The truest street food in Naples is the cuoppo, a paper cone overflowing with fried goodies. These are best had at legendary spots like Friggitoria Vomero. This Vomero Hill institution has been a family-run haven for happy (and greasy-fingered) Neapolitans since 1938. For just a few euros, grab a classic cuoppo of zeppolelle (basically fried pizza dough), panzerotti (potato croquettes filled with salami and cheese) and arancini (crispy rice balls).

Other fried favorites include the fried pizza, which existed before Naples’s world-famous wood-fired pizza. At Friggitoria Masardona they produce just one thing: fried pizza made of a light dough enclosing a mixture of ricotta, cicoli (fatty pork), provola cheese and tomato. Owner Enzo punches down the sides to ensure the filling won’t leak, and with a few skillful, fast movements – part of the family legacy – the pizza is immersed in hot oil. It comes out puffy, hot and absolutely delicious.

La Pignasecca in Montesanto is the oldest marketplace in the center of Naples, where any and all street food can be found. Pescheria Azzurra, a local fish shop, makes the market a destination even for Neapolitans from satellite neighborhoods. Savor a cuoppo of fried fish and other delicacies of the sea that seduces an increasing trickle of tourists every day.

Luca Affatato’s unmarked dumpling shop sits on a charmless street a few steps from the Salvator Rosa Metro Art Station. Here, crowds wait for handcrafted dumplings, in which fillings mix Asian traditions with local ingredients. Luca’s gyoza are classic, pork meat, spring onion and Savoy cabbage, as are the xiao long bao with their soupy filling – to be eaten carefully. Char siu dumplings with barbecued meat are often on the menu, a customer favorite, and so is salted cod and lemon.

The Vasto district’s Via Nazionale is home to a panini bar that serves only cuzzetiello (which roughly translates to bread bowl sandwiches). To make this singular dish, take a large chunk of cozzetto (heel) from a loaf of bread, hollow it out and fill that space with all good things – with ragù sauce, with meatballs, with eggplant Parmigiana. Vegetarian, seafood, cold and even dessert cuzzetielli are all on offer for a gut buster of a meal.

Local brand Pasta Di Martino has a shop, refined restaurant and takeaway spot over by Castle Nuovo. At the to-go counter we order big servings of our favorite pastas and chow down al fresco. We’re fans of the eponymous dish, Di Martino’s take on the city’s most basic and worshipped pasta recipe in Campania: spaghetti di Gragnano PGI with sauce made of corbarino tomatoes, EVOO and fresh basil – and a slice of bread at the bottom to sop up the remaining sauce.

Down the street from this grocer, at the corner of Via dei Tribunali and Vico Giganti, we feast on roasted chestnuts from Carmine the Wizard's stand in winter. His stand is unique because it’s open year-round. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t stick to the Neapolitan tradition of keeping with the seasons. In the summer, Carmine is the magician of granita (a semi-frozen dessert made from sugar, water and various flavorings), and in autumn, he dishes out octopus broth.

Biting into a freshly-made globe of mozzarella, porcelain smoothness yields to a creamy interior and milk trickles down the cheeks. For any Neapolitan, this is true pleasure. At Sogni di Latte (meaning “dreams of milk”), cheese-based street foods abound: try the deconstructed cannoli, served in a gelato cup with a spoon, or the “spicchitiello,” a cone-shaped, open takeaway box that can be filled with your choice of cheese and crunchy grissini.

One of the lesser-known city icons is the kiosk of the fresh-water-seller. Around since the Middle Ages, they sell sulfur water coming from the volcanic region, and other refreshments. Scattered throughout Naples, acquafrescai like Chiosco Aurelio were born to provide relief in the summer months, where the coolness of a granita or gazzosa counters the oppressive heat. If you went overboard sampling all the street fare the city has to offer, avail yourself of this digestive Neapolitan soda.