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Coffee nut crescents

Short, crumbly crescent biscuits flavoured with instant coffee and ground walnuts, rolled in caster sugar while still warm. Lovely with an after-dinner coffee and at festive times.

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Ask anyone in Busan for a bowl of something filling at any hour and they will probably send you for dwaeji gukbap. Seomyeon has a whole alley of gukbap restaurants, open from early morning to late at night, serving the soup to market workers, students and people heading home after a night out. Pork bones are boiled hard for hours until the broth turns cloudy and white, then poured over sliced pork and rice. Each diner seasons their own bowl at the table with salted shrimp, chilli paste and a pile of garlic chives, with raw onion, green chilli and kimchi on the side. Chef's tip: season the soup in the bowl, not the pot; a little saeujeot at a time gives a clean, savoury depth that salt alone doesn't.

180 min

Korean Soups

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Jolpan

Jolpan is how Assam starts the morning of Magh Bihu and Bohag Bihu, and how guests are welcomed in villages all year: a bowl of chira (flattened rice), muri, or sticky bora saul, served with thick curd, yellow jaggery or gur, and sometimes cream. It is not cooked so much as assembled, and every family has its own order: soak the chira, top with doi, crumble in gur. Variants such as komal saul (a soft rice that needs only soaking) are also jolpan. Chef's tip: rinse the chira quickly and drain it at once; a long soak turns it to paste.

10 min

Indian Breakfast & Brunch

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Ikameshi

At Mori, a small fishing town on the railway north of Hakodate, ikameshi has been sold as a station lunchbox since the war years, when rice was scarce and squid was plentiful. It is still one of Japan's best-known station bentos and a star of the regional food fairs that department stores hold all over the country. Small squid are stuffed with soaked glutinous rice, pinned shut and simmered in a sweet soy sauce until the rice swells into a sticky, savoury filling. Slice them into rounds to serve warm or at room temperature. Chef's tip: use small squid with bodies about 15 cm long, as larger ones need longer cooking and turn rubbery before they soften again.

60 min

Japanese Fish

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Narikol laru

Narikol laru are the small, chewy coconut balls that sit next to til pitha on every Bihu plate in Assam, offered to visitors with tea and jolpan. Fresh coconut is cooked with jaggery until it binds, flavoured with cardamom and rolled warm. They are soft and moist, not dry like desiccated-coconut ladoos, and are made in big batches the night before the festival. Chef's tip: roll them while still warm with damp palms; once cold, the mixture won't hold.

35 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Eomuk-tang

On cold evenings in Busan, the city that made Korean fish cake famous, steam rises from street stalls where folded fish-cake skewers bob in a long tray of broth. You help yourself to a skewer, dip it in soy sauce and sip a paper cup of the hot broth while you stand. Bupyeong market has rows of fish-cake shops, and many families buy a bag there to make this simple soup at home. Radish, dried anchovies and kelp give the broth its clean, sweet flavour. Chef's tip: pull the heads and black guts off the dried anchovies before using them, because the guts make the broth bitter.

25 min

Korean Soups

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Kinema curry

Kinema is the Limbu and Nepali fermented soybean of Sikkim and the Darjeeling hills: boiled soybeans wrapped in leaves and left by the hearth for a couple of days until sticky and pungent. Cooked with onion, tomato, turmeric and fiery dalle or green chilli, it becomes a thick, savoury curry eaten with rice in Gangtok and Kalimpong homes, especially in winter. It is rich in protein and has a deep, almost meaty savour. Chef's tip: dry-fry the kinema before adding the masala; it tames the smell and brings out a toasted flavour. Outside the hills, Japanese natto is the closest substitute.

30 min

Indian Curries

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Pazham pori

Pazham pori is what the glass cases of Kerala's roadside tea shops are full of at four in the afternoon: long slices of ripe nendran banana dipped in a sweet batter and fried in coconut oil until puffed and golden. Bite through the crisp, slightly chewy coat and the banana inside is soft, hot and honeyed. People eat them standing at the counter with a glass of frothy, milky chaya, or carry a paper parcel home for the family. Chef's tip: wait until the nendran skins are mostly black; the banana must be fully ripe to turn creamy when fried.

25 min

Indian Snacks & Starters

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Dalle chutney

Dalle khursani is Sikkim's round, cherry-sized chilli, grown in every hill garden and among the hottest chillies in India. No meal in Gangtok goes without a little bowl of dalle achar beside the rice or momos. This fresh version pounds the chillies with blistered tomato, garlic, a pinch of timur (Sichuan-type pepper) and lemon into a coarse red chutney that is searingly hot, sharp and fruity. Eat it by the dot. Chef's tip: wear gloves when cutting dalle, and never touch your eyes; the heat stays on your hands for hours. Use a mix of habanero and bird's-eye chillies if you can't get dalle.

15 min

Indian Chutneys & Dips

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Mambazha pulissery

Mambazha pulissery appears in Kerala kitchens in April and May, when small, fragrant village mangoes fall from the trees, and it is often on the Vishu sadya. Whole small ripe mangoes, or chunks of bigger ones, are simmered with jaggery and chilli until syrupy, then loosened with a coconut-cumin paste and lightly soured yogurt. Unlike kalan, it stays thin and pourable: sweet, tangy and mildly hot, with the fenugreek tempering on top. Pour it over rice, with a thoran on the side. Chef's tip: use very ripe, slightly fibrous mangoes; firm ones make it sour and the sweetness never comes through.

30 min

Indian Curries

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Darjeeling first flush tea

Darjeeling's first flush is picked in March and April on estates clinging to the hills above the town, and in Darjeeling's tea rooms it is served plain: pale gold, flowery and slightly astringent, with a 'muscatel' note in the later second flush. It is the opposite of a strong breakfast tea, so it is never boiled, stewed or given milk. Hill families drink it from morning till dusk, and it is a souvenir every visitor buys from Chowrasta. Chef's tip: use water just off the boil (about 90°C) and time the brew; overheated or overbrewed first flush turns bitter and loses its scent.

6 min

Indian Drinks

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Imoni (Yamagata taro and beef stew)

On autumn weekends in Yamagata, friends, families and workmates carry big pots, firewood and bags of taro down to the riverbanks and cook imoni outdoors; the gathering is called an imoni-kai. Yamagata city even holds a festival on the Mamigasaki River where the stew is made in a giant pot and ladled out with a mechanical digger. The Yamagata version uses beef and a soy broth, while neighbouring Miyagi makes it with pork and miso. Taro gives the soup a soft, slightly thick body, konjac adds bite and the leeks go in last so they stay sweet. Chef's tip: rub the peeled taro with salt and rinse it before cooking; this removes most of the slippery coating, so the broth stays clean rather than gluey.

50 min

Japanese Soups

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Churpi ningro

In the monsoon, ningro (fiddlehead fern) shoots appear in the hill markets of Gangtok, Namchi and Darjeeling, curled like violin scrolls. Sikkimese homes cook them quickly with onion, tomato and green chilli, then stir in crumbled soft churpi, a fresh, tangy cheese made from yak or cow's milk, which melts into a creamy, slightly sour sauce. It is a side dish for rice and dal, and tastes green and grassy, a little like asparagus. Chef's tip: always boil ferns for a few minutes and drain before cooking; it removes bitterness. Ricotta or crumbled feta is a fair stand-in for churpi.

25 min

Indian Sides

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Sopa paraguaya

Paraguayans love telling visitors that their national 'soup' is eaten with a fork: sopa paraguaya is a dense, moist cornbread baked with sweated onions, fresh cheese, eggs and milk. It's on every table at asados, weddings and the Christmas meal, and sold in squares at bus stations from Asunción to Encarnación. The crust is golden and the inside soft and cheesy, more like a savoury pudding than bread. Chef's tip: soak the cornmeal in the milk for 15 minutes before mixing; hydrated cornmeal bakes up tender instead of gritty.

75 min

Paraguayan Breads & Parathas

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Morok metpa

Morok metpa is the chilli relish on every Manipuri table, from Imphal homes to roadside eateries: fresh chillies roasted over the fire until blistered, then crushed with salt, raw onion and herbs. Many versions add ngari (fermented fish); the vegetarian one here gets its depth from charring the chillies and a little roasted garlic. A teaspoon of it lifts plain rice, kangshoi or boiled vegetables. Chef's tip: roast the chillies directly over a flame until the skins are black in patches; charred skin is where the flavour is.

10 min

Indian Chutneys & Dips

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Erissery

Erissery is the golden, slightly sweet pumpkin dish of the Onam sadya in Kerala, and a favourite in homes all through the harvest season when the yellow mathanga pumpkins are piled up in the markets. Soft pumpkin and red cowpeas are bound with a coconut, cumin and green chilli paste, and the whole pot is crowned with grated coconut fried in coconut oil until it turns the colour of cinnamon. That crunchy, nutty topping is what makes it erissery. Serve with rice and parippu, or scoop it up with chapati. Chef's tip: keep the pumpkin pieces large so some stay whole while others melt into the sauce.

60 min

Indian Curries

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Pindjur

Where ajvar is the patient winter preserve, pindjur is its quick summer cousin, made in Macedonian and Bosnian kitchens in July and August when tomatoes are at their ripest. Roasted peppers and aubergine are chopped rather than ground, then simmered briefly with fresh tomatoes and plenty of garlic, so it stays chunky, juicy and bright. It is eaten warm or at room temperature, scooped up with bread and a slab of white cheese, as part of a mezze spread in Ohrid or Mostar. Chef's tip: chop everything with a knife instead of a blender; a puréed pindjur loses the texture that sets it apart from ajvar.

70 minBalkan Chutneys & Dips

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Bai

Bai is the everyday dish of Mizoram, cooked in Aizawl homes almost daily: a stew of greens such as mustard leaves or pumpkin leaves, bamboo shoot, pumpkin and beans, boiled in water with a pinch of soda (traditionally 'chingal', an ash-filtered alkali) that softens the greens. It has almost no oil and little spice, and often a spoonful of pork fat goes in; this vegetarian version leaves it out and adds a little more ginger. Bai is light, green and soothing, eaten with rice and a chilli dip. Chef's tip: add the soda with the greens, not before, and only a pinch; too much turns the stew slimy.

40 min

Indian Soups

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Olan

Olan is the quietest dish on a Travancore sadya leaf, the banana-leaf feast served in southern Kerala for Onam, weddings and temple festivals. Thin, glassy slices of ash gourd and soft red cowpeas sit in coconut milk with nothing louder than green chilli and curry leaves, and its job is to cool the palate between the tangy, fiery curries around it. The flavour comes from coconut milk added in two stages and a spoonful of raw coconut oil poured over at the end. Eat it with plain rice, or ladle it beside appam on an ordinary weekday. Chef's tip: slice the ash gourd as thin as a coin so it turns translucent in the time the coconut milk takes to thicken.

60 min

Indian Curries

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