The rise and rise of street food cannot be understated. Just a few short years ago, street food was reserved for soggy British festivals or for people zipping around south east Asia on their gap years - now some of the best cooking on the planet is being whipped up on the roadside.
Earlier this year, the first Michelin star to ever be given to a street food establishment was awarded to Singaporean Chan Hon Meng. There are now entire awards ceremonies dedicated to the stuff.
Street food is simple enough to define - it's food prepared in front of you on the street, from carts or stalls or vans. Generally, you won't be given cutlery or a plate. You'll be lucky to find a table nearby, but street food has been designed that you won't need one - you should be able to eat it fuss-free with just your hands.
But most importantly, street food offers a chance for entrepreneurial chefs to serve the food they're passionate about, at a reasonable price, without having to take the enormous financial risk of renting and fitting out a restaurant.
It's a chance to test the waters before taking the leap - and just look at Viet Shack, Hip Hop Chip Shop, Eat New York. All of these started out in the back of a van, or at a stall in a market, or cooking out of other people's kitchens. Now all three have (or are close to having) their very own bricks-and-mortar establishments.
Without any fancy potted plants or tiling or glassware to distract, the food has to stand up - and standards in this rapidly booming industry are soaring.
Here are the best places to grab some street food around Greater Manchester.
Hatch, Oxford Road
Based on the phenomenally successful model of Boxpark in London's trendy Shoreditch, Hatch opened early this year promising to nurture local talent inside its stacks of colourful shipping containers.
As well as street food, Hatch also rents out these spaces to bars, coffee shops and retailers, so you can browse for a new book or house plant while also diving into some grub.
The retailers rotate slowly, usually sticking around for 12 weeks at a time. Takk's espresso bar takes up a two-storey spot, complete with a roof terrace, as does their baby brother nano brewery Öl.
Firebird Hope, whose chicken sandwiches take some beating, have just moved out to make way for Food Me!, who specialise in organic plant-based food.
Also currently in residence are Woks Cluckin (the Korean fried chicken with chips is a must), Mama Z (Filipino curries with a discount for anyone who brings their own container) and T'Arricrii (Sicilian street food, including arancini).
GRUB, Mayfield Depot/Fairfield Social Club
Any street food trader worth their salt has appeared at GRUB at some point.
These guys hit on a winning formula and ran with it, bringing together amazing food, live music, craft ale and proper community spirit at various locations across the city.
Its popularity has been so great, GRUB now takes place three days a week with a constantly rotating roster of traders. They also dedicated one of their days - Plant Powered Sundays - to veganism, making sure all the street food on offer is vegan-friendly.
They're nearing the end of their summer run at Mayfield Depot (the last dates will be the weekend of September 30), when they'll move back into their marginally warmer winter home at Fairfield Social Club.
A teaser posted on their Instagram feed suggests they might be adding Nintendo 64 games consoles this year. Excellent news.
Levenshulme Market, Levenshulme
Levenshulme Market is a source of great local pride - and rightly so.
The volunteer-run social enterprise has transformed the car park next to the train station into a buzzy, community-focused space where locals gather to sell and buy their wares.
The market operates on Saturdays between March and December, between monthly night markets running on Friday evenings.
Soundtracked by live music, visitors can pick up pottery, soaps, prints, and jewellery with a side of wood-fired pizza or halloumi fries or dim sum.
You can also stock up on fresh local produce while you're at it.
Manchester Food and Drink Festival
It comes but once a year - but the line-up MFDF has assembled this year is worth the 12-month wait.
As ever, the beating heart of the festival will be found in Albert Square where some of the city’s best street food traders and restaurants will pitch up to feed the hungry masses.
First up, from September 27 until October 2 there’ll be south Indian snacks and small plates from Chaat Cart; Japanese junk food from Cottonopolis; frankfurters from Diamond Dogs; Philly cheese steaks from Big Lebowski; wood-fired Neapolitan style pizzas from Doughology; pan-Asian dishes from Tampopo; contemporary Ottoman and Mediterranean cuisine from The Ottö-Men; Cypriot specialities from Cyprus Kouzina; and sweet treats from Vive La Crepe and Los Churros Amigos.
The second part of the festival, from October 3 to 7, will feature Indian vegetarian snacks from Bundobust; gourmet burgers from Beastro; Basque pintxos from Baratxuri; Neapolitan pizza from Proove; a taste of southern Italy from Salvi’s; toasties and more at The Melted Cheese Hut; Chinese vegan dishes from Rockin Buddha; Philly cheese steak and jerk pork meatloaf from Knuckle Sandwich Co; and bangers from Grandad’s Sausage; while Café Cannoli, Love is Churros and Waffle Island will be there to sate your sweet tooth.
The Makers Market, various locations
The Makers Market is consistently massive, regardless of which location it pops up at.
Entire streets are closed down to make room for market stalls, where you can grab everything from homemade pies to doorstops made from foraged driftwood.
Depending on the weekend, you could find the Makers Market appearing anywhere from Liverpool to Stockport to Cheadle, as well as Chorlton and West Didsbury, and at the Northern Quarter or the Great Northern in the city centre.
Arts, crafts and food to take home are the main event but you'll usually find a small selection of street food operators too.
Ginger's Comfort Emporium, Oh Mei Dumpling and The Otto-men are all regular faces.
SCRANcoats
Small but perfectly formed, SCRANcoats is a weekly event that takes place inside Ancoats General Store.
The corner shop, which specialises in local and organic produce as well as all the everyday essentials, gives over its cafe space to different street food vendors every Thursday.
In recent weeks, that's meant vegan burgers from Wholesome Junkies, gourmet filled bagels from Schmear, chicken wings and wraps from Oh My Glaze, and bao buns from Little Bao Boy.
Sweet treats are usually provided by Drizzle City Bakes, but not too long ago dessert came from the Manchester Doughnut Company.
Regardless of who's trading, it's worth sticking this one in the diary for every Thursday forever more.
Foodie Friday
The crown jewel of Stockport's food and drink scene - and that's really saying something with names like Where The Light Gets In also in the area - is Foodie Friday.
Taking place on the last Friday of every month, the celebration of craft ales and street food takes over Stockport Market between 6pm and 9pm.
Once it's all over, people pile into the surrounding pubs and bars in Stockport Old Town and the whole area thrums with energy all night long.
The event was awarded the best pop-up event at the Manchester Food and Drink Festival in 2016, thanks to its continental atmosphere and loud-and-proud local spirit.
Regular traders include Wallace & Sons with their bao and gyoza; Wrapscallion with toasted quesadilla; Big D's BBQ with authentic South American barbecue; Fat Annie's with hand-made hot dogs; and Tapas y a la Carta with Spanish tapas and enormous pans of paella.
Arndale Market
No no, not the food court upstairs. Not the strip where Taco Bell and McDonald's sit (though if you want to eat there then that's obviously fine).
We've come here to talk about the street food market downstairs, where you'll find some of the city's best restaurants serving up a street food offering.
It's also where you'll find some of the longest lunch hour queues.
Viet Shack have been here for donkey's years, and the team have in that time toyed with other offerings - there were Simone's healthy cakes, then the health-conscious Gym Shack, and the phenomenal Fusion Lab - before venturing to Ancoats to open their first restaurant.
La Bandera, one of the city's many tapas restaurants, also has a large spot in the Arndale, serving pintxos and tapas and paella in a market set-up so authentically Spanish you feel like you're in La Boqueria in Barcelona. Almost...
Elsewhere, Zorbas make a mean falafel wrap, Pancho's burrito's are the stuff of cheesy legend, and it's all washed down with a few pints at MicroBar.
Altrincham Market
Although everything at Altrincham Market would come under the casual dining category - table service is out, communal dining tables very much in - Market House is perhaps a little more established than your average street food offering.
Outside in New Market Square though, where tiny food 'pods' gather together, you'll find some of the brightest talents in the street food universe.
Everyone here is a permanent fixture to the Altrincham Market family (which includes a covered market and the city centre food hall Mackie Mayor, as well as the market house and square), and you'll find everything from coffee to wraps to pickles.
It's only a matter of time before some of these make the big migration inside to Market House - or maybe even their own restaurants.
Piccadilly Street Food
If you work anywhere in the vicinity of Piccadilly Gardens you won't have missed the street food market that springs up every Thursday, Friday and Saturday - especially if you have any sense of smell.
The combinations of Chinese noodles, Middle Eastern wraps and salads, Turkish kebabs, Spanish paella, BBQd meats and freshly-baked cakes make for a seriously mouth-watering lunch time stroll.
Perhaps the most famous street food offering of them all is actually set slightly apart from the food market - in an old converted ice cream hut.
This is where you'll find Jianbing, a Chinese breakfast crepe that's cooked to order with egg, spring onions, sesame seeds, and fillings such as sausage, bacon, mushroom, wonton crackers, bean paste and cheese - and well worth the lengthy queues it attracts.
