market, La Merced, is where it is all brought together under one roof. Alternatively, you could scoot over to Carnitas El Azu in Juárez district to find the chef who makes only one thing – carnitas – and makes them very well. Otherwise get yourself to Avenida Doctor José María Vertiz in Narvarte district for a foodie feast for the senses and your belly.

Fez is truly a city of street food. It is how everyone eats, day in, day out. So what will it be? A grilled merguez sandwich, a plate of snails, a kebab, some baklava or a sticky pastry? Whatever you fancy, make your focus Rue Talaa Kebira in the heart of the medina, or Old Fez, as it is known. Either spend a few hours weaving along its higgledy-piggledy streets picking at fried potatoes, cheese and honeyed halwa chebakia, then filling up on harissa soup and chicken kebabs, or go the whole hog and request a guided food tour with Plan-it Morocco. Don’t leave Fez without trying a pastilla (a multi-layered Moroccan meat pastry) – there are plenty to choose from near the Bab Bou Jeloud – washed down with a glass of sugar cane juice.

Singapore’s hawker centres are attached to shopping centres, near public housing or in the central business district, and each is set up as a collection of small food kiosks with low prices that attract a wide range of people. They’re also all state regulated and have strict food hygiene and licensing standards, which is reassuring. Of the 100-odd stalls to choose from, Maxwell Food Centre is the one that boasts Lim Kee Banana Fritters, which we love beyond all others. You won’t find any tourists at the People’s Park Complex in Chinatown, but visit nonetheless and order a bowl of yong xiang xing dou fu yong tau foo (broth with fried tofu and pork meat) at stall 01-1084, our favourite. In Zion Riverside Food Centre (specifically No 18 Zion Road Fried Kway Teow), you can taste the Penang noodles, or great satay skewers at the Lau Pa Sat Hawker Centre in the financial district. Some of Singapore’s best otah (ground fish in grilled banana leaves) are at Nam San on Joo Chiat Road. Queue up, pay up and then feast outside and enjoy the theatre of this always-full city’s streets.

Ask most people to name the best street-food destinations in the US, and you can bet your bottom dollar they’ll say New York and San Francisco. Yet a short flight north of the latter takes you to the country’s true street-food capital: Portland, Oregon. The bounty here is a rich one. Think tacos, grilled cheese sandwiches, burgers and veggie wraps served at both moving and semi-permanent trucks all across the city. If you like fresh pasta, head to Artigiano in Sunnyside. If you’re downtown, there are hubs around Southwest Alder Street and Southwest 5th Avenue, where you’ll find Scottish fish and chips, Chinese pancakes and everything in between. If you want every culture and every food type in one spot, go to Pine Street Market, a food hall set up in April 2016 in the city’s Old Town Chinatown area. Head there hungry and try the noodles at Marukin Ramen, cheeseburgers at Bless Your Heart and bibimbap bowls from Kim Jong Smokehouse, if you can manage.

For more travel recommendations, see MR PORTER’s Style Council