Snacking is an art. Anyone can eat pretzels or hot dogs, doughnuts or candy bars. Those snacks are for amateurs. There’s a more vaunted level of snacking - more filling, more fulfilling - that expands flavors and ignores borders. Ranging from Latin American street food to Asian pastries, many of these snacks can double as light meals. They are things to eat on the fly, drive-through or vending machine not required. They aren’t as readily available as your average chip, but then snacking is one of life’s great pleasures. One ought to put as much thought into it as one does into dinner.
In fact, the best snacks can satisfy in a way meals cannot, because that is all they were put here to do. Forget your nutrition, your balance. Snacks just want to entertain you. They live in the moment. They are the id to the meal’s superego, a fling not a relationship. That doesn’t mean they don’t have soul, or that the experience isn’t deep while it lasts. It can be. At their finest, finger foods, fried tidbits, and filled dough are among the most delicious things you will ever eat.
As with any art, the practitioner improves by doing. If your snacking experiences have not been all they could be, you simply need to snack more widely, more voraciously. Or perhaps you have snacker’s block and are looking for new inspiration. In either case, the following suggestions are your prescription. They could be just what you need to hone your between-meal acumen or hoist you out of your rut. They are similar to snacks you already like, but sometimes even better. Try them. With a little time and dedication, anyone can be a snack artist.
China’s answer to the slider is the bing, except sliders are often lame and bings are awesome. You can head to Flushing, the neighborhood in Queens, N.Y., to try these stuffed flatbreads. Or you can head to Wellesley, where chef Ming Tsai offers his version on the lounge menu at Blue Ginger. In addition to a more traditional filling of pork with ginger and scallions, you’ll find roast duck, garlic chives and tofu, and blue cheeseburger and bacon. These savory mixtures go inside a dumpling-esque skin. The creation is then cooked on a special bing griddle, resulting in a crispy, drippy, chewy snack. You get your choice of three flavors, and each order comes with taro chips, sweet chili dipping sauce, and Asian slaw. 583 Washington St., Wellesley. 781-283-5790. www.ming.com/blueginger. $14.
You’ve tried KFC, but have you tried KFC? With a thinner, crispier exterior than its American cousin, Korean fried chicken is brushed in piquant sauce and served with addictive pickled radish. One of the best local places to try it is Privus Lounge, which offers ridiculously crave-able wings and drumsticks from Korean chicken franchise Bon Chon. You can be a specialist and order just wings or just drumsticks, or a generalist and get a combo; orders come in small, medium, large, and extra large. From there, you have your choice of soy-garlic or hot sauce. Soy-garlic is very good, hot is even better. You’ll have to sample both to discover which you prefer. Either way, the radishes are the perfect sweet, funky, crunchy accompaniment. Beer works, too. What’s that you say? The Super Bowl is coming up? Oh, hello. 165 Brighton Ave, Allston. 617-787-7483. www.privus lounge.com. $9.95-$33.95.
In October, the Dosa Factory opened behind the Indian grocery store Shalimar, serving the street food of the subcontinent. (Another branch is set to open in Waltham soon.) On the menu: all manner of chaat, bits of fried bread tossed with the likes of potatoes, chickpeas, and chutneys; golgappa, tiny puri filled with an array of ingredients and flavored liquids; Indian-Chinese dishes such as hot and sour soup and hakka noodles; colorful sweets; and more. And, of course, dosas, South India’s take on crepes. The outside, lacy and crisp, contains rice flour. Its delicacy belies its size, the length and girth of a weightlifter’s forearm. Inside, there’s anything from chicken tikka to mashed eggplant and potatoes. One stuffed with roasted garlic, chilies, and paneer is spicy, cheesy, and satisfying - the perfect thing to eat the day after a late night out. 571 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. 617-868-3672. www.dosa-factory.com. $8.50.
Tired of the jellies and custards at the ubiquitous Dunkin’ Donuts? Try a Japanese doughnut, filled with red beans or curry. The combination of lightly sweet beans (known as “an’’) or spiced beef with pastry is much more interesting than the sugar-on-sugar action at Dunkin’. Both are available at Japonaise Bakery & Cafe, which sells its wares in Brookline, Allston, and Cambridge. (I’ve spotted the red bean version, though not the curry, at Tous Les Jours in Burlington’s H Mart.) Japonaise also offers onigiri (triangular rice balls with different fillings, wrapped in seaweed), Japanese breads, and other bakery standbys. 1020 Beacon St., Brookline, 617-566-7730. 1032 Commonwealth Ave., Allston, 617-738-7200. Porter Exchange, 1815 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-547-5531. www.japonaisebakery.com. An doughnut $1.80, curry doughnut $2.45.
Looks like sushi, tastes like bulgogi. Kimbap is like Korean maki, seaweed wrapped around rice and other ingredients, then sliced into rounds. The dish commonly features beef, pickled radish, spinach, carrots, and egg. Unlike sushi, kimbap isn’t that easy to come by in the Boston area. For a quick and authentic fix, try Misono Wok in the Super 88 food court in Allston, Lotte Market in Cambridge, or H Mart in Burlington. If you feel like sitting for a spell, try the “Korean style rice roll’’ at the new Blue Asia Cafe. The main advantage to eating kimbap at a Taiwanese-Japanese-Korean fusion restaurant may be following it with shaved ice. This dessert is available in eight different combinations - from Go! Red Sox (red bean with condensed milk) to Crazy About Nuts! (peanuts, sweet corn, condensed milk). 113 Brighton Ave., Allston. 617-202-3868. www.blueasiacafe.comcastbiz.net. $6.95.
Sometimes referred to as Armenian pizza, lahmejune are rounds of thin, soft, pita-esque dough topped with meat and spices. If you’re in Watertown precisely at noon, stop by Massis Bakery or Sevan Bakery for a single lahmejune straight from the oven. The ones at Massis come topped with beef, chicken, lamb, or vegetables, with some version also available spicy. (I recommend the spicy lamb.) Sevan keeps things simpler with beef, beef with garlic, spicy beef, and vegetarian. The lahmejune are quickly refrigerated, so if you miss the elusive lunchtime slot, you can still buy them by the half-dozen or dozen and take them home. Reheat in the microwave for a soft lahmejune or in the toaster for a crispy one, whichever you prefer. Oh, and you know you’re getting some baklava for dessert. Massis Bakery, 569 Mt. Auburn St., Watertown. 617-924-0537. www.massisbakery.com. $6.99 for six. Sevan Bakery, 599 Mount Mt. Auburn St., Watertown. 617-924-3243. www.sevanboston.com. $7 for six.
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like tacos. But more people should know about pupusas, a Salvadoran alternative. Masa, or cornmeal dough, is patted out into a plump little pancake and stuffed with ingredients such as beans, cheese, or pork, then griddled. The pupusas take on a warm, toasted flavor, heightened by the savory stuff inside. Like tacos, the dough and filling are good on their own, but the accompanying sauces and condiments are what boost them into total deliciousness. Pupusas are traditionally served with a mildly spicy, thin tomato sauce and curtido, a pickled cabbage slaw. Thus far, my favorite local version comes from La Pupusa Guanaca in Jamaica Plain, but the ones at the close-to-Logan Pupuseria Mama Blanca make a great post-flight snack. Preflight could be risky, however: Pupusas are not fast food. They take a while, and they are worth it. La Pupusa Guanaca, 378 Centre St., Jamaica Plain. 617-524-4900. $2. Pupuseria Mama Blanca, 389 Maverick St., East Boston. 617-567-5511. $1.75.
For a steamed hot dog on a bun, take me out to the ballgame. In the off-season, take me to Chinatown for a filled, steamed bun that offers an entirely different gustatory experience. The bun is round, as fluffy and white as a cloud, and pleasantly sweet. Inside, there may be pork, sausage, hardboiled egg, ginger, and scallions. It’s where dim sum meets home run - a snacking score. Try the ones in the glass case at Mei Sum bakery, where they’ll steam them for you. Join the tables of old men chitchatting and eat it there, or make it part of a Chinatown bakery crawl. Don’t miss Great Taste just up the street. 36 Beach St., Boston. 617-357-4050. $1.40.
Las Ventas, a gourmet Spanish grocery in the South End, sells bocadillos, a.k.a. sandwiches. Try the Las Ventas bocadillo, bread book-ending a slice of tortilla Espanola and a tangle of roasted peppers, and you will never, ever eat an Egg McMuffin again. One mouthful of the egg-potato omelet, tangy peppers, aioli, and great baguette and you will be hooked. I promise. 700 Harrison Ave., Boston. 617-266-0905. www.lasventasspain.com. $7.50.
Forget what you think of as nougat, that insipid fluff sandwiched into your 3 Musketeers or Milky Way. Forget candy bars in general. Torrone, as nougat is known in Italy, is mind-blowing stuff, chewy, packed with roasted nuts, and suffused with the flavor of honey. Modern Pastry in the North End makes its own year-round, though it’s especially popular during the holidays. I love the plain, white bars, and I never deviate. There are other flavors, though, including chocolate, chocolate-dipped, hazelnut, and espresso. When I buy a bar, I like to pretend I’ll cut it into slivers and dole them out to myself over the next few days. Never happens. 257 Hanover St., Boston. 617-523-3783. www.modernpastry.com. $16 per pound.
Devra First can be reached at dfirst@globe.com. 
