What to eat today?

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Goan ros omelette

After dark in Panjim, Mapusa and Margao, roadside carts fry omelettes to order and ladle over them a thin, spicy chicken gravy called ros, meaning juice. It is late-night food, eaten standing up, mopped with soft Goan pao. The ros is a loose chicken xacuti, rich with roasted coconut, poppy seeds and star anise. Chef's tip: keep the gravy soupy; it should flood the omelette and soak into the bread, not sit on top like a stew.

70 min

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Lasaniya bataka

Lasaniya bataka is a dhaba favourite along the highways of Kathiawad, where it lands on the table next to bajra rotla, a lump of white butter, raw onion and a glass of chaas. Baby potatoes are boiled, lightly fried, then coated in a thick paste of pounded garlic and red chilli that has been cooked down until it smells sweet rather than sharp. It is hot, garlicky and a little tangy, the kind of side dish that turns plain flatbread into a meal. Make it for a winter lunch with Kathiawadi kadhi and khichdi. Chef's tip: pound the garlic and chilli in a mortar instead of blending; a slightly coarse paste clings to the potatoes and gives you little bursts of garlic.

40 min

Indian Sides

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Pepián de verduras

Pepián is often called Guatemala's national dish, a recado (sauce) from the Kaqchikel Maya highlands around Antigua and Chimaltenango, served at fiestas and family Sundays. Its depth comes from charring tomatoes, tomatillos and dried chillies and toasting pumpkin and sesame seeds before grinding them into a thick, smoky, reddish-brown sauce. Traditionally it simmers chicken; here chayote, potato, green beans and carrot soak it up. Serve with white rice and tamalitos or warm corn tortillas. Chef's tip: toast the seeds separately and stop when they smell nutty; burnt seeds turn the whole pot bitter.

75 minCentral American Curries

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Sev usal

Ask anyone from Vadodara where to eat sev usal and you'll get a strong opinion and a street-corner name. Early in the morning the handcarts near Mandvi and Raopura have a huge pot of dried white peas simmering in a thin, fiery gravy, with a separate tin of brick-red chilli oil (the tari) on the side. A ladle of usal goes into a steel plate, a spoonful of tari is poured over, and then it disappears under fine sev, raw onion and coriander, with lemon and soft pav to mop it up. The gravy should be loose and soupy, not thick like a curry, so the sev stays crisp for the first few bites and then soaks in. Chef's tip: cook the tari separately and let each person add their own; the usal alone is only medium-hot, and the tari is where the fire comes from.

65 min

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Anarsa

Anarsa is a sweet of patience. In Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, women start soaking rice three days before Teej or Diwali, changing the water every day, then pound it into a damp flour, bind it with jaggery and leave the dough to mellow overnight. Fried with the sesame side up, each disc puffs into a lacy, honeycombed top with a crisp edge and a chewy middle. They are stacked in brass plates for guests and offered at home shrines. Chef's tip: fry one test anarsa before the batch; if it spreads and dissolves, knead in a spoonful of rice flour, and if it cracks, add a few drops of milk or water.

70 min

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Shopska salad

Shopska salata is named after the Shopi people of the Sofia region and has become Bulgaria's national salad, the first thing ordered at any mehana (tavern) with a cold glass of rakia. Ripe tomatoes, cucumber, onion and soft roasted peppers are dressed simply with sunflower oil and vinegar, then buried under finely grated sirene, the Bulgarian white brined cheese, so the top looks like fresh snow. Unlike a Greek village salad, there are no olives and the cheese is grated, not in a slab. Chef's tip: salt and dress the vegetables before the cheese goes on; dressing over the cheese is the common mistake and turns the white snow soggy.

20 min

Bulgarian Salads

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Gahori aru bahgaj

Across upper Assam, among the Tai Ahom, Mising and many tea-garden families, pork with fermented bamboo shoot is the dish that turns any gathering into a feast. The bamboo shoot gives a sour, almost cheesy tang that cuts through the rich pork, and a little bhut jolokia (ghost pepper) brings slow heat. It is cooked with very little oil because the pork fat does the work, and is served with rice and a leafy side. Chef's tip: choose shoulder or belly with some fat on; lean loin turns dry and stringy here.

90 min

Indian Meat

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Hunan cured pork with garlic shoots

Every winter, Hunan households hang strips of salted pork belly over a wood fire until they turn dark and smoky, and this quick stir-fry is the most common way to eat them through the cold months. Thin slices of the cured belly are fried until the fat turns clear and the edges crisp, then tossed with green garlic shoots, which turn sweet and tender and soak up the smoky fat, plus fresh chilli and fermented black beans for a salty, spicy kick. It is a plain everyday dish that sits beside rice on a farmhouse table. Serve it with steamed rice and a light soup. Chef's tip: simmer the cured pork before slicing; it softens the meat and draws out some of the salt, so the finished dish is savoury rather than harsh.

20 min

Chinese Meat

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Chuchitos de verduras

Chuchitos are Guatemala's everyday tamal: small, firm parcels of masa tied in corn husks, sold from steaming pots at markets in Antigua and Guatemala City and eaten on Saturdays with a spoon of tomato sauce and crumbled dry cheese. They're denser than Mexican tamales, with the masa itself tinted by the red recado. Here they're filled with potato, green beans and sweet pepper instead of chicken. Chef's tip: beat the masa until a pinch floats in a glass of water; that air makes them tender rather than stodgy.

125 minCentral American Snacks & Starters

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Thekua

During Chhath Puja, when families across Bihar stand in rivers and ponds to make offerings to the setting and rising sun, thekua fill the bamboo baskets carried to the ghats. Women make them at home in the days before, pressing jaggery-sweetened wheat dough into carved wooden moulds (sancha) and frying them in ghee until dark and crunchy. Outside the festival they are the snack Bihari students take back to hostels in the city, because they keep for weeks. Chef's tip: the dough must be stiff, and the frying slow; soft dough loses the pattern and hot oil leaves them pale and soft inside.

50 min

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Ghugni chura

In Patna and the towns along the Ganges, ghugni chura is the morning and evening snack people queue for at the tea stall: a spicy, onion-rich curry of small black chickpeas served alongside chura, flattened rice that is fried or toasted in mustard oil until it crackles. You scoop a bit of each into your mouth together, with raw onion and green chilli for crunch. At home it is just as likely to be breakfast on a winter Sunday or what is offered to guests with tea. Chef's tip: cook the chana until it squashes easily between two fingers; firm chickpeas never soak up the masala.

60 min

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Gallo pinto

Gallo pinto means 'spotted rooster', for the speckled look of rice tossed with beans, and both Costa Rica and Nicaragua claim it. In Costa Rica it's black beans with plenty of coriander and a tangy brown sauce, served at breakfast with eggs, sour cream and fried plantain; in Nicaragua red beans are fried harder with onion until the rice turns rusty. This version follows the Costa Rican breakfast table and gets its tang from cumin and a little soy sauce. Chef's tip: use rice cooked the day before and keep a cup of the bean cooking liquid; that dark liquid is what colours the rice.

25 minCentral American Breakfast & Brunch

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Kolhapuri tambda rassa with pandhra rassa

In Kolhapur, in the far south of Maharashtra, Sunday lunch at a khanaval (a family-run eating house) means mutton cooked one way and served two: a thin, blazing-red tambda rassa and a soothing white pandhra rassa made from the same stock. Diners sip the white one between spoonfuls of the red, with bhakri, rice and raw onion on the side. The heat comes from Kolhapur's own chilli blend and a dark-roasted coconut and onion masala. Chef's tip: roast the dried coconut and the onions until they are properly brown, almost mahogany; that roasting, not extra chilli, is what gives the rassa its deep colour and smoky taste.

135 min

Indian Meat

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Mangalore buns

Despite the name, Mangalore buns are not baked at all: they are thick, soft puris made from a dough of overripe bananas, sugar, yogurt and flour, left for hours to turn slightly tangy, then deep-fried until they balloon. Every Udupi restaurant in coastal Karnataka has them on the breakfast board, served with coconut chutney and sambar, and children love them on their own. They are lightly sweet with a hint of cumin and a soft, bready inside. Chef's tip: use bananas with black-flecked skins; underripe bananas give a dense, pale bun that won't brown.

45 min

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Casado vegetariano

Walk into any soda (small family diner) in San José at lunchtime and the board will offer a casado: one plate where rice and beans are 'married' to salad, sweet plantain and a main. The meatless version is just as common, with a fried egg and a slice of fresh white cheese, plus a little picadillo of chopped vegetables. It's a full, balanced lunch, and every element is simple. Chef's tip: cook the plantain only when it's deeply black-skinned and soft; ripe plantain caramelises to sticky dark edges, green plantain just goes dry.

65 minCentral American Vegetarian

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Sattu sharbat

On scorching May afternoons in Patna, handcarts with steel pots and heaps of lemons sell sattu sharbat by the glass: roasted gram flour whisked into cold water with black salt, roasted cumin, lemon and a bit of raw onion and chilli. It is filling enough to stand in for lunch and is the drink rickshaw pullers and farm workers swear by to beat the loo, the hot summer wind. It tastes savoury, nutty and sharp all at once. Chef's tip: whisk the sattu into a little water first to a smooth paste, then dilute it; tipping it straight into a full glass leaves dry lumps.

5 min

Indian Drinks

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Silao khaja

Travellers on the road from Patna to Rajgir stop at Silao, a small town near the ruins of Nalanda, for one thing: khaja, a pastry built from dozens of paper-thin layers that flake apart in the mouth and are glazed with a crackly sugar coat. Silao's halwais have made it for generations, and it is carried home in boxes as a present; it is also offered in temples and at weddings across Bihar and Odisha. It takes patience but no special equipment. Chef's tip: fry at a really low heat so the layers have time to open out like pages before the outside colours; hot oil seals them shut.

90 min

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Malvani kombdi vade

Along the Malvan coast of Sindhudurg, kombdi vade is what families cook for a festive Sunday or for guests arriving by the morning bus from Mumbai. Kombdi is chicken, simmered in a gravy of roasted coconut and Malvani masala; vade are rice-flour breads fragrant with fennel that puff like balloons in hot oil. You tear the vade, dunk them in the curry and finish with a squeeze of lime and raw onion. Chef's tip: pat the vade on an oiled sheet of plastic or banana leaf rather than rolling them, and slide them into the oil straight away; thin, even discs puff best.

95 min

Indian Chicken

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Bombil fry

Bombay duck is not a duck at all but bombil, a soft, almost jelly-like fish landed in huge numbers at Sassoon Dock and the Koli fishing villages around Mumbai. Pressed flat, rubbed with chilli and rolled in semolina, it fries up with a shattering crust and a melting middle, and it turns up at Malvani restaurants and Koli homes as a starter or beside dal and rice. Chef's tip: press the opened fish under a weighted plate for 10 minutes before marinating; it squeezes out water so the crust stays crisp.

30 min

Indian Fish

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Baleadas

Baleadas are what Hondurans grab for breakfast on the way to work, from street stands in San Pedro Sula to the beaches of La Ceiba on the north coast. A thick, soft flour tortilla, warm from the comal, is spread with refried red beans, sprinkled with dry salty cheese and a spoon of mantequilla (sour cream), then folded in half. A 'baleada sencilla' stops there; add avocado, scrambled egg or fried plantain for a fuller one. Chef's tip: rest the dough balls a full 30 minutes; relaxed dough stretches thin by hand and puffs on the pan instead of shrinking back.

70 minCentral American Breakfast & Brunch

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Dal pitha

Dal pitha is the comfort food of Bihari winters, made on cold evenings and around Makar Sankranti: soft rice-flour dough wrapped around a coarse filling of chana dal, garlic, ginger and chilli, shaped into half-moons or little pouches and cooked in steam. People in Mithila call it a Bihari momo, and it is eaten hot with tomato chutney or a dribble of mustard oil. The dough tastes gently of rice, the filling is savoury and filling, and leftovers are excellent pan-fried the next day. Chef's tip: knead the rice dough while it is still hot; if it cools before shaping, the pitha crack and the filling leaks out.

60 min

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Khurmi

Khurmi are the sweet half of Chhattisgarh's Teeja-Pola festival snacks, made in big batches alongside the salty thethri. The dough is wheat flour and a little semolina bound with melted jaggery, studded with sesame and coconut, then cut into diamonds or pressed into small patterned shapes and fried until dark gold. They have a hard, crunchy bite and a deep caramel flavour, and they last for weeks in a steel dabba, ready for visitors and children back from school. Chef's tip: cool the jaggery water to lukewarm before kneading; hot jaggery makes a slack dough that spreads and soaks up oil.

55 min

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Thethri

No Teeja in Chhattisgarh passes without a tin of thethri: knotted and twisted pieces of gram-flour dough, seasoned with ajwain and chilli and fried slowly until they shatter when you bite. Married daughters coming home for the festival are sent back with them, alongside the sweet khurmi, and they keep for weeks. Each family has its favourite shape, from simple knots to little spirals and braided rings. Chef's tip: fry on a medium-low flame and be patient; thethri fried hot puff up and brown outside but stay soft and chewy inside.

55 min

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Papanași

Papanași are the dessert Romanians order after almost any restaurant meal, from the old town of Bucharest to the mountain chalets of Sinaia and Bran. A soft dough of fresh cheese, egg and semolina is shaped into a ring with a little ball on top, fried until puffed and golden, then crowned with cold smântână and sour cherry or blueberry jam. Warm, tangy and very rich, one is a full dessert. Chef's tip: use dry, crumbly cheese and drain it if it's wet; a common mistake is a sloppy dough that soaks up oil and falls apart, so add flour only until it just stops sticking.

45 min

Romanian Desserts

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Curtido

No plate of pupusas in El Salvador arrives without a jar of curtido beside it: a tangy, crunchy slaw of cabbage, carrot and onion lightly pickled in vinegar with Mexican oregano. Pupuserías keep a big jar on every table, and the sharpness cuts through melted cheese and corn perfectly. It's also good with beans, tacos or a cheese sandwich. Chef's tip: make it a day ahead; it is crisp and raw on day one but turns mellow and properly pickled by day two.

20 minCentral American Salads

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Bastar aamat

Aamat comes from the forested Bastar region of southern Chhattisgarh, where Gond and Halba families cook whatever the garden and forest give: pumpkin, brinjal, beans, drumsticks and, in the monsoon, sour fermented bamboo shoot. There is almost no oil and no heavy masala. Instead a paste of soaked rice turns the broth silky, and garlic, ginger and green chilli carry the flavour. It is served in bowls with plain rice, especially at village feasts and the Bastar Dussehra gatherings. Tinned bamboo shoot works well; leave it out and add lime at the end if you cannot find it. Chef's tip: keep stirring as you pour in the rice paste, because it sinks and sets into lumps on the bottom of the pot if left alone.

55 min

Indian Curries

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Bafauri

Bafauri comes from the same Chhattisgarhi home kitchens that make fara and chila, and it is the region's answer to a fried pakora without the frying. Soaked chana dal is ground coarse with ginger, garlic and chilli, mixed with onion and herbs, then steamed into little dumplings that are firm, nubbly and high in protein. They are eaten hot at teatime with tomato chutney, and many families also toss them in a quick mustard-seed tadka. Chef's tip: grind the dal with only 2–3 tablespoons of water; a wet paste spreads flat in the steamer and loses the rough texture that makes bafauri good.

40 min

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Chhattisgarhi chila

Chhattisgarh calls itself the rice bowl of India, and its everyday breakfast proves it: chila made from nothing more than rice batter, salt and a few aromatics, poured paper-thin onto a hot tawa. Village kitchens grind soaked rice on a stone; rice flour makes it quick enough for a weekday. The pancakes are soft in the middle with crisp, lacy edges and come with a rough chutney of fire-roasted tomato, garlic and green chilli. This is different from the thick gram-flour chila common elsewhere in India. Chef's tip: stir the batter before every ladle, because rice flour sinks fast and the last chilas otherwise turn thick and gummy.

30 min

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Champaran mutton

In the Champaran district of north-west Bihar, near the Nepal border, mutton is cooked in an ahuna or handi: a clay pot packed with raw meat, whole bulbs of garlic, onions, mustard oil and spices, sealed shut with dough and left for hours on a slow charcoal fire. Nobody adds water and nobody stirs; the meat cooks in its own juices and the garlic turns soft and sweet. Roadside dhabas on the highways out of Motihari made it famous, and it is now cooked at family picnics and parties right across Bihar, eaten with rice or rotis. This home version uses a heavy pot sealed with foil and a lid. Chef's tip: shake the pot instead of opening it; every time the lid comes off, steam escapes and the meat dries out.

135 min

Indian Meat

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Goan fish curry (xitt codi)

Ask anyone from Salcete or Bardez what they eat for lunch and the answer is xitt codi: rice (xitt) and curry (codi), almost always fish curry. The gravy is ground from fresh coconut and Kashmiri chillies, soured with kokum and tamarind, and cooked with whatever the boats brought in, from kingfish and pomfret to mackerel. It is a weekday dish, ladled over red Goan rice with a fried fish or a pickle on the side. Chef's tip: grind the coconut masala for a full 2–3 minutes until it is completely smooth; a grainy paste gives a thin, separated curry.

50 min

Indian Fish

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Pupusas de queso y frijol

In El Salvador pupusas are a Sunday-night ritual: families queue at the pupusería, where cooks pat the dough between wet palms with a soft clapping sound, and the second Sunday of November is National Pupusa Day. These thick masa cakes are stuffed with stringy cheese and smooth refried black beans, griddled until speckled, and eaten with your hands, topped with curtido and a thin tomato salsa. Chef's tip: keep a bowl of water with a splash of oil beside you and wet your hands before every pupusa, so the dough stays supple and the seams don't crack.

65 minCentral American Snacks & Starters

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Dehrori

Dehrori is the sweet Chhattisgarhi families make for Diwali, Holi and weddings, and it tastes like no other syrup sweet: soaked rice is ground coarse, left to sour gently with curd, then fried in ghee and dropped into cardamom syrup. The fermentation gives it a faint tang and a light, spongy crumb under a crisp shell, a little like a rustic cousin of rasbhari or gulab jamun. Grandmothers judge the batch by how well the dumplings hold their shape in the syrup. Chef's tip: grind the rice to the texture of fine semolina, not a smooth paste; that grain is what keeps dehrori light.

70 min