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The presidential race is pervading restaurants, bars, bakeries and candy stores with a variety of politically-themed tastes. Now through November you can sip on cocktails representing the major party candidates in D.C., cast a vote with your order at a restaurant in Chicago, or snag satirical sweets for a debate-watching party in New York.

Sidewalk vendors, push carts, holes in a wall — even in cities with rich reputations for fine dining, some of the best meals are on the streets.

With Burger King’s advent of a hamburger dressed up as a burrito and Pepsi’s revival of its eerily clear cola, it seems like fast-food purveyors and soda bottlers are spending more time creating crazy new mash-ups in laboratories than fresh recipes in kitchens.

French fries may be the most magical food in the universe, from the simplest shoe-strings to a loaded-up mess of tots. They’re a delightful snack. They’re the perfect side dish. They’re a glorious meal on their own. I ate dozens of different fries in all their different iterations these past couple of months, at places both fancy and decidedly less so. Here I present the 12 absolute best.

This is the story of Burmese food in New York City: a thwarted quest. Few restaurants here have ever fully dedicated themselves to the cuisine, and only one — Cafe Mingala on the Upper East Side — still stands. Stray Burmese dishes sometimes surface in Thai or Chinese restaurants, then disappear.

If the fancy restaurants tend to be derivative and expensive, they are still generally good. And you can eat very well for a few dollars at local cafes, where the absence of an alcohol license means the focus is entirely on the food.