Search locations or food
OR
Sign up

What to eat in North America? Top 9 North American Street Food Sweets

Last update: Fri Feb 14 2025
Top 9 North American Street Food Sweets
VIEW MORE
01

Street Food Sweets

GUADALAJARA, Mexico
4.5
Ate it? Rate it
Wanna try?
Add to list

Bionico is a popular Mexican street food item in the form of a fruit cocktail, originating from Guadalajara. Chopped fruits such as papaya, strawberries, cantaloupe, apples, and bananas are topped with a sweet cream mixture, granola, pecans, raisins, and desiccated coconut.


The dish was invented in the early 1990s as a healthy breakfast meal. As its popularity grew, the dessert spread throughout Mexico and even to some parts of the United States. Today, bionico is mostly served by street vendors or it can be bought at numerous juice bars and ice cream shops.

MOST ICONIC Bionico

1
2
02
Ate it? Rate it
Wanna try?
Add to list

Beaver tails are sweet, flat, and thin Canadian pastries made from whole wheat flour. The dough is hand-stretched and shaped to look like a beaver's tail - unsurprisingly, one of Canada's national symbols. The shaped dough is fried (a technique referred to as float-cooking) on canola oil and smothered with butter and a variety of different toppings.


Beaver Tails originated from a recipe created by Grant Hooker's family and have been served commercially since 1978. It is believed that the pastry evolved from a yeasty, wheaty dessert made from excess dough that was first made on early Canadian and American farms. 

MOST ICONIC Beaver tails

1
2
03

Dessert

COLIMA CITY, Mexico
4.1
Ate it? Rate it
Wanna try?
Add to list

Cocadas are sweet coconut treats originating from the state of Colima, Mexico. Traditionally, the concoction is made by combining grated coconut, sugar, eggs, and water, although some modern versions incorporate flavorings such as cloves, vanilla, or almond extract.


The dessert is also very popular throughout Latin America, in countries such as Peru and Colombia. Sometimes, cooks like to add food coloring to cocadas in order to symbolize the flag colors of a specific country, making the soft and chewy dessert both patriotic and tasty. 
04

Sweet Pastry

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
4.0
Ate it? Rate it
Wanna try?
Add to list

Although archaeologists had found some petrified remains of fried cakes with holes in the center, it is still unclear how could the early Native Americans prepare these delicious fried dough desserts that we know today as doughnuts. In the past, doughnuts were known as olykoeks (oily cakes), and the pilgrims from Holland are credited for bringing them to the United States.


Those early doughnuts were often made with prunes, raisins, or apples in the middle. During World War I, the doughnut was already an American favorite, consumed by soldiers that were fighting overseas as a reminder of home. In the 1950s and the 1960s, the popularity of these treats was so big that new doughnut chains started appearing on the market, such as Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts, helping in the perception of doughnuts as breakfast food. 

MOST ICONIC Doughnut

View more
1
2
3
4
5
05

Sweet Pastry

RACINE, United States of America
3.9
Ate it? Rate it
Wanna try?
Add to list

Wisconsin kringle is Wisconsin's official state pastry, brought over to the USA by Scandinavian settlers in the mid-19th century. The kringle (a Danish word for pretzel) is a buttery and flaky pastry that's filled with fruits or nuts. These pastries were originally shaped into pretzels, but the bakers in Wisconsin opted for the oval shape.


Each kringle should have at least about 30 layers of flaky dough, while the top is typically covered in white icing. Some of the most traditional flavors include raspberries, pecans, and almonds, but there are also other fillings such as apples, blueberries, cherries, and apricots. 

MOST ICONIC Wisconsin Kringle

View more
1
2
3
4
5
06
Ate it? Rate it
Wanna try?
Add to list

Timbits are bite-sized doughnut holes made from leftover doughnut dough, fried in vegetable oil and available in a number of varieties such as yeast, cake, apple fritter, honey dip, old fashion plain, chocolate glazed, blueberry, strawberry, lemon, and filled timbits.


They are sold in North American fast food chains such as Tim Hortons and Dunkin' Donuts. The bit in Timbit is an acronym for Big in Taste, which is an original campaign slogan from the 1970s. In Quebec, people prefer to use the generic term doughnut holes or trous de beigne instead of timbits. 

MOST ICONIC Timbits

1
07
Ate it? Rate it
Wanna try?
Add to list

Goolab jamoon (also spelled gulab jamun) is a festive Trini treat that was developed under the influence of Indian cuisine. Milky and sweet, these fritters consist of milk, flour, ghee, water, and ground cardamom. Fried until golden brown and then drained, the fritters are glazed with a sweet syrup consisting of sugar, water, and ginger.


Goolab jamoon is especially popular during Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.

08

Deep-fried Dessert

PENNSYLVANIA, United States of America
3.7
Ate it? Rate it
Wanna try?
Add to list

A quintessential part of every American street fair is a crispy funnel cake. The unique name is derived from the method of preparation in which the batter, made with eggs, sugar, milk, and baking soda, is poured through a funnel directly into the sizzling oil.


It falls in circular, thin, and tangled streams, creating the distinctive shape of this American delicacy. When fried, the batter expands, and the final result is a crispy, golden brown treat. In the modern history of the United States, funnel cake is traditionally associated with Pennsylvanian Dutch, the German-speaking immigrants who inhabited the area in the 17th and 18th century. 

MOST ICONIC Funnel Cake

View more
1
2
3
4
5
09

Dessert

NEWARK, United States of America
3.0
Ate it? Rate it
Wanna try?
Add to list

Glossy, red, and sweet, candied apples, also known as jelly apples, were invented in New Jersey in 1908, when William Kolb, a candy maker from Newark, made a syrup with melted sugar, red coloring agent, and cinnamon flavoring. He dipped some apples into the syrup and placed them on his shop's window display.


As the treats were priced at a nickel a piece, they spread to the Jersey Shore and were soon adopted by traveling circuses and numerous candy shops throughout the country. The best candied apples should pair the sweetness of their thin and shiny coating with a tart and crisp varieties of apples such as Gala, Granny Smith or McIntosh

TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. For the “Top 9 North American Street Food Sweets” list until February 14, 2025, 1,430 ratings were recorded, of which 1,242 were recognized by the system as legitimate. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.

Show Map
North American Street Food Sweets