Netflix’s ‘Street Food: Latin America’ Will Make You Desperate to Break Lockdown

Argentinian Tortilla de Papas smothered in mozzarella, Pirão & Abará sold out of a cooler on a crowded Brazilian beach, families clinking wine glasses over a backyard spread… these are just a few of the intoxicating sights on display in Netflix’s latest foodie-focused docuseries, Street Food: Latin America. In each episode, we are dunked in the culture, community, and beloved dishes of a different Latin American country. Because of that, Street Food: Latin America is a gorgeous food series that is sure to give you extreme travel FOMO.

Street Food: Latin America is the second installment of the Netflix anthology series, Street Food. (The first season looked at the popular dishes in urban Asia.) Created by Chef’s Table alums Brian McGinn and David Gelb, the series takes that show’s high end approach to documenting food and shifts it to the street. Each episode is only 30 minutes long, but you get a deep dive into some of the most popular street food fare in a specific Latin American city. The show also profiles the chefs, young and old, who are bringing these delicious on-the-go meals to the streets. Part food porn, part human interest storytelling, and part travelogue, Street Food: Latin America feels almost torturous to watch in 2020.

That’s because every episode of Street Food: Latin America attempts to whisk you away. In Episode 1, for instance, we visit Argentina. Street Food focuses on one chef’s innovations with cheese — and let me just say, the cinematography on the melted mozzarella in this episode will legitimately make your stomach rumble and your mouth water — but it also takes the time to honor Argentina herself. There are dramatic shots of tango dancers and crowded football stadiums overflowing with joyous spectators. We get a tiny history lesson about the nation’s Spanish connections. The camera travels across city bridges and sneaks into cramped kitchens.  Soon, you might find you’re not just dying to try some cheesy Argentinian street fare, but feeling the FOMO of not being able to leave the United States for one of these Latin American locales.

When Netflix ordered this second season of Street Food, they clearly had no way of knowing that it would premiere during a pandemic. However the timing of the show’s premiere feels particularly rude. Street Food: Latin America is a celebration of the sights, sounds, and tastes of foreign countries. What the show honors is exactly what’s being denied to so many of us living in lockdown. It is both a balm and a cruel reminder of what’s been lost.

That Street Food: Latin America made me briefly despondent over the fact that I can’t travel speaks to how well the show digs into each of its geographic subjects. While Chef’s Table looks at the connection between a chef’s life and their food, Street Food celebrates the ways in which a whole city’s culture can be distilled in its most popular dishes. In order to give us the full foodie experience of these dishes, Street Food: Latin America gives us a snapshot of life abroad. And in each episode, Street Food: Latin America depicts a community full of love, joy, and most of all, people sharing food together.

Yeah, you could say we have FOMO.

Watch Street Food: Latin America on Netflix