Troth Wells, in The World of Street Food -- Easy Quick Meals to Cook at Home , delivers a culinary trip down the world's busiest streets with this colorful book of unique recipes.

Consider this book a sampling of special-occasion foods, treats that can help your family, your scout troop, or your classroom experience other cultures. As the world gets smaller and more homogenized, many of these unique flavors are in danger of being lost.

The book is divided regionally -- Africa, Asia, Middle East, and Caribbean and Latin America -- and each section includes everything from beverages and snacks to entrees and dessert items. Many of the recipes were contributed by westerners living and working in the third-world countries or homesick expatriates remembering childhood favorites. All provide loving descriptions of when and how they first tasted these foods.

It would be hard to make a case that street foods are particularly healthy, especially for sedentary westerners. Many are fried or highly salted or sweet, although most are vegetarian/vegan or easily adaptable. Think of street food as a treat. Each new cuisine we try educates our palates, and we can bring those flavors to our more mundane cooking.

The book features full-color photos of the food items as well as the people and streets they represent. The directions are clear and easy to follow, with measurements in metric units as well as cups and teaspoons.

There are wonderful recipes for beans, such as Ethiopian Lentil Wat (stew); lamb, such as Pakistan Seekh Kebabs (meat on a skewer); and fish, such as Peruvian Cebiche de Pescado (cebiche of fish -- raw fish marinated in lime juice). The reader can make his own Ginger Beer (Malawi), Roasted Peanuts (Garrapinada from Uraguay), or Prickly Pear Cactus (Tlacoyos azules from Mexico).

Between the travelogue descriptions, the photos, and the recipes, it is impossible not to feel inspired to globe trot, or at least travel to the nearest ethnic food shop to give something new a try.

(The book is published by The New Internationalist, a not-for-profit based in the UK, associated with Oxfam. I purchased my copy from Crossroad Global Handicrafts in Bloomington, Illinois, USA, a store supporting fair trade and markets for third-world micro-industry.)