Best Foods For Late Night Feasting (Slideshow)

No matter which city you're prowling for late night food within the U.S., you can usually get your hands on greasy, delicious cheeseburger at any time. Served on a bun with an assortment of condiments and maybe a dash of mayo and/or mustard, it's a cheap and satisfying (and artery-clogging) end to your late night out. 

Kebabs are one of the most popular late-night street foods in the world but they're still done best in their country of origin, Turkey. This dish is pieces of deboned meat (usually lamb) on a vertical spit, roasted on a rotating axis with pieces shaved off with a long knife. Pieces are shaved off on request and made into a sandwich or wrapped in lavas, a half loaf of bread, with onions, pickles, and tomatoes on the side. The difference between the Turkish kebab and the other global contenders is the quality of the meat and spices used — as a traditional dish, much care is taken to select good cuts of meat and spice it generously before roasting.

The U.K.'s version of the Turkish döner kebab has been the ruin of many a waistline. Despite the grease and fat, it's just so hard to resist, even in the early hours of the morning. Big chunks of marinated spicy lamb cubes are skewered onto enormous metal spikes that roast the meat. When you order, they'll carve off pieces of charred meat from the edges and serve it in baked pita with your selection of salads and sauces. 

A good deal of care is given to rotisserie chicken in Portugal. The bird is marinated for hours in a spicy piri piri sauce that's painted on with thick brushes until the chicken is drenched. It's then spit-roasted in roadside eateries and street carts where pieces are carved of for hungry revelers at all hours of the day and night. 

A variation on Vietnamese Pho, Lanzhou noodle soup is clear with green chive, red peppers, and heaps of yellow noodles. The beef is added to the dish last so vegetarians can also enjoy this late night snack by just cutting out that last step. Traditionally available day and night from street carts, they are cheap, tasty, and filling. In Lanzhou, where the soup is from, more than a million bowls are sold every day!

Any late-night reveler in Auckland, New Zealand would tell you the best thing to eat in the early hours is a White Lady Burger. Served out of a dusk-to-dawn burger bus (yes, a real bus) that drives around the city feeding hungry night owls, the burgers are simple but filling and not quite as greasy as you'd expect. There's the juicy beef patty, fried sweet onions all in a toasted bun with lettuce and tomato. The bus, run by the Washer family, has been in operation since 1948.

The German answer to the Turkish kebab is the range of cafés, stalls, and street carts doling out a variety of sausage-related foods all day and night. German bratwurst, bockwurst, and currywurst are quality sausages, freshly grilled and served on a warm bun. Or you can get it in the form of a sausage roll (wrapped in flaky pastry). It can also be pan fried or cooked in beer. Either way, they're so delicious it's hard to stop with just one, even late at night.   

You know you really, really shouldn't but it's hard to resist the call of a $1 pizza slice on your way home in those wee hours of the morning. Cheap and cheerful, this greasy, cheesy snack is probably one the most unhealthy late night snacks you can get, but it's certainly one of the most popular.