street food dinner party

[Lotus7]

Hi there! I'm thinking about having 3-4 families over for a dinner party. I thought i'd be fun to do a "street" food theme. Should I stick to one region--Say Asia or Latin America--or should I mix it up? If I have to pick a region I'd probably lean toward Asia. Would love your suggestions, ideas, and recipes please--also, I'd love to get a few recipes for dishes that I could make ahead as well. Thank you!!

[perk]

You might get some good ideas if you check out the menu online for Susan Feniger's Street restaurant in Los Angeles. She has lots of fun street food from around the globe.

[mebby]

This month's Food and Wine has a whole article of "cooking for a crowd" street food recipes from Susan Feniger combining North African and Asian flavors and a fair amount of make-ahead dishes -- might make a good starting point.

[butzy]

If you want to do SE Asian, you got lots and lots of choices. I think one region might be better as than the flavour profiles would be similar, BUT if one person for instance doesn't like a certain spice or condiment, he/she might just have a hard time finding something he likes. So that would be an argument for mixing and matching.
If we stick with SE Asia, think satay, fish cakes, spring rolls, stir fries, curries etc etc.... If you want some recipes, let me know...

If you go away from the Asia idea, you could look at tapas (spain) or mezze (greek)

[1POINT21GW]

If it were me, I'd do an all American theme.