How to organize a street food home party

Street food is enjoyed the world over; simple yet delicious, affordable, and opens you up to a world covered in authentic tastes, layered in culture and fun! Now, bringing street food into your home can come with some challenges, but if you’re up for it, we have some street-inspired foods and beverages you can add to your party menu!

Some of your guests might enjoy the spicy, while others are coming for the sweet. You can offer a range of tasty food that everyone will enjoy; let’s show you how.

Let’s get the party started

Before you send out those invites or head to the store, make sure you select a theme. Popular choices are Mexican, Asian, American, German, and British. Some people go as far as to have fusion-inspired parties where you can select two countries and combine them for some real creative dishes.

Once you have your theme, then you can plan out your menu and bring out some delicious recipes. Since we are going street food, that would need to be your main theme. So, think about it this way, your guests should be able to eat the food standing up and using little to no cutlery, simple, right? It’s not. For instance, if you are going with a Mexican-themed evening, you can have churros as a dessert as you can make them bite-sized. If you are going American, sliders are great, but you get the thinking here, easy to eat with little to no mess. And don’t forget the flavors!

The guests

Before you can plan your menu, you need a headcount first to ensure you have enough food for your party. There is nothing worse than running out of food midway through, and only half of your guests have had their appetizers! There is a lot to consider when hosting any kind of party. There must be some element of standing to keep it authentically street food, or you can completely reinvent the wheel and have a seated street food party. It can definitely work as well. Whichever you choose, remember to ensure your guests are looked after, comfortable, well-fed, and always have a drink in their hands! Once you’ve decided on the number of guests, send out those invites.

The menu

So, you’ve decided on your theme, you have your guest list, and now you must plan your menu. An important tip to note is to always look at the season you are in. If it’s fall and you’d like to use a summer fruit in your dessert, it might not be available, or it’s imported, and it will most likely cost you an arm and a leg, so be smart when selecting your groceries. 

Once you’ve ironed out what’s available and what’s not, you start to plan. Say you plan on inviting 50 guests and you are making chicken wings. It can take hours to prepare each wing separately, so some tricks to overcome this would be to buy ready-made crumbed and spiced chicken wings if you so choose, then you just have to cook them. Another trick with the menu is to keep it simple. Street food is about the culture and the tantalizing tastes, don’t overcomplicate things. If you are making tacos, do not add unnecessary ingredients, rather stick to one that will hero the taco and two others that will complement the hero. For example, some fried steak, cheese, and caramelized onion do the trick well, and it’s so tasty.

The decor

Equally as important as the food, the decor must match the theme. And this will be really fun as it involves some shopping too. The important thing to keep in mind is to decide on what you want the evening to look like before you start doing anything. Your vision will determine your purchases. To keep it simple (and once you have your theme), opt for simple things that can be spiced up. If you are seating your guests at a table, you might want to consider using table linen. Use a solid-colored tablecloth as it’s much easier to spruce up and play around with.

Next, you want to think about plates, cutlery, glasses, and table decorations. If your theme is a seafood extravaganza, opt for pale blue placemats, white dinner plates, crystal clear wine glasses, and some pale blue napkins. For the table decor, you can really save a buck or two if you head down to the beach and grab some seashells and beach sand. And while sand and food do not mix, you can set your table so that the beach sand does not go anywhere near your food. Fill up a few see-through vases with the beach sand, place the vases around the dinner table and place the seashells around the vases, and voila, a seaside-themed table setting. It is this simple, and you can get creative. A lot of the time, you have decor at home, but you just don’t know about it.

Street food recipes

There are hundreds if not thousands of recipes to choose from but here are some popular ones that are guaranteed hits.

• Pulled pork sandwiches: An absolute favorite and always a winner. A pulled pork sandwich can take hours to make considering the recipe of your pulled pork, but it is a crowd-pleaser and oh so delicious. Pro tip: Keep the hot sauce tableside for guests to add when they need it.
• Korean fried chicken burgers: A double chicken breast, kimchi slaw, and chili sauce; what more could you want from a Korean fried chicken burger? Your guests will salivate at the mere sight of it.

• Lobster rolls: A lobster roll is a gift that keeps on giving. The classic lobster roll uses a brioche bun filled with lobster and lemon mayonnaise. So, yum!
• Lemonade: A thirst quencher of note on a hot summer’s day. Lemonade is a winner no matter what; it’s easy to make and is served with ice.