Featured recipe

Mix capsicum peanut salad

A crunchy salad of red, yellow and green peppers with roasted peanuts, cucumber, carrots and celery, dressed with lemon, dill, mint and celery leaves. Just before serving, olive oil mixed with sesame seeds is poured over the top. It's colourful, filling and full of protein.

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Khao tom (vegetable rice soup)

Khao tom is what Thais eat at the start of the day and, just as often, at two in the morning, when the 'khao tom kui' shops of Bangkok's Yaowarat and night-market stalls stay open for hungry people heading home. Unlike rice porridge (jok), the grains stay whole and separate in a light, clear broth, so it feels more like a soup than a congee. This vegan bowl uses a ginger and white pepper stock with soft tofu, Chinese cabbage and a spoon of golden garlic oil on top. It is gentle food, also what Thai families cook when someone is unwell. Chef's tip: use leftover cooked jasmine rice, rinsed under the tap; fresh rice turns the broth cloudy and starchy.

30 min

Thai Breakfast & Brunch

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Kluay tod (Thai fried bananas)

In the afternoons, Bangkok's street-corner woks switch from noodles to snacks, and kluay tod is the one you smell from down the soi: wedges of small, firm bananas in a coconut and sesame batter, fried until bronze and sold in paper bags. The batter is made with rice flour and a little lime water, so it shatters rather than turning bready, while the banana inside goes soft and jammy. Thais use kluay nam wa, a short, tart banana; firm, just-ripe ordinary bananas work too. Eat them warm, on their own or with a scoop of coconut ice cream. Chef's tip: overripe bananas fall apart and soak up oil; choose ones that are yellow with no brown spots.

25 min

Thai Desserts

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Khanom bueang (Thai crispy crêpes)

Khanom bueang are little taco-shaped crêpes made on hot round griddles at markets and outside temples all over Bangkok, especially around the old town near the Grand Palace. A vendor spreads a whisper-thin batter with the back of a spoon, swirls on a fluffy meringue cream, then tops it with shredded coconut or sweet egg yolk threads before folding it while still hot. The sweet version, made here, crackles like a wafer and melts on the tongue. A savoury one with coconut and spring onion also exists. They are eaten as an afternoon snack, a few at a time, as soon as they are made. Chef's tip: the batter must go on very thinly. Thick shells stay chewy and never crisp up.

60 min

Thai Desserts

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Tam taeng (Isan pounded cucumber salad)

In Khon Kaen, Udon Thani and the rest of Isan, the somtam stall always offers a cucumber version alongside the papaya one, and many locals prefer it on hot afternoons: tam taeng is juicier, cooler and crunchier. Thick batons of cucumber are bruised, not smashed, with garlic, chillies, lime and palm sugar, so they soak up the dressing but keep their snap. Sellers add fermented fish or dried shrimp; this vegan bowl leans on soy and toasted peanuts for depth instead. It is eaten with sticky rice and grilled food, picked up with your fingers. Chef's tip: use firm cucumbers with small seeds and scoop out a watery core, or the salad floods within minutes.

15 min

Thai Salads

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Tom saep het (Isan hot and sour mushroom soup)

'Saep' is the Isan word for delicious, and in the northeast it means hot, sour and herby all at once. Tom saep is the soup sold from big pots at Isan restaurants and roadside grill shops from Nakhon Ratchasima to Ubon, usually with pork bones or offal; mushroom versions are just as common during the rainy season, when wild mushrooms fill the markets. It has no coconut milk: the broth is clear and sharp with lemongrass, galangal, makrut lime leaves and handfuls of dried chilli, thickened slightly with roasted rice powder. Eat it with sticky rice and grilled vegetables. Chef's tip: add the lime juice off the heat; boiled lime turns bitter and loses its fresh sourness.

35 min

Thai Soups

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Khao yam (southern Thai rice salad)

Khao yam is breakfast in the south: in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Pattani and Songkhla, morning stalls set out trays of tightly shredded lemongrass, pomelo, long beans, bean sprouts, makrut lime leaves and toasted coconut, and you build your plate around a mound of rice, often tinted blue with butterfly pea flowers. The dressing is normally budu, a sweet fermented fish sauce from the Malay borderlands. This version makes a vegetarian 'budu' by simmering soy sauce, tamarind, palm sugar, lemongrass and shallot into a dark syrup. The result is crunchy, fragrant, sweet, salty and sour in every mouthful. Chef's tip: shred everything as finely as you can; thin slivers of lemongrass and lime leaf are pleasant, thick ones are woody.

45 min

Thai Salads

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Kaeng tai pla jay (southern vegetable curry)

Kaeng tai pla is the boldest curry of southern Thailand, eaten from Surat Thani down to Hat Yai: a dark, pungent, fiercely hot broth of turmeric-heavy southern curry paste, pumpkin, bamboo shoots, aubergine and long beans, normally flavoured with fermented fish innards. During the Vegetarian Festival (thetsakan kin jay), held every autumn in Phuket and Trang, cooks make a 'jay' version with fermented soybean paste and roasted peanut, and that is the curry here. It is thinner than a coconut curry and served with rice and plenty of raw vegetables to cool the heat. Chef's tip: this curry is meant to be very hot. If you want less heat, add fewer bird's eye chillies to the paste but keep the black pepper and turmeric, which give it its character.

45 min

Thai Curries

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Roti mataba (potato-stuffed roti)

Roti mataba came to southern Thailand with Indian-Muslim traders, and today the roti stalls of Hat Yai, Satun and Pattani, and the old Muslim quarter around Bangkok's Phra Athit Road, serve it from morning till late. A thin stretched roti is wrapped around a spiced filling, folded into a square and fried until crisp and blistered. Chicken or beef is the usual filling; the potato and onion version made here is also common and is the one sold to vegetarian customers. It comes cut into squares with a sweet-sour cucumber relish (ajad) on the side. Chef's tip: oil the dough balls and leave them to rest for at least two hours; rested dough stretches paper-thin without tearing.

70 min

Thai Snacks & Starters

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Fresh hot soy milk

On cold Da Lat nights, the steam rising from soy milk stalls is part of the scenery around the central market: big pots of freshly made sữa đậu nành, ladled hot into glasses and sipped with grilled rice paper or a warm bánh bao. Made at home, it tastes nutty and clean, nothing like the cartons, and a knot of pandan leaf gives it the gentle vanilla-like scent that Vietnamese sellers favour. Chef's tip: rub the soaked beans between your palms and float off the skins; peeled beans give a smoother, sweeter milk.

50 min

Vietnamese Drinks

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Sukiyaki (Kanto style)

Beef was rarely eaten in Japan until the Meiji era, when Tokyo's new beef-pot restaurants made it fashionable, and sukiyaki grew out of those pots. Today it is a dish for New Year, birthdays and family gatherings, cooked in a shallow iron pan on a burner in the middle of the table. In the Kanto style of Tokyo, the cook pours in a ready-mixed sauce called warishita, whereas Kansai cooks sear the beef with sugar and add soy sauce afterwards. Each piece is dipped in beaten raw egg, which cools it and softens the sweet, salty sauce. Use very fresh eggs, ideally pasteurised; not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. If you prefer, skip the egg or poach it in the pan. Chef's tip: keep the shirataki noodles away from the beef in the pan; they can make the meat firm up and toughen where they touch.

40 min

Japanese Meat

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Kishimen (Nagoya flat noodle soup)

Travellers changing trains at Nagoya Station often grab a bowl of kishimen standing up at one of the platform noodle counters, and the dish is eaten all year in noodle shops across the city. The noodles are wide, thin and slippery, so they pick up a lot of broth with every mouthful. A typical bowl has a light, golden dashi, sweet fried tofu, a little green vegetable, a slice of fish cake and a big pile of bonito flakes that wave in the steam. It takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. Chef's tip: add the bonito topping right at the table, not in the kitchen; it softens and sinks within a minute, and the fresh smoky smell is half the pleasure.

20 min

Japanese Pasta & Noodles

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Hitsumabushi (Nagoya grilled eel rice)

Order hitsumabushi in a Nagoya eel restaurant and it arrives in a round wooden tub, often with a small card explaining how to eat it. You divide the rice into quarters: eat the first plain, the second with spring onion, wasabi and nori, the third drowned in hot dashi or green tea, and the last whichever way you liked best. Nagoya cooks grill the eel until the skin is crisp, then chop it into strips. At home, ready-grilled eel fillets (unagi kabayaki, sold frozen in Japanese shops) work very well once reheated properly. Chef's tip: spoon a little of the sweet sauce through the rice before the eel goes on, so every mouthful is seasoned, not just the top layer.

40 min

Japanese Fish

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Vegetarian bun rieu

In Hanoi, bún riêu is a mid-morning bowl bought from street sellers who set up on low plastic stools: a tangy red tomato broth with rice vermicelli and soft, floating curds that are normally made from pounded paddy crab. Vegetarian cooks and Buddhist temple kitchens make bún riêu chay instead, folding crumbled tofu, egg and chopped shiitake into the same loose, spongy curds, and seasoning the broth with fermented tofu rather than shrimp paste. It arrives with fried tofu, lime, chilli, shredded water spinach and perilla, so each spoonful is sour, savoury and fresh at once. Chef's tip: let the tomatoes fry in the annatto oil until they collapse into a jammy paste before any stock goes in; that is where the broth gets its colour and depth.

80 min

Vietnamese Soups

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Vietnamese baked banana cake

Bánh chuối nướng is sold by the slab from glass-fronted carts and bakeries in Saigon, a soft, heavy cake made from overripe bananas, day-old bread and coconut milk, baked until the top turns deep amber and the bananas go sticky and jammy. It sits somewhere between a bread pudding and a custard cake, and Saigon people eat it as an afternoon snack, often with a little warm coconut sauce poured over. Home cooks make it to use up blackened bananas and stale baguette. Chef's tip: use the ripest bananas you can find, with brown-spotted skins; they give the cake its colour and sweetness.

85 min

Vietnamese Desserts

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Hong Kong milk tea

Hong Kong milk tea is the daily fuel of the city's cha chaan teng, poured hot in thick cups at breakfast and over ice in the humid afternoons. Tea masters brew a blend of strong black teas, strain it again and again through a long cotton bag (the stained 'silk stocking'), and mix it with evaporated milk for a smooth, almost velvety drink. Chef's tip: let the tea simmer for a few minutes rather than just steeping it; Hong Kong milk tea is meant to be strong and slightly astringent, or the milk drowns it.

15 min

Hong Kong Drinks

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Shiitake and tofu lu rou fan

In Taipei, a bowl of lu rou fan costs little more than a bus fare, and night-market stalls ladle it from pots that have simmered since afternoon. The original is chopped pork belly stewed in soy sauce, rice wine and fried shallots; this meat-free version gets the same glossy, sticky richness from diced shiitake, browned firm tofu and plenty of shallot oil. It is a weekday lunch for office workers and a late snack after the markets, served with a heap of yellow pickled radish and a few blanched greens. Chef's tip: brown the tofu cubes hard before they go into the braise; a crust soaks up the sauce and chews almost like the meat it replaces.

90 min

Taiwanese Rice & Grains

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Hong Kong egg waffles

Gai daan jai, 'little eggs', are the honeycomb sheets of puffed bubbles sold from street carts in Mong Kok and Sham Shui Po since the 1950s, handed over in a paper bag to be pulled apart bubble by bubble while you walk. A good one is crisp and thin on the outside and soft, almost hollow, in the middle, with the smell of egg, vanilla and evaporated milk. You need the special egg waffle pan with round cups. Chef's tip: rest the batter for at least 30 minutes; it bakes up lighter and the bubbles fill evenly.

30 min

Hong Kong Snacks & Starters

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Three-cup tofu

Three-cup dishes (san bei) are cooked in every Taiwanese home and in the rè chǎo stir-fry beer halls, where they arrive at the table still crackling in a clay pot. The name comes from the old equal measures of sesame oil, soy sauce and rice wine; today cooks use less, but the result is the same sticky, garlicky glaze lifted at the last second by a fistful of Taiwanese basil. Chicken is the most famous version; tofu soaks up the sauce even better and is just as popular in vegetarian restaurants around Taipei. Serve with plain rice. Chef's tip: fry the ginger slices in the sesame oil until they curl and frill at the edges before anything else goes in; that is where the dish's warm, toasty smell comes from.

35 min

Taiwanese Vegetarian

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Taipei sesame noodles

Ma jiang mian is the first thing many Taipei students order at the corner noodle shop, with a bowl of soup on the side and a plate of sliced cucumber. The noodles are tossed, never drowned, in a thick sauce of toasted sesame paste loosened with soy sauce, black vinegar and a little of the cooking water, then splashed with chilli oil. It works hot in winter and cold from the fridge in the sticky Taipei summer. Chef's tip: use Chinese toasted sesame paste rather than tahini if you can; it's made from roasted seeds and gives a much nuttier, darker sauce.

15 min

Taiwanese Pasta & Noodles

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Gua bao with braised tofu and mushroom

Gua bao are the folded, clam-shaped buns sold at night markets from Tainan to Keelung, traditionally stuffed with a slab of soy-braised pork belly and eaten as a 'tiger bites pig' snack at year-end company dinners. Here the filling is thick slices of tofu and king oyster mushroom simmered in the same sweet soy braise, then layered with sour mustard greens, a spoon of ground peanut and sugar, and fresh coriander. The soft bun, salty filling and sweet peanut crumble are what make it. Chef's tip: brush the half-moons with oil before folding and lay a strip of baking paper inside, so the buns open cleanly after steaming.

120 min

Taiwanese Fast Food

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Taiwanese pineapple cakes

Feng li su are the gift-box sweet of Taiwan: little golden squares of crumbly, milky shortbread wrapped round a chewy pineapple jam. Bakeries in Taichung and Taipei pack them in tins for Lunar New Year, weddings and visiting relatives, and the name sounds like 'prosperity arriving' in Taiwanese Hokkien. Older bakeries bulk the filling with winter melon for a softer, sweeter jam; this home version uses fresh pineapple only, cooked down until thick and tangy. Chef's tip: chill the dough and the jam balls before wrapping; cold, firm pieces are far easier to seal without the jam breaking through.

90 min

Taiwanese Baking

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Hong Kong pineapple bun

Despite the name, there is no pineapple in a bolo bao; the crackled, golden sugar crust on top just looks like the fruit's skin. It is the best-selling bun in Hong Kong bakeries and cha chaan teng cafés, eaten warm at breakfast or tea time with milk tea, and many people order it as bo lo yau, split open with a thick, cold slice of butter melting into it. Chef's tip: roll the topping between two sheets of baking paper rather than on a floured board; the soft dough is fragile and paper lets you lift it on in one piece.

150 min

Hong Kong Baking

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Hong Kong French toast

In Hong Kong's cha chaan teng (tea restaurants), French toast means two thick slices of white bread sandwiched with peanut butter, dipped in egg, fried until puffed and golden, then crowned with a pat of butter and a pour of golden syrup or condensed milk. It is an afternoon tea-set favourite, paired with a strong cup of milk tea, and it's richer than any French version. Chef's tip: trim the crusts and press the sandwich edges firmly so the egg doesn't seep into the peanut butter.

20 min

Hong Kong Breakfast & Brunch

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Claypot rice with mushroom and tofu

In winter, the dai pai dong stalls of Temple Street and Mong Kok line up dozens of little clay pots over roaring flames, and queues form for bou zai faan: rice cooked right in the pot, topped with the day's ingredients and doused with sweet soy at the table. The prize is the golden, crackling crust (faan jiu) at the bottom. This vegetarian pot uses shiitake, fried tofu puffs and choy sum, seasoned with a mushroom-based vegetarian oyster sauce. Chef's tip: once the rice has absorbed its water, drizzle oil round the inside edge of the pot and turn it slowly over the flame; that's how the crust forms evenly instead of burning in one spot.

50 min

Hong Kong Rice & Grains

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Hong Kong vegetable macaroni soup

Walk into any Hong Kong cha chaan teng before 11 am and you'll see bowls of macaroni in clear soup on almost every table, part of the breakfast set with toast and milk tea. The usual version carries strips of ham; at home many families make it with sweetcorn, peas, carrot and a fried egg instead, for a light, comforting bowl that children love. Chef's tip: cook the macaroni separately and add it to the broth at the end, so it stays springy and the soup stays clear.

15 min

Hong Kong Soups

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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

Indian Breakfast & Brunch

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Eggs with dates and onions

On a winter morning in the Emirati countryside, when the date palms have given their harvest, a pan of eggs scrambled with onion and chopped dates is a quick, filling breakfast eaten with flatbread and a glass of sweet tea. The dates melt into sticky pockets among the eggs, the onions add savoury sweetness and a pinch of cardamom ties it together. It is homely food rarely seen in restaurants, made in minutes from what every Gulf kitchen has. Chef's tip: use soft, moist dates such as khalas or medjool; dry ones stay chewy and never melt into the eggs.

15 minGulf Arabian Breakfast & Brunch

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Matzo ball soup with vegetable broth

Ashkenazi Jewish families from Kraków to New York serve matzo ball soup at the Passover seder and whenever someone has a cold, and arguments about 'floaters' versus 'sinkers' go back generations. Here the broth is golden and savoury without chicken: onions browned with their skins, carrots, celery, parsnip and a few dried mushrooms simmered with dill. The kneidlach are made with oil instead of chicken fat and a splash of sparkling water so they come out light and fluffy. Chef's tip: chill the matzo mixture for at least 30 minutes; it needs time to absorb the liquid or the balls fall apart in the pot.

90 min

Israeli Soups

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Roasted cauliflower with tahini

Tel Aviv restaurants made the whole roasted cauliflower famous, set on the table charred and steaming for everyone to tear apart, and it has since become a favourite for Shabbat dinners and Friday get-togethers across Israel. The head is first boiled in salted water until just tender, then roasted very hot with olive oil until the florets blister and blacken in places. Lemony tahini, a scatter of herbs and a dusting of sumac turn a humble vegetable into the centre of the meal. Chef's tip: let the boiled cauliflower steam dry for 5 minutes before roasting; a wet head steams in the oven and never chars.

60 min

Israeli Vegetarian

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Miso katsu (Nagoya pork cutlet with red miso sauce)

Dark soybean miso, such as the hatcho miso made in nearby Okazaki, gives Nagoya food its deep brown colour and rich, slightly bitter flavour. Miso katsu is the city's best-known way to use it: a fried pork cutlet covered in a thick, sweet miso sauce. It is served in lunch restaurants on a bed of shredded cabbage with rice and miso soup, or sliced over rice as a bowl. The sauce is glossy and savoury, a little like a darker, sweeter barbecue sauce. Chef's tip: snip through the strip of fat and sinew along the edge of each chop every 2 cm before coating it, so the cutlet stays flat in the oil and cooks evenly.

40 min

Japanese Meat

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Lentil and apricot soup

Red lentil soup with dried apricots is a Lenten favourite of Armenian kitchens, from Yerevan flats to diaspora homes in Beirut and Los Angeles, made in the weeks before Easter when meat and dairy are set aside. The apricots, Armenia's national fruit, melt into the lentils and give a soft sweet-sour note that sits behind cumin, thyme and a squeeze of lemon. It is thick but not stodgy, a bright orange bowl that is filling enough for supper with lavash and a plate of fresh herbs. Chef's tip: chop half the apricots fine and let them dissolve, and add the rest in strips near the end, so you get both background sweetness and juicy bites.

55 min

Armenian Soups

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BadamburaLayered almond rolls

Badambura means "almond twist", and in Baku it is the cousin of shekerbura that takes more patience: the dough is rolled thin, brushed with butter and rolled up in a long spiral, so it bakes into crisp, flaky layers around a moist almond filling. It is made for Novruz and weddings and sold year-round in the old-city bakeries of Icherisheher, wrapped in paper with a dusting of icing sugar. The flavour is pure almond and cardamom with a hint of vanilla. Serve with black tea in pear-shaped glasses. Chef's tip: keep the rolled spiral cold in the fridge for 20 minutes before cutting; firm dough keeps its layers.

115 min

Azerbaijani Baking

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Azerbaijani black tea

In Azerbaijan tea comes before, during and after everything, served in small pear-shaped armudu glasses in teahouses (çayxana) from Baku's boulevard to the hill towns of Lankaran, where most of the country's tea is grown. It is strong, clear and red-brown, often brewed with a sprig of mountain thyme (kəklikotu) or a crushed cardamom pod, and served with lemon, sugar cubes and little dishes of jam: cherry, quince, white cherry or even walnut. People sip the tea through a sugar cube held in the mouth or with a spoonful of jam, never stirring jam into the glass. It is also the drink that settles a match: tea served sweet at a matchmaking visit means yes. Chef's tip: warm the pot and glasses with boiling water first; tea brewed in a cold pot never reaches full colour.

12 min

Azerbaijani Drinks

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Rose and basil sherbet

Şərbət is poured at the start of every Azerbaijani wedding, and the rose kind, scented with rosewater from the Absheron rose gardens, is the most loved; in Baku it is set out in crystal jugs for Novruz guests and at Ramadan iftar. This version adds two kinds of basil (reyhan): purple basil leaves steeped in the syrup for a clove-like scent, and soaked basil seeds that swell into soft, jelly-coated pearls. Lemon keeps it from tasting like perfume. Serve very cold, with ice, alongside sweets or a rich plov. Chef's tip: soak the basil seeds in plenty of water, at least 20 times their volume; crowded seeds clump into a single lump.

20 min

Azerbaijani Drinks

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Stoemp with leeks and spinach

Stoemp (from the Brussels dialect word for 'to mash') is what Brussels brasseries such as those around the Marolles serve on cold days: potatoes crushed together with whatever vegetable is in season, rich with butter and nutmeg. Unlike Dutch stamppot, the vegetables are usually cooked separately and softened in butter first, which gives a sweeter, silkier mash. Leek and spinach is one of the most popular versions in Brussels, and a fried egg with a runny yolk on top turns it into supper. The meat versions come with sausages; this is meat-free. Chef's tip: cook the leeks slowly in butter until they almost melt; quick-fried leeks stay stringy and squeaky in the mash.

45 min

Belgian Vegetarian

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Liège waffles

In Liège, in French-speaking Wallonia, the waffle is not a light batter but a rich yeasted dough studded with pearl sugar, eaten warm from a paper sleeve as you walk down the street. As it cooks in a deep-grid iron, the sugar nuggets melt and caramelise into a crackling, toffee-like crust, while the inside stays soft and chewy like brioche. Belgians eat them plain, any time of day, not loaded with cream (that is the lighter Brussels waffle). Chef's tip: knead the pearl sugar in only at the very end, after the dough has risen; if it goes in earlier, it dissolves and the waffles lose their crunch.

50 min

Belgian Baking

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Raclette

In the Valais, the vineyard-and-glacier canton along the upper Rhône, raclette began as a herders' meal: half a wheel of cheese propped beside an open fire, the melting face scraped (racler) onto a plate of potatoes. Today Valais families and village festivals still serve it the slow way, one plate at a time, while at home most people use a tabletop grill with small pans. The cheese is soft and pungent from the wheel and turns sweet and nutty as it bubbles, set off by sharp cornichons and little pickled onions. A proper Valais raclette needs nothing else: no charcuterie, just potatoes, pickles, pepper and a glass of Fendant or hot tea. Raclette cheese is usually made with animal rennet; choose a wheel or slices labelled with microbial or vegetarian rennet. Chef's tip: keep the potatoes hot in a covered basket wrapped in a cloth, so each scoop of cheese lands on a steaming potato and stays runny.

45 min

Swiss Vegetarian

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Bircher muesli

Around 1900 the Zürich doctor Maximilian Bircher-Benner served his sanatorium patients a small bowl of raw food before every meal, which he called d'Spys (the dish): a spoonful of soaked oats, plenty of grated apple, lemon juice, nuts and condensed milk. His original was mostly apple, not mostly oats, and that is what sets it apart from the dry muesli mix sold in packets. Swiss cafés and railway kiosks still serve Birchermüesli for breakfast or a light supper, creamy, sharp and fresh, now often with yogurt and berries. This version keeps his balance: oats soaked overnight, a whole apple grated in at the last moment, lemon, hazelnuts and a little honey and yogurt. Chef's tip: grate the apple straight into the lemon juice, skin and all, and stir at once; it stays pale and juicy instead of turning brown.

10 min

Swiss Breakfast & Brunch

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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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Tebasaki (Nagoya fried chicken wings)

In Nagoya's izakaya, chicken wings come whole, with the mid-joint and tip still joined in a V, and they arrive in piles beside cold drinks. Tebasaki are fried without batter until the skin turns crisp and thin, then brushed with a sweet soy glaze and dusted heavily with pepper and sesame. The spice is the point: they should taste peppery, salty and sticky at once. Eat them with your hands, twisting the two bones apart to pull the meat off. Chef's tip: brush on the glaze the moment the wings leave the oil; hot, crisp skin soaks it up and stays crunchy, while cooled wings just turn sticky.

40 min

Japanese Chicken

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Akashiyaki (Akashi egg and octopus dumplings)

Ask for tamagoyaki in Akashi, a fishing town on the coast of Hyogo, and you will be served these dumplings rather than a rolled omelette: that is what locals call them. Small shops near the Uonotana fish market sell them on tilted wooden boards, with a bowl of warm dashi for dipping. Compared with Osaka takoyaki, the batter is mostly egg and stock, so the balls are soft and trembling inside, and they come without sauce or mayonnaise. Akashi is famous for its octopus, and a piece sits in every ball. Chef's tip: oil the pan generously and fill each hollow right to the brim; the soft batter needs the extra to make a round, puffy ball.

45 min

Japanese Snacks & Starters

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Wagyu steak, Kobe style

Kobe's steakhouses cook beef on a hot iron plate in front of the diners, cut it into bite-size pieces and serve it with little more than salt, wasabi and golden garlic chips. Genuine Kobe beef is a protected name: it can only come from certified Tajima cattle born and raised in Hyogo prefecture that meet strict grading rules, and it is rare and costly outside Japan. This recipe is cooked in the same style, with any good wagyu, or a well-marbled sirloin or ribeye if you cannot get wagyu. Because the fat is so rich, a modest portion goes a long way. Chef's tip: cut a small piece of fat from the edge of the steak and melt it in the pan instead of oil; it greases the pan and adds a lovely beefy aroma.

20 min

Japanese Meat

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Onomichi ramen

Onomichi is a hilly port town in Hiroshima prefecture on the Seto Inland Sea, and the start of the Shimanami Kaido cycle route across the islands to Shikoku. Its ramen shops serve a dark soy-seasoned broth made from chicken and small dried fish, with flat, slightly wavy noodles. The signature is a scattering of soft pork back-fat pieces that float on top and melt into each mouthful. Many visitors eat a bowl before or after the bike ride. Chef's tip: pull the heads and dark bellies off the dried sardines before using them; that is where the bitterness lives, and the cleaned fish give a sweet, clean sea flavour.

75 min

Japanese Pasta & Noodles

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Hiroshima oyster nabe (kaki nabe)

Hiroshima Bay is lined with oyster rafts, and from late autumn to early spring the city's restaurants put kaki nabe on the menu. In the version called dote nabe, a thick band of sweetened miso is smeared around the inside of the pot like a riverbank, then melts into the broth bit by bit as you eat. Cabbage, tofu, leek and mushrooms go in first; the oysters only need a few minutes at the end. It is cooked at the table on a portable burner, so everyone eats it as it is ready. Chef's tip: rinse the shucked oysters in a bowl with potato starch and a little salt, then in clean water; the grey starch pulls out grit and slime and leaves them clean-tasting.

40 min

Japanese Fish

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Olivier salad (vegetarian)

Salat Olivier was born in a fashionable Moscow restaurant in the 1860s, but today it belongs to every Russian kitchen on 31 December, when a bowl the size of a washing-up basin is made in the afternoon and eaten until 1 January is well over. Soviet cooks swapped the original's game for boiled sausage; this vegetarian version leaves it out and lets the sweet carrots, peas, sharp pickled cucumbers and creamy egg carry the salad. Chef's tip: cut everything to the size of a pea, the same size as the peas themselves; that is what makes Olivier feel like Olivier rather than potato salad.

55 min

Russian Salads

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