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Bagara baingan
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Bagara baingan

Baby aubergines in peanut sesame sauce

Bagara baingan is a Hyderabadi wedding dish of small aubergines cooked whole in a dark, tangy gravy of roasted peanuts, sesame, dried coconut and tamarind. Unlike a Gujarati stuffed brinjal, the aubergines here are only quartered at the base and fried until silky, then left to soak up a thin-but-rich sauce that is finished with a tempering, the 'baghar' that gives the dish its name. It's sour, nutty and gently spiced, and is served with biryani, bagara rice or plain rice. Chef's tip: choose small, glossy purple aubergines that feel heavy for their size; soft, light ones are full of seeds and turn mushy before the gravy has a chance to cling.

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TufahijeWalnut-stuffed poached apples

Tufahije came to Bosnia with the Ottomans, and the name comes from the Persian and Arabic word for apple. In Sarajevo's old Baščaršija quarter they sit in the windows of slastičarne (sweet shops), whole apples poached pale in lemon syrup, filled with sweet walnuts and capped with whipped cream; at home they are a favourite after the iftar meal during Ramadan and at Bajram. They are soft, juicy and only moderately sweet. Chef's tip: choose firm, slightly tart apples and poach them gently; boiling them hard is the classic mistake and leaves you with split, mushy apples.

50 minBalkanDessertsGluten free
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Ojingeo bokkeumSpicy stir-fried squid

Around the harbours of the Chungcheong coast on the Yellow Sea, seafood restaurants fry freshly landed squid in a sticky red sauce, and the same dish turns up in lunch canteens and home kitchens all over Korea. Bright with chilli, it's on the table in about twenty minutes and is often piled straight onto rice as ojingeo deopbap. The sauce is gochujang and chilli flakes sweetened with a little sugar, and the vegetables stay crisp. Serve with rice and a bowl of light soup to cool things down. Chef's tip: mix the sauce before you light the hob, because the squid cooks so fast that there is no time to measure anything once it's in the pan.

20 minKoreanFishSpicy
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Oil downBreadfruit and salt fish one-pot

Oil down is what Grenadians cook on the beach, at village fêtes and on Sunday afternoons, often in a big iron pot over a wood fire with everyone waiting around it. Breadfruit, salt fish and soft flour dumplings are layered with callaloo and turmeric (called 'saffron' on the island), then steamed in coconut milk until the milk is drunk up and only a golden oil coats the pot, which gives the dish its name. Many cooks add salted pig tail or chicken; this version keeps to salt fish. The mistake to avoid is stirring, which breaks the layers into mush; shake the pot instead. Chef's tip: put the Scotch bonnet in whole and lift it out at the end, so it scents the pot without burning everyone's mouth.

95 minCaribbeanFish
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Chongqing xiao mianChilli oil noodles

Chongqing wakes up to these: thin wheat noodles in a small bowl of red, numbing sauce, eaten standing up at street stalls before work. The noodles are plain; everything happens in the bowl, where chilli oil, Sichuan pepper, garlic water, preserved mustard greens and crushed peanuts are stacked up before the noodles go in. The vegetable version on this page is how most locals order it day to day. Chef's tip: some bought chilli oils are made with beef fat, so check the label or use your own vegetable-oil chilli oil.

20 minChinesePasta & NoodlesVeganSpicy
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Chicken nanbanFried chicken with tartar sauce

Chicken nanban comes from Miyazaki prefecture in Kyushu, where it was created in the city of Nobeoka in the mid 20th century as staff food at a Western-style restaurant. Today it is the region's best-known lunch set, served in diners all over Miyazaki with shredded cabbage, rice and miso soup. Chicken thighs are dipped in flour and beaten egg, fried golden, then briefly bathed in sweet soy vinegar and covered with a chunky egg tartar. The sharp vinegar and the rich tartar balance each other. Chef's tip: dip the hot chicken in the vinegar only for a few seconds per side; you want it seasoned, not soaked.

40 minJapaneseChicken
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Ofe onugbuBitter leaf soup

Ofe onugbu is the soup Igbo families in Anambra and Enugu make for Sunday lunch and for visitors coming home at Christmas. Washed bitter leaf gives a gentle, pleasant bitterness, cocoyam paste thickens it, and beef, shaki (tripe), stockfish and dried fish add layer after layer of savoury flavour, all coloured by palm oil. It is eaten with pounded yam, eba or fufu, pinched up with the fingers. The mistake to avoid is using bitter leaf that hasn't been washed enough; it should taste only mildly bitter before it goes in. Chef's tip: frozen pre-washed bitter leaf from African grocers saves an hour of squeezing and rinsing.

130 minNigerianSoupsGluten free
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Obleas con arequipeWafers with dulce de leche

Obleas are the giant, paper-thin round wafers sold from street carts in Bogotá's parks and around Floridablanca in Santander, where they began. The vendor spreads two wafers with arequipe, Colombia's dulce de leche, and adds whatever you choose: blackberry jam, grated cheese, condensed milk or sprinkles, then presses them together. They are crisp, sticky and fun to make with children. Look for oblea wafers in Latin American shops. Chef's tip: assemble them right before eating; the wafers soften within an hour.

10 minColombianDesserts
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Tuna kinilawRaw tuna in vinegar

Kinilaw is the Visayas and Mindanao way with very fresh fish: raw cubes of tuna or Spanish mackerel (tanigue) cured briefly in coconut or palm vinegar with ginger, red onion, chilli and calamansi. In General Santos, the tuna capital, and on the beaches of Cebu and Siargao, it is made minutes after the catch and eaten as pulutan or a starter on hot afternoons. Please note: the fish is not cooked by heat; the vinegar only firms it and turns it opaque, and it does not kill all bacteria or parasites. Use only sashimi-grade fish that has been frozen to kill parasites, and pregnant women, young children, older people and anyone with a weakened immune system should not eat it. Chef's tip: pour a first splash of vinegar over the fish and drain it off, then dress it; this 'washing' firms the surface and keeps the flavour clean.

20 minFilipinoFishGluten free
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ChoilaSpiced grilled chicken

Choila belongs to the Newar community of the Kathmandu Valley, where it is served at festivals like Dashain and at feasts in Bhaktapur and Patan, alongside beaten rice (chiura) and a glass of something strong. Traditionally it is water buffalo, grilled over straw so the meat tastes smoky, then tossed while warm with raw mustard oil, garlic, ginger, chilli and a sizzling fenugreek tempering. This version uses chicken thighs, with buffalo or beef as an option, and it is always fully cooked before tossing. Serve it as a starter or snack with chiura and pickled radish. Chef's tip: let the mustard-oil tempering smoke for a few seconds before pouring it over; the hot oil loses its raw bite and coats the meat with a nutty, pungent flavour.

45 minNepaliChickenGluten freeSpicy
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TungrymbaiFermented soybean with sesame and ginger

Tungrymbai is the Khasi Hills' great fermented food: soybeans boiled, wrapped in leaves and left by the hearth until sticky and pungent, then cooked with onion, ginger, garlic, turmeric and a generous paste of roasted black sesame. In Shillong's markets and local eateries (jadoh stalls), it is often cooked with pork, but many Khasi homes make it with soybeans alone, which is the version here. It is dark, nutty and savoury, eaten in small spoonfuls with rice. Chef's tip: roast the black sesame until it just begins to pop; underroasted it tastes grassy, overroasted it turns bitter. Natto works if you can't get tungrymbai.

35 minIndianCurriesVeganGluten free
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Obi nonTandoor bread

Every Uzbek meal starts with bread torn by hand and passed round the table, and obi non is the everyday loaf: a round with a thick, soft rim and a thin, crisp centre pricked with a patterned stamp called a chekich. In Samarkand and Tashkent it comes out of clay tandoors at dawn, and across the border in Kazakhstan the same bread is sold as tandyr nan. Bread is never cut with a knife and never laid face down. A very hot oven and a baking stone or upturned tray come close to the tandoor at home. Eat it warm with green tea, achichuk salad, soups and plov. Chef's tip: press the centre really thin and prick it all over; if you don't, it puffs into a ball like pitta and you lose the flat, crackly middle.

40 minUzbekBreads & Parathas
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Nyonya chap chyeBraised cabbage with glass noodles

In Peranakan homes in Melaka and Penang, chap chye (mixed vegetables) is cooked in a big pot for Chinese New Year and family prayer days. Cabbage, dried shiitake, wood ear, lily buds and beancurd skin are braised with garlic and tau cheo, the salty fermented soybean paste, until everything is soft and the glass noodles have soaked up the savoury gravy. Many families add pork belly or prawns, but the vegetarian pot is just as traditional for the first day of the new year. It tastes better the next day. Chef's tip: fry the tau cheo with the garlic until it smells nutty before anything else goes in.

50 minMalaysianVegetarianVegan
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Nyama chomaSlow-grilled goat or beef

Nyama choma, "roasted meat" in Swahili, is the centre of every weekend gathering in Kenya: at roadside joints on the edge of Nairobi you choose your goat ribs or beef by the kilo, it is grilled slowly over charcoal, chopped on a wooden board and brought to the table with salt, kachumbari (tomato and onion salad) and ugali. The meat is meant to be firm and chewy, smoky and simply salted. The mistake is grilling over fierce flames; the outside chars before the inside is tender, so keep it over glowing coals and turn it often. Chef's tip: leg of goat or lamb on the bone is easiest at home; rub it with salt and a little lemon only.

110 minEast AfricanMeatGluten free
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VigorónYuca, pork crackling and cabbage salad

Vigorón was born in the 1910s in the colonial city of Granada, Nicaragua, where it is still sold from stalls around the Parque Central, wrapped in banana leaf: boiled yuca topped with crisp pork crackling (chicharrón) and a tangy cabbage and tomato salad. This dish contains pork. It is street food, eaten at any hour with your fingers. The mistake is serving dry yuca; boil it until tender and slightly split, then keep it in its warm water until serving. Chef's tip: make the cabbage salad an hour ahead so the vinegar softens it.

70 minCentral AmericanSnacks & StartersGluten free
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Oromo with pumpkinSteamed pumpkin roll

Oromo, or orama, is a big rolled dumpling: a thin sheet of dough spread with filling, rolled into a long coil and steamed in a multi-tiered mantovarka. It's a home dish across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, quicker than shaping dozens of manti. In autumn, when Kyrgyz gardens in the Chüy Valley are full of squash, it's filled with grated pumpkin and onion, which turn sweet and juicy. Serve in thick slices with sour cream or a garlicky tomato sauce. Chef's tip: grate the pumpkin coarsely and salt it only just before rolling; salted too early it weeps and makes the dough soggy.

80 minKazakhVegetarian
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Num ansom chekBanana sticky rice parcels

Num ansom chek are wrapped by the dozen in April for Khmer New Year and again in autumn for Pchum Ben, when families carry them to the pagoda as offerings. A ripe banana is hidden inside a jacket of glutinous rice that has been seasoned with coconut milk and dotted with black beans, then the whole thing is rolled tightly in banana leaf and boiled until the rice turns sticky and the banana goes jammy and blush-pink. Unwrapped, they're eaten at room temperature or sliced and grilled the next morning. Chef's tip: use bananas that are fully yellow with a few brown freckles; green ones stay chalky and the pink colour never comes.

90 minCambodianDessertsVeganGluten free
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LebkuchenSpiced gingerbread cookies

Nuremberg has been the German capital of Lebkuchen since the Middle Ages, when the city sat on the spice trade routes, and at its Christkindlesmarkt the stalls are piled with them every Advent. The finest kind, Elisenlebkuchen, contain almost no flour: they're made mostly of ground nuts, candied peel, eggs, sugar and a warm spice mix, baked on thin Oblaten wafers so they stay soft and chewy inside, then glazed with chocolate or sugar. They keep for weeks in a tin and get better as they rest. Chef's tip: bake them only until just set; a common mistake is baking until firm, which makes them dry and hard by the next day.

50 minGermanBaking
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ZapiekankaOpen baguette with mushrooms and cheese

Zapiekanka is Polish street food born in the 1970s and perfected at the hatch windows around Plac Nowy in Kraków's Kazimierz district, where students and night owls queue for one at midnight. Half a long baguette is topped with mushrooms fried with onion, covered in grated cheese and baked until crisp at the edges and bubbling, then finished with a zigzag of ketchup and chives. The classic version has no meat at all. Use a hard cheese made with vegetarian rennet (many supermarket mild Cheddars and Goudas are). Chef's tip: fry the mushrooms until completely dry before they go on the bread; wet mushrooms make the baguette soggy instead of crisp.

20 minPolishFast Food
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Turkish tea (çay)Strong black tea

Nowhere in Turkey is far from a glass of çay. Tea from the slopes of Rize on the Black Sea coast is brewed in a stacked double teapot, the çaydanlık, and poured into small tulip-shaped glasses all day long: at breakfast with simit and cheese, in shops when you haggle, after every meal. The strong brew sits in the top pot and each glass is diluted to taste with hot water from the bottom, so one person drinks it dark (koyu) and another light (açık). It should be clear, the colour of a ruby or rabbit's blood (tavşan kanı), never cloudy. Serve it with sugar cubes on the side, not milk. Chef's tip: steam the dry leaves in the top pot for a few minutes before adding any water; the warm leaves open up and give a rounder, deeper colour.

17 minTurkishDrinksVeganGluten free
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Chicken cafrealGreen masala chicken

Cafreal came to Goa through Portuguese soldiers from Mozambique and became a fixture of the taverns and beach shacks around Panjim and Margao, where it is served with chips, a lime wedge and a cold drink. Chicken legs soak overnight in a vivid green paste of coriander, green chilli, garlic and warm spices, then fry slowly until the paste clings in dark, tangy patches. Chef's tip: use the coriander stems as well as the leaves; they carry most of the flavour and make the paste greener.

60 minIndianChickenGluten freeSpicy
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Nom krokCoconut rice cakes

Nom krok are a street snack you hear before you see: the hiss of batter hitting a charcoal-heated cast-iron pan full of small round hollows, outside markets and schools across Phnom Penh in the late afternoon. Each little cake has a lacy, crunchy rice-flour shell and a molten top of salted coconut cream with spring onion, and two halves are pressed together to eat hot from a banana leaf. A Danish aebleskiver or Japanese takoyaki pan works perfectly at home. Chef's tip: let the pan get properly hot before the first batter goes in, about 4 minutes on a medium-high heat; a cool pan makes pale, sticky cakes that won't come out cleanly.

40 minCambodianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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