Gourmet

Not everything Feniger serves at her restaurant is typical street food, and here's a delicious case in point. The intriguing combination of shredded brisket, diced root vegetables, and apples is based on a recipe that Feniger's grandmother Sylvia Morgan often made for family meals in Toledo, Ohio. Roasted poblano chiles, a nod to the chef’s days at Santa Monica's Border Grill, add a spark of heat, and a fried egg makes it enormously satisfying.

Being the northernmost city in the South, Louisville has a complex blend of relatively unsung ethnicities, one of them being old-world German. The convergence of sauerkraut soup—what families in neighborhoods like Schnitzelburg call home food—and barbecue-rubbed scallops is both quirky and logical in a very Louisville kind of way. The flavor combination is extraordinarily delicious—one taste and you'll understand what Edward Lee is all about. For sources for sumac.

These soupy beans resonate with the deep notes of tomato, garlic, and thyme. Meant to be served with the country hash , they would also go well with pork chops or grilled sausages.

The glory of a chess pie is its rich custard filling (long ago also used to fill tartlets called cheesecakes, hence the name). The secret to the accompanying salsa is to panfry the pineapple until it's charred, bringing out the fruit's acidic, musky qualities. And as for the last-minute drizzle of caramel sauce—how bad could that be?

In Vietnam, yogurt is known by a couple of different names: sua chua (sour milk) and da ua, pronounced "ya-orh," which is actually a transliteration of yaourt, reflecting the dish's origins during French colonization. Semantics aside, this just may be the silkiest yogurt you’ll ever taste, with a delightful balance of sweetness—which comes from condensed milk, a staple of the Vietnamese pantry—and tanginess. At Street, Feniger and Alger make and culture their own yogurt, but this recipe produces similar results and is much quicker.

Kick is the right word to describe this golden cocktail, which underscores the shot of ginger liqueur with ginger syrup and lemon.

Sold at Mexican street stands in large, clear barrels—the better to show off their festive colors—agua frescas, or "fresh waters," can be made with all kinds of fruits and herbs, the riper the better. Here, Feniger tops a traditional cantaloupe cooler with a decorative swirl of vivid beet purée. Roasting the beet heightens its sweetness and intensifies its color.

Every cook should have a good brisket recipe at the ready, and this one's a doozy. Braised with lots of browned onions, carrots, and celery in a mix of chicken broth and crushed tomatoes, the beef exits the oven full-flavored and fork-tender, ready to be shredded for the country hash or sliced and served with mashed potatoes for a homey dinner (though it's even better if you can wait a day). By all means, freeze the leftover braising liquid; it's wonderful as a sauce for fettuccine or as the base for a vegetable barley soup.

A candylike sweetness and a crunchy exterior transform these skewers into adult lollipops. Zak Pelaccio, who brings Southeast Asian street food to a restaurant setting at Fatty Crab, explains that the recipe, despite the fact that it takes a long time, is actually quite easy. "You cook it in advance, then you just crisp it, and you know it's going to be good."

A rich meal calls for a crisp salad, in shades of green and white, to cleanse your palate. Radish sprouts add a peppery bite to the crunchy jicama and flat leaves of parsley and celery.

Consider making extra of this spicy syrup—it's delicious stirred into tea, added to smoothies, or drizzled over ice cream.

Both ginger plants and tamarind trees grow in tropical spots around the world, including India, Asia, and Latin America, where the two seasonings are regularly used in marinades, sauces, and drinks. So it was only natural for Feniger to take some of the spicy ginger syrup she had developed for the Canton Ginger Kick and mix it with tart tamarind. The result is very fresh and very quaffable. Feniger says that when they make it at Street, they often save the tamarind pulp that's left in the sieve and add more water; that tamarind liquid will be thinner than the first batch, but it will still have enough of its signature fruity sharpness for another round.

Simultaneously salty, sharp, spicy, and sweet (in other words, completely irresistible), these nuggets are chef Edward Lee's way of saying, "You can have a casual meal without compromising true culinary endeavor." The tradition of serving mustard with a soft pretzel is strictly an American one; Lee makes his own honey mustard, jazzing it up with chiles. For sources for country ham and pretzel salt.

What you find here and on page 96—aside from a striking striped presentation—is an equally beautiful expression of flavors. Because both beets and pears are at the height of their season, Lee has no desire, as he says, "to mess with them too much." He adds, "Nature trumps the ability of any chef." The ginger juice in the vinaigrette is inspired by Lee's Asian roots.

Lee believes that classic dishes are far from being precious artifacts; they are inherently adaptable, and that's what makes them timeless. The starting point here was his "very Italian" wine importer, Enrico Battisti, but instead of polenta, Lee uses quick-cooking stone-ground grits from Anson Mills, in Columbia, South Carolina."They're better than any polenta," he says, "because they're so fresh. I call them hero grits."

Turkey is a paradise for street-food fans, and when Feniger travels there, she especially loves nibbling on the airy doughnuts soaked in syrup that are offered by many vendors. She made them her own by lacing a basic cream-puff dough with cardamom and cinnamon. Dried rose hips steeped in the syrup add a little texture and tartness to the sticky, fragrant bites.

Roy Choi approaches food like a graffiti artist: "I just want to put it out there and be gone before anyone knows I spray-painted on the wall." So if you've been following Kogi BBQ-To-Go tweets but haven't been quick enough to find the truck, these fusion quesadillas should satisfy your cravings.

Enjoyed by millions in India, masala chai, a spiced, sweetened black tea mixed with milk, is now popular around the world. It is sold all over India by chai wallahs, or tea vendors, who pour the tea from big kettles into small cups. Americans have incorrectly shortened the name to chai (which means simply "milk tea"); masala refers to the combination of spices, which often includes cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, pepper, fennel, and star anise. Although there are many chai blends available in supermarkets, making your own is quick and satisfying, and the results are much better.

This gratin, which is delicious with roast chicken or pork chops, employs a favorite technique: cooking vegetables covered with a round of parchment paper placed directly on them, rather than with a lid. This low-tech method allows just enough steam to escape while keeping the vegetables—leeks, in this case—perfectly moist. A bit of lemon zest helps balance the gratin's richness.

The inspiration for these handheld burritos came from those served at the Santa Fe Farmers Market, in New Mexico, where they are truly the early bird's reward—feasting on a portable breakfast while scoring the pick of the produce is a magical start to the day. Though either Mexican or Spanish chorizo would work, we prefer the smoothness of the Mexican sausage and the way its flavor, rich with chiles, soaks into the potatoes. Avocado adds a fresh, bright note.