Sayur lodeh is everyday cooking in Central Java, made in big pots in Solo and Semarang kitchens and ladled over rice, with lontong rice cakes at Lebaran, or alongside opor and sambal goreng on festive tables. It's soupy rather than thick: a fragrant broth of coconut milk, galangal, lemongrass and lime leaf that carries chunks of aubergine, long beans, chayote and sweetcorn, plus tempeh and tofu to make it a meal. The flavour is mellow and slightly sweet, so the heat comes from sambal on the side. Chef's tip: keep the pot at a gentle simmer once the coconut milk goes in and stir now and then — a rolling boil splits the coconut milk into oily curds.
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Tangawizi is a warming Swahili drink of ginger boiled with cinnamon, clove and black pepper and sweetened to taste. It's hot, peppery and soothing on a cool evening or when you have a cold. Serve hot in small kahawa cups.
Rica means chilli in the Manado dialect, and North Sulawesi cooks are not shy with it. Ayam rica-rica turns up at Minahasa family parties and church gatherings, a heap of chicken pieces coated in a coarse, scarlet paste of fresh chillies, shallots and ginger, finished with tomato, spring onion and a fistful of lemon basil. It's hot, bright and fresh rather than deep and stewed, with a sticky sauce that clings to the meat. Serve it with lots of steamed rice and a cooling cucumber salad. Chef's tip: blend the paste coarse, with as little water as possible; a wet, smooth paste steams instead of frying and never gets that glossy, toasty edge.
Bambalouni are the big, flat, chewy doughnuts sold hot and wrapped in paper at the top of the blue-and-white village of Sidi Bou Said, outside Tunis, and on beaches all along the coast in summer. The dough is very soft and yeasty; it is stretched by hand into a ring and fried until puffed and blistered, then rolled in sugar. They are best eaten warm with a mint tea. Chef's tip: oil your hands, not the bench, to shape them; floured dough browns too fast and loses its blistered look.
In Seoul, bulgogi restaurants still cook it on a domed grill set into the table, with a moat around the edge that catches the sweet juices for spooning over rice. At home it is made in a hot pan, and it is a favourite for family dinners, lunch boxes and birthday tables. Grated Asian pear softens the meat and adds a gentle sweetness to the soy and garlic. Wrap it in lettuce with a little ssamjang, or eat it over rice. Chef's tip: put the beef in the freezer for 30 minutes before slicing; firm meat cuts into wafer-thin slices easily.
Kashata ya nazi is a simple Swahili sweet of desiccated coconut cooked with milk, sugar, evaporated milk and cardamom until thick, then pressed into a dish and cut into diamonds. It's chewy and sweet, and it keeps well. Store in an airtight container.
Okinawa soba has nothing to do with buckwheat: the noodles are thick, chewy and made from wheat, and the dish is the islands' everyday lunch. Small soba shops all over Okinawa serve it in a clear, gentle broth of pork and bonito, and the soki version is crowned with spare ribs braised so long that even the cartilage turns soft. Slices of fishcake, spring onions and red pickled ginger finish the bowl, and every table has a bottle of chilli steeped in awamori to splash on. October 17 is Okinawa Soba Day on the islands. Chef's tip: braise the ribs a day ahead; cold, the fat sets on top of the cooking liquid and lifts off in one piece, and the broth is cleaner for it.
Kagoshima, at the southern tip of Kyushu, is known across Japan for kurobuta, black Berkshire pork raised on farms in the prefecture. The meat is sweet with soft, clean-tasting fat, and shabu-shabu restaurants in Kagoshima city serve it sliced paper-thin so diners can cook it themselves at the table. Any thinly sliced pork loin or belly works well at home; Asian grocers sell it frozen for hot pots. Each slice is swished through the simmering kombu broth, then dipped in tangy ponzu or creamy sesame sauce. Chef's tip: when the meat is finished, cook a handful of rice or noodles in the leftover broth; it has taken on all the flavour of the pork and vegetables.
Musakhan is the dish Palestinian families in the villages around Jenin and Tulkarem make in late autumn, when the olives have been pressed and the first green, peppery oil comes home from the mill. Mounds of onion are cooked slowly in that oil with plenty of sumac, piled onto taboon bread with roast chicken and baked until the bread's edges crisp and its middle soaks up the purple-red juices. It is eaten with your hands, shared from one big tray, with yogurt and a chopped salad. Chef's tip: use more oil than feels right; the bread is meant to drink it, and a dry musakhan misses the point.
Naples cooks this on Christmas Eve, when the feast is meatless, and all summer long in seaside trattorie along the bay. The clams open in a hot pan of garlicky oil and white wine and release their sea-salty juice, which the half-cooked spaghetti then drinks up as it finishes cooking, so every strand tastes of the shore. Neapolitans keep it in bianco, without tomato, with just a little chilli warmth and a heap of parsley. Most clams in shops are sold already purged of sand; if yours are not, soak them in cold salted water in the fridge for 30 minutes first. Serve with a glass of something cold and bread for the juices. Chef's tip: drain the spaghetti 2 minutes early and finish it in the clam liquor, tossing hard with a little extra oil, so the juices turn into a light, clinging sauce rather than a puddle in the bowl.
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