Featured recipe

Kitsune udon

Udon with fried tofu

Kitsune udon (きつねうどん, 'fox udon') comes from Osaka, where a noodle shop first floated a sheet of sweet simmered fried tofu on a bowl of udon in the 1890s. The name comes from the folk tale that foxes love fried tofu. Soft, chewy noodles sit in a pale, gently sweet broth, and the tofu soaks up the soup like a sponge. This version uses a kombu and shiitake dashi instead of bonito, so it is fully vegetarian. Chef's tip: let the sweet tofu cool in its simmering liquid if you have time; as it cools it drinks up the sauce, so every bite bursts with sweet soy juice in the hot broth.

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Bún ốcSnail noodle soup

In the lanes around Đồng Xuân Market in Hanoi, bún ốc is a cold-weather lunch for people who love a sharp, sour broth: tomatoes cooked down with the gently fermented rice vinegar called giấm bỗng, a pork-bone stock, golden fried tofu and plenty of tender river snails, served over soft rice noodles with perilla and a spoon of chilli. This home version uses cooked frozen snail meat from Vietnamese or Asian grocers and ordinary rice vinegar. The stock is made from pork bones. Chef's tip: add the snails at the end and just heat them through; long boiling makes them rubbery.

95 min

Vietnamese Soups

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Buñuelos de algasSea lettuce fritters

On the beaches of Rocha, from La Paloma to Punta del Diablo, vendors walk the sand with baskets of hot buñuelos de algas: puffy, salty fritters speckled green with sea lettuce, eaten with a squeeze of lemon. Use dried sea lettuce or mixed seaweed flakes from a shop, or fresh sea lettuce only from a seller who harvests clean water; never pick it from a harbour or near drains. The usual mistake is frying in oil that isn't hot enough, so the fritters soak it up and turn greasy. Chef's tip: rest the batter for 15 minutes so the seaweed softens and the fritters puff more.

35 min

Paraguayan Snacks & Starters

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NazkhatoonSmoky aubergine with pomegranate

Nazkhatoon comes from Gilan, the green, rainy province on Iran's Caspian coast, where it is eaten in summer as a starter or side with grilled fish, rice and fresh herbs. Charred eggplant is chopped with tomato, garlic and mint, then sharpened with sour pomegranate molasses and verjuice, so it tastes smoky, tart and fresh at once. Suitable as part of a balanced diet, it is a vegetable salad with no grain: about 110 kcal and 14 g carbohydrate per portion. The usual mistake is using sweet pomegranate syrup; it must be the sour Gilani style, and a little goes a long way. Chef's tip: chop everything by hand rather than in a blender, so the salad keeps some texture.

40 min

Persian Salads

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NoribenSeaweed and fish cake bento

Noriben is the humblest and most nostalgic Japanese packed lunch: rice spread with okaka (bonito flakes in soy) and covered with a whole sheet of nori, sometimes twice in layers, then topped with something fried such as chikuwa fish cake or white fish. Convenience stores and bento shops across Japan sell it for a few hundred yen. The usual mistake is laying the nori on steaming rice and closing the lid, which leaves it soggy and torn; let the rice cool a little first. Chef's tip: snip the nori into a few strips before it goes on, so it is easy to bite through with chopsticks.

15 min

Japanese Rice & Grains

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Teh halia (ginger milk tea)

Sit down at any mamak stall in Kuala Lumpur, Penang or Johor Bahru, from breakfast roti canai to the after-football supper at 1 a.m., and someone at the table will order teh halia. It is teh tarik's spicier cousin: dust-fine black tea is boiled with plenty of crushed ginger, mixed with condensed and evaporated milk, then 'pulled' between two mugs from arm's length until a thick froth forms. The result is sweet, creamy and malty, with a ginger heat that catches your throat, most loved on wet monsoon evenings. The common mistake is adding ginger to tea at the end; it then tastes raw and thin. Boil the ginger in the water first for several minutes so the heat goes into the liquid. It is ready when the tea is the colour of milky caramel and a dense froth a few centimetres high sits on top. This contains caffeine, so it is not for children. Chef's tip: practise pulling with water over the sink first, then start low and raise the mug slowly as you pour.

11 min

Malaysian Drinks

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Chai nabat (saffron rock candy tea)

Pilgrims leaving Mashhad carry home boxes of saffron nabat, crystals of rock candy grown on a string and tinted gold with Khorasani saffron. Across Iran a glass of chai nabat is what you are handed when you feel unwell, after a shock, after an exam, or late at night when the evening meal sits heavy; it is traditionally drunk to settle the stomach and warm you up. The tea is brewed strong in a teapot that sits on top of the kettle, then poured clear and amber into small glasses, and the nabat stick is stirred until it softens the tea with a gentle, honeyed sweetness and a faint saffron aroma. Black tea has a moderate amount of caffeine, so give children a weaker glass. A common mistake is boiling the leaves or letting them steep on direct heat, which turns the tea bitter and murky; Persian tea is "dam" — brewed gently on steam. It is ready when the leaves have sunk, the tea is clear and reddish-amber and it smells of bergamot or cardamom. Chef's tip: hold the glass up to the light; if you can't see through it, top it up with hot water, as Iranians do.

15 min

Persian Drinks

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Burma athoBurmese noodle salad

When Tamil families returned from Burma in the 1960s they brought atho with them, and today it is cooked on carts around Burma Bazaar, Parry's Corner and along the roads near the harbour in George Town, busiest at lunch and in the early evening. Cold noodles are mixed by hand with raw cabbage and onion, crisp fried garlic, tamarind, chilli flakes, roasted gram powder and lime, and come with a peppery banana-stem soup on the side. It is sour, hot, crunchy and very moreish. Contains wheat. Chef's tip: fry the garlic slowly until only pale gold; it keeps darkening off the heat and turns bitter if you wait for brown.

35 min

Indian Pasta & Noodles

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TenmusuPrawn tempura rice balls

Tenmusu, short for tempura musubi, began in Tsu and became a Nagoya speciality: small salted rice balls with a crisp little prawn tempura poking out of the top, wrapped in nori and sold in boxes at Nagoya Station as a travel lunch. The common mistake is wrapping hot, crunchy tempura straight into the rice, so it steams soft; let it cool on a rack first. Use raw prawns that smell of the sea; throw away any that smell of ammonia. Chef's tip: brush the cooled tempura with a quick sweet soy dip before you shape the rice round it, which is the Nagoya secret to its flavour.

45 min

Japanese Fish

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Burong manggaPickled green mango

From Pampanga to Pangasinan, the hot months of March to May bring piles of hard green carabao mangoes to every palengke, and many households slice them into a jar of burong mangga. A week in a sweet salt brine turns the mango from mouth-puckering to bright and juicy: still crunchy, sour at the core, salty-sweet on the outside. It is eaten on the side of inihaw na isda and pritong tilapia, with rice and fried pork at lunch, or as an afternoon merienda straight from the jar, and the brine is sometimes sipped too. Common mistake: using mangoes that have started to ripen; a yellow blush makes the slices go soft and slimy, so choose rock-hard, deep-green fruit. Because the brine has no vinegar it keeps only in the fridge. It is ready when the slices have turned from opaque white to a translucent yellow-green and taste evenly seasoned right through. Chef's tip: let the boiled brine cool completely before pouring, and add a few slices of fresh chilli if you like heat. Outside Asia, use firm green Thai or Indian mangoes from an Asian grocer.

25 min

Filipino Chutneys & Dips

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Cà ri chayVegetarian sweet potato curry

Cà ri chay is served at Buddhist temples and vegetarian restaurants across Saigon and the Mekong Delta, and many families cook it at home on rằm days, the first and fifteenth of the lunar month, when they eat no meat. Sweet potato and taro soften into a golden, lemongrass-scented coconut curry with fried tofu and meaty oyster mushrooms; it is mild and fragrant rather than fiery. Mop it up with a crusty baguette, or ladle it over rice vermicelli. The usual mistake is putting all the vegetables in at once: the sweet potato dissolves before the taro is cooked. Chef's tip: fry the taro and sweet potato briefly before simmering, which seals the outside so the chunks hold their shape in the sauce.

55 min

Vietnamese Curries

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Yubu jumeoniFried tofu pouches with glass noodles

Yubu jumeoni, "tofu pockets", are a Bupyeong Kkangtong Market speciality, said to have been dreamed up by a fish-cake vendor there in the 1980s. Little fried tofu pouches are stuffed with glass noodles and vegetables, tied with a strip of chive like a drawstring purse and left to soak in a steaming pot of anchovy and kelp broth. On cold Busan evenings they are served in a paper cup with a ladle of broth and a dab of soy. Chef's tip: fill the pouches only three-quarters full; they swell as they absorb the broth and split if packed tight.

50 min

Korean Snacks & Starters

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Masu zushiPressed trout sushi

Masu zushi is Toyama's famous ekiben, the boxed lunch sold at the station for the train ride: a round, flat cake of vinegared rice pressed under a layer of salted, vinegar-cured trout and wrapped in bright green bamboo leaves, cut into wedges like a pie. The fish is cured but raw, so use only fish sold as safe to eat raw and previously frozen, and keep everything cold; this version is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. For a safer version, use hot-smoked trout fillet instead, which is fully cooked. The usual mistake is pressing the rice while it is still warm, which turns it mushy; cool it to body temperature first. Chef's tip: press the cake for a full hour under a heavy weight so it slices cleanly, then cut it with a wet knife.

85 min

Japanese Fish

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Guiso de fideosBeef and pasta stew

Guiso de fideos is the winter weeknight stew of Argentina, cooked in Buenos Aires flats and on estancias alike, and as loved by children as by grandparents. Beef, potatoes and vegetables simmer in a light tomato and sweet-paprika broth, then short pasta cooks straight in the pot and thickens it into something between a soup and a stew. Serve it in deep plates with crusty bread and grated cheese for those who want it. The usual mistake is adding the pasta too early, so it swells and turns mushy; it goes in only for the last 10–12 minutes. Chef's tip: cut the beef into small cubes, about 2 cm, so it is tender in under an hour.

75 min

Argentinian Meat

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Ceci in ziminoChickpeas stewed with chard

In Genoa and along the Tuscan coast, ceci in zimino is the dish of Lenten Fridays and the first cold days of All Souls in November, when the household cooks a big pot of chickpeas and stews them with chard and a little tomato. The chickpeas turn creamy, the chard gives a gently bitter green sauce, and a spoon of good oil on top makes it taste of the Riviera. Serve it as a main dish with toasted wholegrain bread. Suitable as part of a balanced diet, it is high in fibre and plant protein: about 300 kcal and 32 g carbohydrate per portion. The usual mistake is adding the chard leaves too early so they turn brown; keep them for the last 10 minutes. Chef's tip: mash a ladleful of chickpeas with a fork and stir them back in to thicken the zimino naturally.

50 min

Italian Curries

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Cachitos de jamónHam-filled crescent rolls

Every Caracas panadería opens its morning with trays of cachitos: soft, slightly sweet crescent rolls wrapped around finely chopped cooked ham (pork), eaten standing at the counter with a café con leche. Some bakeries add a little bacon or cheese; cheese-only cachitos are a good vegetarian swap. The common mistake is overfilling, so the ham pokes out and burns. Chef's tip: roll each wedge snugly from the wide end and tuck the point underneath so it doesn't unroll as it bakes.

150 min

Venezuelan Baking

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Đậu hũ khoBraised tofu with shiitake

Đậu hũ kho is the vegetarian cousin of the caramel braises (kho) cooked in clay pots all over Vietnam, and in the south it is a standard of Buddhist fasting days and a good companion for a pot of rice through the week. Golden fried tofu and chewy shiitake are braised in a dark caramel, soy sauce and coconut water until the sauce turns sticky, salty-sweet and peppery. Serve with steamed rice, a plate of fresh cucumber and a light soup. The usual mistake is letting the caramel go too dark, which makes the whole dish bitter; stop when it is the colour of strong tea. Chef's tip: coconut water gives a rounder sweetness than plain water, and the braise keeps for 3 days in the fridge.

35 min

Vietnamese Vegetarian

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UmleqwaSlow-stewed chicken

Umleqwa is the free-range village chicken of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, cooked for family gatherings, homecomings and Sunday lunch. These birds run free and have firm, flavourful meat that needs long, slow simmering, so the pot bubbles for an hour or two with onion, tomato, garlic, ginger and curry powder until the meat is tender and the gravy rich. It is eaten with pap, dumplings (ujeqe) or rice. The usual mistake is cooking a supermarket chicken for as long; it will fall to shreds, so cook it for about 45 minutes instead. Chef's tip: brown the chicken skin well before adding liquid, because the rendered fat carries the flavour of the gravy.

120 min

South African Chicken

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Frijoles coladosStrained black beans

Every cocina económica and family kitchen in Mérida keeps a pot of frijoles colados for the midday meal, the smooth, almost soupy black beans that sit beside cochinita, poc chuc, eggs or simply rice and tortillas across the Yucatán. The beans are cooked soft with epazote, pushed through a sieve, then simmered with onion fried until sweet. Traditionally the onion is fried in pork lard; this version uses oil so it is vegan. The usual mistake is straining beans that are not fully cooked, which gives a gritty, floury purée, so cook them until they crush with no effort. Chef's tip: drop a whole habanero into the simmering purée for 5 minutes for perfume without much heat, then fish it out.

120 min

Mexican Sides

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Café guayoyoLong black coffee

In the coffee villages of the Venezuelan Andes, in Trujillo, Mérida and Táchira, the day starts in the dark with a pot of guayoyo, and it never really stops: a cup at breakfast with arepas, one mid-morning, one after lunch, one at the bodega counter in the afternoon. Guayoyo is the opposite of a short, dark negrito: plenty of water through a modest amount of coffee, poured through a colador de tela, a cotton cloth sock on a wire ring. It is light-bodied, mild and clean, closer to tea in strength, with gentle chocolate notes and almost no bitterness, so it is easy to drink cup after cup. It still has caffeine, so count the cups. The common mistake is pouring boiling water onto the grounds, which pulls out bitter flavours; let the kettle rest off the boil for a minute first. Never wash the cloth with soap either, or every cup tastes soapy. The coffee is ready when it runs through amber-brown, clear enough to see the bottom of a white cup. Sweeten with papelón (raw cane sugar) if you like. Chef's tip: keep the rinsed cloth in a jar of water in the fridge between uses so it never smells stale.

10 min

Venezuelan Drinks

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Chungmu gimbapRice rolls with spicy squid

In the harbour town of Tongyeong (once called Chungmu), fishermen's wives made plain rice rolls in laver with the spicy side dishes packed separately, because filled gimbap spoiled in the heat of the boats. Today Chungmu gimbap is a lunchbox and road-trip classic all over Korea: finger-sized rolls eaten with a toothpick, sweet-spicy squid and fish cake, and crunchy radish kimchi. The common mistake is overcooking the squid, which goes rubbery; blanch it just until it turns white and curls. Chef's tip: brush the gim lightly with sesame oil before rolling, which keeps it from going chewy.

45 min

Korean Rice & Grains

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Bonchi curryGreen bean coconut curry

Bonchi curry is one of the small vegetable curries that fill a Sri Lankan rice-and-curry lunch, cooked daily in Colombo kitchens and village homes in the hill country, where green beans grow in terraces near Nuwara Eliya. The beans are simmered in thin coconut milk with turmeric, curry leaves, pandan and green chilli until just tender, then enriched with a splash of thick milk so the sauce is mild, creamy and pale yellow. Suitable as part of a balanced diet, it is a high-fibre vegetable dish: about 150 kcal and 9 g carbohydrate per portion; serve it with red rice for slower-releasing carbohydrate. The usual mistake is boiling the thick coconut milk, which curdles it; add it at the end and only heat through. Chef's tip: cut the beans on a long diagonal so they soak up more of the sauce.

30 min

Sri Lankan Curries

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Frijoles maneadosPinto beans with chile and cheese

Frijoles maneados are the rich party beans of Sonora in northern Mexico, cooked for carne asada gatherings, weddings and Sunday lunch, and spooned onto flour tortillas. Soft pinto beans are mashed and beaten (maneados means stirred or worked) with dried red chile colorado, milk and so much melting cheese that the pot pulls into strings. Serve them with flour tortillas, grilled vegetables and a sharp salsa. The usual mistake is adding the cheese while the pot is boiling hard, which makes it go rubbery and oily; take the heat right down first. Chef's tip: Sonoran queso regional or Chihuahua cheese is often made with animal rennet, so for a vegetarian pot choose a vegetarian Monterey Jack-style or mild Cheddar cheese labelled suitable for vegetarians.

130 min

Mexican Vegetarian

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Paneer soda (rose soda)

Every Tamil town once had a soda shop with crates of Codd-neck bottles sealed by a glass marble, and the pop of the marble being pushed down was the sound of a hot afternoon. Paneer here means rose water, not cheese, and paneer soda is rose syrup topped with that sharp local fizz, sold in Madurai, Tiruchi and Coimbatore by the bus stand and at temple festival stalls in Chithirai and Vaikasi, the hottest months. It is sweet and floral at first, then the bubbles and a touch of lime cut through and leave the mouth clean. The mistake most people make is boiling the rose water with the sugar: the scent cooks away and you are left with plain syrup. Make the syrup first, let it cool, and only then stir in the rose water. The syrup is ready when it is clear and slightly thickened, like thin honey, and the finished drink should be rosy pink and still foaming as you hand it over. Chef's tip: chill the syrup, the soda and the glasses well; warm soda loses its fizz the moment it meets the syrup.

15 min

Indian Drinks

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Calia e simenzaRoasted chickpeas and pumpkin seeds

Calia (toasted chickpeas) and simenza (salted pumpkin seeds) are sold together in twisted paper bags by the old caliari of Palermo, at the Festino of Santa Rosalia in July, along the Foro Italico seafront and outside the Teatro Massimo after a show. You crack the seeds with your teeth and chase them with the crunchy, nutty chickpeas, a habit that can last a whole evening. This home version roasts soaked dried chickpeas and salted seeds in the oven. Chef's tip: dry the soaked chickpeas really well; any surface water steams them instead of making them crunchy.

60 min

Italian Snacks & Starters

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Caldo de gallinaHen broth with noodles

In Lima's markets and the all-night caldo stalls of districts like La Victoria, a bowl of caldo de gallina is the dawn breakfast for market porters, taxi drivers and anyone coming home late: a deep, golden broth from a slow-simmered hen (a boiling fowl) with ginger and spring onion, ladled over thick noodles and yellow potato, with a boiled egg, lime and ají chilli on the side. The common mistake is boiling the broth hard, which clouds it and toughens the meat; keep it to a lazy simmer. The chicken must reach 74 °C, though after this long simmer it will be well past that. Chef's tip: cook the noodles separately, then put them in the bowls; cooked in the pot they drink the broth and turn it starchy.

150 min

Peruvian Soups

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Frango xadrezChicken and pepper stir-fry

Frango xadrez, "chessboard chicken", was born in São Paulo's Chinese-Brazilian restaurants and named for its neat squares of chicken, pepper and onion. It is now a staple of lunch counters, delivery menus and the home-packed marmita, eaten over white rice. The common mistake is overcrowding the pan, so the chicken stews grey instead of searing; cook it in two batches. Chef's tip: toss the chicken with soy sauce and cornflour 15 minutes ahead; the coating keeps it juicy and thickens the sauce.

30 min

Brazilian Chicken

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Calzone frittoFried ham and mozzarella calzone

In Palermo the calzone is fried, not baked: a soft, slightly sweet milk dough wrapped around cooked ham (pork) and mozzarella, sealed and dropped into hot oil until puffed and bronzed. It sits on the glass counters of every rosticceria, from the bars of Via Maqueda to the beach kiosks at Mondello, next to arancine and sfincioni, and Palermitans grab one for a mid-morning merenda or a quick lunch. The crust is thin and crisp, the dough inside pillowy and the cheese stretchy. Chef's tip: dry the mozzarella in the fridge on kitchen paper for an hour; wet cheese makes the seams burst in the oil.

120 min

Italian Snacks & Starters

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Jinmichae bokkeumGlazed dried squid strips

Jinmichae, shredded seasoned dried squid, is one of the most popular banchan in Korean lunchboxes: chewy, sweet and a little spicy, and it keeps for a week. Children across Korea find it in their dosirak and parents make a big tub on Sunday. The common mistake is glazing it over the heat, which turns the squid hard as wire; mix the strips into the warm sauce off the heat. Chef's tip: soak the squid briefly in water first and squeeze it out, so it stays tender even straight from the fridge.

15 min

Korean Fish

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'O pere e 'o mussoCold boiled pork trotters

"The foot and the snout" is one of Naples' oldest street foods: pork trotters and veal muzzle, boiled for hours, cooled and sliced, then sold from marble-topped carts in Porta Nolana, the Pignasecca and around Piazza Garibaldi. The vendor dresses each paper plate with coarse salt from a hollowed ox horn and a squeeze of lemon. It is eaten cold, at any hour, often as a snack with a beer or a glass of wine, though lemonade works just as well. The texture is soft and gelatinous with a little chew from the skin. Buy the snout already cleaned and scalded from a butcher. Chef's tip: slice everything while it is fridge-cold and firm; at room temperature the gelatin turns slippery and the slices tear.

210 min

Italian Meat

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Jitui fanFried chicken leg rice

In every Taiwanese town, the biandang shop at lunchtime sells jitui fan: a whole chicken leg marinated in soy, garlic and five-spice, coated in coarse sweet potato starch and fried crisp, laid over rice with three small vegetable sides and a scoop of minced-pork sauce if you ask. Office workers and students carry the paper boxes back to their desks. The common mistake is frying in oil that is too hot, so the coating browns while the meat by the bone stays raw; fry gently, then crisp it at the end. Chef's tip: let the starch-coated legs sit for 5 minutes until the coating looks damp, so it fries into crunchy little pebbles.

55 min

Taiwanese Chicken

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Oi bokkeumStir-fried cucumber

Cooked cucumber sounds odd until you try oi bokkeum, a Korean banchan in which salted, squeezed slices are flashed in a hot pan with garlic and sesame. They come out bright green and squeaky-crunchy, like a warm pickle, and they hold up beautifully in a dosirak because the salting has already drawn out the water that would make other cucumber sides soggy. The common mistake is frying too long; past a minute or two the slices go soft. Chef's tip: spread the cooked cucumber on a plate to cool at once rather than leaving it in the hot pan, so it keeps its colour.

25 min

Korean Sides

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Bacon and egg pie

No Kiwi picnic, school trip or bach weekend is complete without a bacon and egg pie: flaky puff pastry wrapped around smoky pork bacon, peas and whole eggs that bake into golden rounds you can see when the pie is cut. It is served warm for tea and then sliced cold into lunch boxes the next day. The common mistake is pulling it out when the pastry looks done but the eggs are still runny in the middle; for a picnic pie that will be packed, the eggs must be fully set. Chef's tip: prick each yolk lightly before adding the lid, so the eggs cook evenly and don't bubble up through the pastry.

65 min

New Zealand Meat

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Tibetan fried breadPuffed fried bread

Trekkers in the Everest and Annapurna regions, and early risers in Kathmandu's Boudha neighbourhood, know this bread: rounds of dough slashed down the middle and fried until they puff, golden outside and soft inside. Tibetan families eat it with honey or jam, with a bowl of potato or chickpea curry, and with salty butter tea. The mistake is rolling the dough too thin; at about 1 cm thick it stays tender, while thin dough fries into a hard cracker. Chef's tip: let the shaped rounds rest for 10 minutes before frying so the gluten relaxes and the bread balloons evenly.

60 min

Nepali Breads & Parathas

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