What to eat today?

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Echorer dalnaYoung jackfruit curry

In early summer, Kolkata's bazaars sell baby green jackfruit (echor), and Bengali households cook it into a dalna rich enough to be called gachh-patha, 'mutton from the tree'. The jackfruit is boiled, fried with potato and simmered in a ginger, cumin and tomato gravy, finished with ghee and garam masala. Its chewy, meaty texture soaks up the spice. It is a Sunday lunch dish, eaten with rice or luchi. Chef's tip: buy jackfruit no longer than your forearm, with pale seeds; older fruit is fibrous and the seeds are hard.

75 min

Indian Curries

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Sweet and sour carp

On Jinan's banquet tables a whole carp, its tail curled up as if leaping the Dragon Gate on the Yellow River, is a wish for success, so it turns up at weddings, exam celebrations and New Year. The fish is scored deeply, coated in a thin starch batter and fried until the skin crackles, then a hot glaze of sugar, vinegar and soy is poured over so it sizzles at the table. Inside, the flesh stays white and moist. Serve with steamed rice and a stir-fried green vegetable. Chef's tip: carp has fine bones, so if you are cooking for children use sea bass or tilapia; the method is the same.

50 min

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Braised intestines in brown sauce

Jinan restaurants have served this Shandong classic for more than a century, and its name, 'nine turns', borrows from Taoist alchemy to praise how many times the flavour seems to change on the tongue. Sections of pork intestine are cleaned thoroughly, simmered until tender, fried golden and then braised in a dark glaze that is sweet, sour, salty, peppery and gently spiced all at once, finished with a dusting of cinnamon and white pepper. The texture is soft and rich with a slight chew. It is banquet food in Shandong, eaten with plain rice or steamed buns and a green vegetable. Chef's tip: buy intestines already cleaned by a butcher if you can; you will still give them a wash, but the hard part is done.

120 min

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Huangshan braised pigeon

In the villages below the Huangshan mountains of Anhui, pigeon slowly stewed with Chinese yam in a clay pot is a classic nourishing dish, given to people recovering from illness and served to guests in cold weather. The broth is clear, light and gingery; the dark, rich squab turns tender enough to pull off the bone, and the yam goes soft and slightly creamy. Bring the pot to the table and eat the meat with rice, sipping the broth between mouthfuls. Squab is sold by good butchers and Asian grocers, often frozen. Chef's tip: wear gloves when peeling the yam; its sticky juice makes many people's hands itch.

120 min

Malaysian Pasta & Noodles

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EetchBulgur in tomato and pepper

Eetch is a Western Armenian dish from the old Cilician towns, carried by families to Aleppo, Beirut and the Armenian quarters of American cities. Fine bulgur is stirred into a hot sauce of onion, red pepper, tomato and pepper paste and left to drink it up, then finished with lemon, parsley and spring onion and eaten at room temperature, often scooped up with lettuce leaves. Unlike a herb-heavy raw bulgur salad, eetch is cooked, so it is rich and tomatoey, and it is a fixture of Lenten tables, picnics and mezze spreads. It keeps for days, which makes it a favourite for lunchboxes. Chef's tip: take the pan off the heat before adding the bulgur and keep the lid on; the grains soften in the residual heat and stay separate instead of turning to porridge.

30 min

Armenian Salads

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Efo riroSpinach stew

Efo riro, literally 'stirred greens', is the Yoruba vegetable stew cooked in homes from Ibadan to Lagos on any ordinary weekday, and eaten with pounded yam, eba or plain rice. Leafy greens are wilted into a rich base of blended peppers fried in palm oil with iru, the pungent fermented locust beans that give the dish its savoury backbone. Most families add assorted meats, stockfish and crayfish; some keep a little smoked fish on the side for those who want it. This version leans on mushrooms, iru and a touch of smoked paprika instead. Chef's tip: squeeze the blanched greens really dry before they go into the sauce; wet spinach thins the stew and washes out the flavour.

50 min

Nigerian Curries

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LaksamRice noodles in coconut fish gravy

Kota Bharu's morning market has its own noodle: laksam, thick sheets of steamed rice batter rolled up like little carpets and sliced into wheels. They are drowned in a pale, creamy gravy of pounded fish and coconut milk, then heaped with raw herbs and vegetables (ulam): cucumber, long beans, bean sprouts, daun kesum and torch ginger flower, with a spoonful of fiery chilli and budu, the region's fermented anchovy sauce. The result is soft and slippery, rich and cool at the same time. Locals eat it for breakfast or as a mid-morning snack. Chef's tip: pound the cooked fish with the shallots instead of blending it smooth; the gravy should feel faintly textured, like a thin porridge.

60 min

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Huizhou stinky mandarin fish

From the mountain towns of Huizhou in southern Anhui comes a fish with a famous smell: mandarin fish lightly fermented for days, then braised with pork belly and bamboo shoots until the flesh separates into firm, almost garlic-clove-like flakes with a savoury, cheesy depth. Traditionally the fish ferments in a barrel at room temperature, which is not safe to copy at home. This version gives the same firm texture and a gentle tang by salt-curing the fish in the fridge for 1–2 days, never at room temperature; it is milder than the real thing. Serve it in its sauce with plenty of rice. Chef's tip: dry the cured fish very well before it goes into the pan, or the skin sticks and tears.

60 min

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Shanghai drunken chicken

Shanghai's cold-dish counters always have a tray of drunken chicken: smooth, pale poached chicken with jelly-like skin, steeped overnight in a fragrant, slightly sweet bath of Shaoxing wine. Please note that the wine here is not cooked, so the classic dish contains alcohol and is not suitable for children, during pregnancy or for anyone avoiding alcohol. For them, make the fragrant alcohol-free version given in the ingredients, which steeps the chicken in stock with goji berries, dried tangerine peel and a little rice vinegar. Serve it chilled as a starter in summer or at Chinese New Year with other cold dishes. Chef's tip: plunge the chicken into iced water straight after poaching; the quick chill is what gives the skin its springy texture.

60 min

Sri Lankan Breakfast & Brunch

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Egg hoppersBowl-shaped rice pancakes with egg

Hoppers (appa) are the crisp-edged, bowl-shaped pancakes that street cooks in Colombo, Kandy and Jaffna make in rows of small round pans every evening; an egg hopper has an egg cracked into the soft centre so it steams to a runny yolk. The batter of rice flour, coconut milk and yeast (traditionally toddy) is left to ferment until it's light and slightly sour, which gives the lacy, golden rim and the spongy middle. They're eaten hot with pol sambol and lunu miris, and plain hoppers come with sweet jaggery for dessert. Kerala's appam is a cousin, but Sri Lankan hoppers are thinner and crisper and the egg version is their own. The common mistake is a batter that's too thick, which gives heavy, pale hoppers; it should flow like single cream. Chef's tip: swirl the pan in one quick full turn the moment the batter goes in, then cover at once.

60 min

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Shanghai red-braised pork

Every Shanghai family has its own hong shao rou, the dark, sticky pork belly at the heart of benbang (local) home cooking. Unlike the Hunan version linked to Chairman Mao, there is no chilli here; the colour and gloss come from rock sugar, soy sauce and a long, quiet braise, and the flavour is unmistakably sweet and savoury. The cubes should hold their shape but give way under chopsticks, with soft fat and a sauce that clings like syrup. It is weekend and festival food, served with plenty of rice and something green, and it tastes even better the next day. Chef's tip: reduce the sauce uncovered over a high heat in the last 10 minutes and keep tossing; that is when the shine appears.

90 min

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Nanjing salted duck

Nanjing people are said to eat more duck than anyone in China, and this cold, pale salted duck is the one bought by the half from neighbourhood shops for the dinner table, especially around the Mid-Autumn Festival, when the ducks are plumpest. It is cured in pepper salt, brined, then poached at a bare simmer so the skin stays white and smooth, the fat turns clear and the meat is pink-tinged, moist and savoury. Serve it chilled, chopped into pieces, with rice or as part of a cold platter. Start a day ahead, as the duck needs 12 hours of curing and brining in the fridge on top of the cooking time. Chef's tip: toast the salt and Sichuan pepper together until fragrant; the warm, numbing aroma is what makes it taste of Nanjing.

240 min

Egyptian Breakfast & Brunch

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EggahHerb omelette

Eggah is the omelette Egyptian families make at home for breakfast or a light supper, often on a Friday morning alongside ful, falafel, cheese and baladi bread. It is thick and set rather than folded, packed with spring onion, parsley and dill and warmed with cumin, and it's cooked slowly so it puffs and browns on both sides. Slice it into wedges and eat it hot from the pan or cold in a sandwich. Chef's tip: grate the onion and squeeze it dry; wet onion makes the eggs weep and the eggah falls apart when you flip it.

25 min

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Squirrel-shaped mandarin fish

The showpiece of Suzhou banquets, this fish is deboned, scored into a deep criss-cross and fried so the flesh fans out into spikes; with its tail curled up, someone once decided it looked like a squirrel. The sauce poured over it at the table crackles as it hits the crisp edges, sweet and tangy with tomato and vinegar. Mandarin fish is hard to find outside China, so sea bass is the practical choice. Serve as the centrepiece with rice and a few simple vegetables. Chef's tip: work starch into every cut with your fingers and shake off the excess; any bare patch fries soggy and the spikes collapse.

60 min

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Beggar's chicken

Legend has a hungry beggar near Hangzhou wrapping a stolen chicken in mud and burying it in the embers; restaurants in Hangzhou and Changshu still crack open the crust at the table for a bit of theatre. This home version swaps the mud for a salt-and-flour dough, so it bakes in an ordinary oven. Inside two lotus leaves, the bird steams in its own juices with pork, mushrooms and bamboo shoots, so the meat is fall-apart tender and smells of the leaves. Make it for a special dinner and serve with rice and greens. Chef's tip: the crust is only an oven, not something to eat; seal every crack with a scrap of dough so the steam stays in.

240 min

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Longjing shrimp

Spring in Hangzhou means new-season Longjing tea from the hills west of the city, and restaurants celebrate it by tossing tiny, pearly river shrimp with the tender tea leaves and a splash of their brew. The result is very delicate: sweet, springy shrimp, a faint grassy and chestnut aroma from the tea, and no heavy sauce at all. It is usually one dish among several at a family meal, eaten with rice. Small raw prawns are the easiest home swap for river shrimp. Chef's tip: brew the tea with water at about 80 °C, never straight from the boil, which makes the leaves bitter.

20 min

Argentinian Snacks & Starters

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Empanadas de humitaCreamy corn empanadas

Empanadas de humita are the vegetarian favourite at every Argentine empanada shop, from Tucumán, which claims the best empanadas in the country, to the delivery menus of Buenos Aires. The filling is sweetcorn and onion cooked with red pepper, nutmeg and a little white sauce until creamy, then folded into wheat pastry discs and closed with the twisted edge (repulgue) that tells you what's inside. Unlike the husk-wrapped humita en chala, these are baked and golden. Chef's tip: chill the filling until firm before filling; warm filling melts the pastry and the empanadas open in the oven.

75 min

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West Lake vinegar fish

Hangzhou restaurants by West Lake have served this for generations, traditionally with grass carp kept in clean water for a day or two before cooking. The fish is not fried at all: it is butterflied, poached for a few minutes, and coated with a shiny, dark sauce of black vinegar and sugar that tastes sharp first and sweet after. The flesh should be tender enough to fall from the bone at a touch. Carp, sea bass or a thick white fish fillet all work at home. Eat it with rice and a simple stir-fried green vegetable. Chef's tip: thicken the sauce at the last moment and pour it straight over; left to sit, it turns gluey.

40 min

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Lion's head meatballs

Cooks in Yangzhou say the shaggy meatball looks like a lion's head and the cabbage leaves around it like a mane. The Jiangsu way is the clear braise: no frying, just a slow simmer in stock until the meatballs are so tender that you eat them with a spoon, while the cabbage drinks up the pork juices. They appear at family reunions and at Chinese New Year, where the round shape stands for togetherness. Everything cooks in one pot; serve the meatballs in their broth with rice. Chef's tip: chop some of the pork belly by hand if you can, or ask for coarse mince; a fine, lean mince gives a dense, bouncy ball rather than a soft one.

75 min

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Dongpo pork

Named after the Song dynasty poet Su Dongpo, who governed Hangzhou, these neat squares of pork belly are a fixture of the city's restaurants around West Lake and of New Year banquet tables across Zhejiang. Cooked for hours in Shaoxing wine with soy and rock sugar, the fat turns soft and wobbly, the lean melts apart, and the skin goes glossy and mahogany. Each guest usually gets one square, eaten with plain rice and a green vegetable to cut the richness. The traditional braise uses only wine and no water; if you avoid alcohol, use the stock-and-vinegar version in the ingredient note, which is just as tender, though less fragrant. Chef's tip: tie each square with kitchen string before braising so it keeps its shape for serving.

150 min

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Wenchang chicken

Hainan islanders count Wenchang chicken, from the coastal county of the same name, as the first of their four famous dishes, and no wedding, New Year or welcome-home meal there is complete without it. The small free-range birds are gently poached until the skin is pale gold and slightly jellied and the meat is firm, sweet and full of flavour. The real stars on the island are the dips, not rice: a hot-oil ginger and garlic relish, and a sharp calamansi and chilli sauce. This is the original that Hainanese emigrants turned into chicken rice in Singapore and Malaysia, but in Hainan it is eaten chopped on the bone with a bowl of the poaching broth and plain rice or greens on the side. Chef's tip: choose a small free-range chicken; its firmer meat and thin skin are closest to the Wenchang breed.

60 min

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Buddha jumps over the wall

Legend in Fuzhou says the smell of this soup was so tempting that a monk climbed the monastery wall to taste it, and it is still the grandest dish at Fujian wedding banquets and Lunar New Year. Restaurant versions pack in a dozen expensive dried seafoods; this home version keeps the spirit with chicken, pork ribs, dried scallops, shiitake, taro and quail eggs, and leaves out shark fin and any endangered ingredient entirely. Everything simmers sealed for hours until the broth is golden, rich and lightly sticky, tasting of the sea, mushrooms and rice wine. Serve it in small bowls as the centrepiece of a celebration meal, with plain rice. Chef's tip: seal the pot with foil under the lid and resist peeking; the steam that stays inside is what makes the broth so intense.

240 min

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Lychee pork

Despite the name, no fruit goes into this classic of Fuzhou banquets and family feasts. Lean pork is scored in a fine crosshatch and cut into small pieces that curl into bumpy red balls when fried, looking just like lychees in their shells, while crunchy water chestnuts play the white flesh. The coating is crisp, the sauce glossy, sweet and tangy, and the pork inside stays tender. It is a favourite at Fujian weddings and New Year tables, eaten with steamed rice and a simple green vegetable or clear soup. Chef's tip: score the pork two-thirds of the way through and then cut it into pieces; too shallow and it stays flat, too deep and it falls apart.

45 min

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Fuzhou fish ball soup

Bite carefully: inside every Fuzhou fish ball hides a spoonful of juicy seasoned pork that bursts out with a little hot broth. Sold by street vendors and served in tiny bowls at Fuzhou snack shops, and eaten at New Year because the round balls mean a family together, they are firm and springy outside, never spongy. The paste is beaten by hand with ice-cold water and a little starch until it turns smooth and elastic. Serve the soup as a light lunch or as one bowl in a spread of small dishes, with a dash of vinegar and lots of white pepper. Chef's tip: keep the fish paste really cold from start to finish; warm paste never turns bouncy.

60 min

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Teochew cold crab

Chilled crab sounds strange until you taste it at a Teochew banquet in Chaozhou, where it comes as a cold starter alongside braised goose and marinated seafood. Steaming the crab whole and then chilling it firms the flesh and brings out its natural sweetness, which a plain dish lets you taste clearly; the roe in a female crab turns rich and almost creamy. All it needs is a sharp ginger vinegar to cut through. Serve it as a starter before hot dishes, with crab crackers, small forks and plenty of napkins. Chef's tip: steam it belly side up, so the juices stay inside the shell instead of running out onto the plate. Allow at least 2 hours' chilling on top of the cooking time.

40 min

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Chaozhou braised goose

Walk past a lou mei counter in Chaozhou or Shantou and the glossy brown geese hanging there are the first thing you notice; braised goose is offered at ancestral rites, weddings and New Year, then sliced for everyone at the table. The bird simmers slowly in a master stock of soy, rock sugar, galangal and whole spices until the meat is tender and deeply savoury with a gentle sweetness, while the skin stays smooth and the fat soft. Goose can be hard to find, so goose legs or plump duck legs work well at home. Slice it thinly and serve with plain rice or rice porridge, braised tofu and eggs from the same pot, and the sharp garlic vinegar Teochew people always put alongside. Chef's tip: strain and freeze the stock after use; each time you braise in it again the flavour gets deeper, which is how Chaozhou shops keep a 'master' stock for years.

150 min

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Hakka salt-baked chicken

Hakka families in the Dongjiang river valley of eastern Guangdong are said to have invented this dish by burying chickens in hot salt to cook and keep them while on the move. Wrapped in paper and surrounded by sizzling coarse salt in a wok, the bird cooks in its own juices: the skin turns golden and taut, the meat stays dense and moist, and sand ginger gives it a warm, peppery perfume. It is a celebration dish in Meizhou and Huizhou, served chopped on the bone, at room temperature or warm, with plain rice, blanched greens and a little sand ginger dip. Chef's tip: dry the chicken uncovered in the fridge before wrapping it; wet skin steams instead of roasting and turns flabby.

90 min

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Wonton noodle soup

Small, steamy noodle shops all over Hong Kong sell this bowl from breakfast until late at night, often from a counter facing the street. Plump wontons, mostly prawn with a little pork, sit under a nest of thin, springy egg noodles in a clear, savoury broth fragrant with dried shrimp and ginger. The bowl is small and meant to be eaten fast, before the noodles soften, with a spoonful of chilli oil and a side of blanched greens. Shop wrappers make the wontons manageable on a weeknight. Chef's tip: put the wontons in the bowl first and the noodles on top, as Hong Kong cooks do, so the noodles sit above the broth and keep their bite.

60 min

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Cantonese steamed whole fish

Whole fish arrives near the end of every Cantonese banquet and Lunar New Year dinner across Guangdong, because the word for fish sounds like 'surplus'. At home it is one of the quickest dishes on the table: the fish is steamed plainly over ginger, then showered with shredded spring onion and a hiss of smoking oil, and finished with a light, slightly sweet soy dressing. Done right, the flesh is silky and just slips off the bone. Serve it in the middle of the table with steamed rice and stir-fried greens, letting everyone pick from the fish. Chef's tip: lay two chopsticks under the fish on the plate so steam circulates underneath and it cooks evenly.

25 min

Chinese Snacks & Starters

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Har gowPrawn dumplings

No basket at a Guangzhou yum cha is judged more harshly than the har gow: a dim sum chef is said to prove themselves by folding ten or more pleats into each one. The wrapper is made from wheat starch and tapioca, so it steams clear and slightly chewy, showing the pink prawns inside; the filling is snappy, sweet and lightly seasoned with sesame and bamboo shoot. They take patience rather than special skill, and a batch made on a weekend morning feels like a trip to a teahouse. Serve them straight from the steamer with jasmine or pu'er tea and a little chilli oil on the side. Chef's tip: roll each wrapper only when you are ready to fill it, because the thin starch dough dries and cracks within minutes.

75 min

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Yunnan steam-pot chicken

In the old town of Jianshui in southern Yunnan, potters still make the purple clay qiguo, a lidded pot with a chimney rising through its centre. Set over boiling water, it lets steam rise into the pot, where it meets the chicken, condenses and drips back as a pure, golden broth, with no water added at all. After three hours the meat falls from the bone and the soup tastes intensely of chicken and ginger, clean and restorative; in Kunming it is the dish for guests, for convalescents and for winter weekends. Serve the broth in small bowls first, then the chicken with rice and a chilli dip. Chef's tip: if you don't own a steam pot, a heatproof bowl covered with a plate in a steamer works well; it just needs a small splash of water to start the broth.

180 min

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Guilin rice noodles

Guilin, among the karst peaks of Guangxi, starts its day with mifen: round, slippery rice noodles that are not served in soup at all but tossed with a few ladles of lu shui, the dark, spiced braising liquid in which the beef was cooked. On top go thin slices of that beef, crunchy fried peanuts, sour pickled beans and bamboo shoots, chilli and spring onion; you stir it all together and, if you like, add a splash of hot broth at the end. Street shops in the city serve it fast and cheap from breakfast till late. The flavour is savoury, sweet-spiced and sour, with crunch in every mouthful. Chef's tip: make the braised beef the day before and chill it in its liquid; cold beef can be sliced paper-thin, which is how Guilin cooks serve it.

70 min

Chinese Pasta & Noodles

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Guizhou sour fish soup

For the Miao people around Kaili in south-east Guizhou, a pot of sour soup is the heart of a meal, served in a wide pot over a burner with everyone dipping in. Their famous red sour soup is made by fermenting wild tomatoes with chillies for weeks, and it gives the broth a bright, tangy, lightly spicy taste that is fruity rather than vinegary. Chunks of fresh river fish, tofu and bean sprouts simmer in it until tender, and each piece is dunked in a little dish of chilli and herbs before eating. This home version gets close with very ripe tomatoes, fermented chillies and a splash of rice vinegar. Eat it with rice on a cold evening. Chef's tip: cook the tomatoes until they completely collapse into a thick red paste before you add any water; that is where the colour and the deep sourness come from.

60 min

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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

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Hunan steamed fish head with chopped chillies

Walk into almost any restaurant in Changsha and a split fish head blanketed in scarlet chopped chillies will be on the table next to you. The chillies are salted and fermented, so they taste bright, sour and fruity as well as hot, and the steam carries their juices into the sweet, soft fish beneath; the meaty cheeks and the jelly-like flesh around the head are the prized parts. A last drizzle of smoking oil wakes it all up. When the fish is gone, Hunanese diners tip plain noodles into the leftover juices, and so should you. Chef's tip: buy the head from a fishmonger who has just cut it, with clear eyes and bright red gills; if that's hard to find, thick bone-in fish steaks work just as well.

35 min

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Chairman Mao's red braised pork

Restaurants in Shaoshan, Mao Zedong's home village in Hunan, all put this pork on the menu because it was said to be his favourite food. What sets the Hunan way apart from the soy-dark braises of Shanghai is that the deep mahogany colour comes from caramelised sugar alone, with dried chillies and warm spices in the pot, so the sauce tastes cleaner and slightly smoky. After an hour of gentle simmering the cubes of belly are wobbly and melting under a sticky, sweet-salty glaze. It is celebration food at Hunan family dinners, eaten with steamed rice and a sharp stir-fried green vegetable to cut the richness. Chef's tip: dry the blanched pork well before it meets the caramel, so it doesn't spit, and stop the caramel at the colour of strong tea; a few seconds longer and it turns bitter.

90 min

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Lal sahRed tea

In Assam, the home of half of India's tea, the everyday cup is lal sah, 'red tea': strong CTC or orthodox Assam leaf brewed briefly, poured off, sweetened and drunk black. It is what tea-garden workers, Guwahati office-goers and grandmothers drink from morning till evening, often with a slice of lemon, a crushed piece of ginger or, in upper Assam, a bay leaf. Its colour is a deep, clear red and its taste is malty and brisk, never stewed. Chef's tip: take the pan off the heat before adding the leaves; boiling them makes the tea harsh and cloudy.

7 min

Indian Drinks

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Mala crayfish

On summer nights the pavements of Changsha and Wuhan fill with folding tables, plastic gloves and mountains of glossy red crayfish, the season's great shared feast from May to August. Each little shell is sucked for its spicy sauce before you twist off the tail for a sweet, firm bite of meat; the sauce is hot from chillies and bean paste, numbing from Sichuan pepper and rounded out with garlic and a bottle of lager. Large shell-on prawns make an easy swap if you can't buy live crayfish. Serve with cold drinks, cucumber, steamed buns or rice to mop up the sauce, and lots of napkins. Chef's tip: once the crayfish turn red, simmer them for no more than 8 minutes; longer and the tail meat goes mushy and comes away in shreds.

50 min

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Chongqing grilled fish

The river port of Wanzhou on the Yangtze gave the country kao yu, now a late-night favourite in every Chinese city: a whole fish, split open and grilled over charcoal until the skin crackles, then laid in a metal tray of bubbling chilli broth and kept hot over a burner in the middle of the table. Friends pick at the crisp skin and soft flesh, then work through the potatoes, bean sprouts and celery underneath, which soak up the spicy, savoury, faintly numbing sauce. This home version uses a hot oven and a roasting tin. Serve it with rice and plenty of cold drinks. Chef's tip: dry the fish inside and out with kitchen paper and oil the tin well; a wet fish steams instead of crisping and sticks to the metal.

60 min

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La zi ji (Chongqing chilli chicken)

Truck drivers stopping on Geleshan, the hill outside Chongqing, made this dish famous at roadside canteens in the 1980s, and it still arrives at tables there as a platter that looks like nothing but dried chillies. Hidden among them are small pieces of chicken fried twice until the outside is dry and crunchy and the inside juicy, then tossed with garlic, ginger and handfuls of Sichuan pepper. Eating it is a game: you hunt through the red pile with chopsticks for the morsels, which are smoky, salty, numbing and surprisingly moreish with a cold beer or a pot of tea. Serve it with rice and a mild soup or stir-fried greens. Chef's tip: fry the chicken in two batches and give it a second, hotter fry; crowding the oil is the most common mistake and leaves the coating soft.

40 min

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Texas chili con carne

Texans call it a 'bowl of red', and at chili cook-offs from San Antonio to Terlingua the rules are firm: chunks of beef, a sauce made from dried chillies, cumin and garlic, and no beans in the pot. Beef chuck braises slowly in a brick-red purée of toasted ancho and guajillo chillies until it falls apart at a touch. Serve with chopped onion, grated cheese and crackers or cornbread. Chef's tip: toast the dried chillies only until they smell fragrant and soften, about 30 seconds per side; burnt chillies make the whole pot bitter.

210 min

American Meat

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Fujian oyster omelette

Along Zhongshan Road and the night markets of Xiamen, cooks fry this on wide griddles all evening, one portion after another. Small fresh oysters are scattered into a batter of sweet potato starch and water, which sets clear and chewy, then eggs are swirled over the top so it ends up crisp at the edges and soft and gooey in the middle. It is salty from the sea, eggy and pleasantly sticky, with a squeeze of sweet chilli sauce to balance it. Eat it hot from the pan as a snack or with rice porridge for a light supper. Chef's tip: stir the batter just before pouring it in; the starch sinks to the bottom within seconds.

20 min

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Bang bang chicken

Street vendors in Leshan, the river town below the Giant Buddha, used to cut their poached chicken by tapping a wooden stick against the back of the cleaver, and that knocking gave bang bang ji its name. It is a cold dish, eaten as a starter at banquets or bought by the bagful for a picnic: silky shreds of chicken piled on cool cucumber and drenched in a nutty, sweet, tingling sauce of sesame paste, chilli oil and ground Sichuan pepper. The contrast of cold meat, crisp vegetable and rich dressing makes it ideal for a hot day. Serve it with other cold plates, a bowl of rice or simply some flatbread. Chef's tip: beat the cooked breasts gently with a rolling pin before shredding; the fibres loosen and pull apart into long, soft strands that hold the sauce.

40 min

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Twice-cooked pork

Sichuan families say no dish is more homely than hui guo rou, literally 'meat returned to the pot': pork belly is simmered whole, cooled, sliced paper-thin and then fried again with fermented chilli bean paste until the fat turns translucent and the slices curl into little cups. It was once the treat cooked after ancestral offerings, when the boiled pork came back to the kitchen, and it is still the dish many Chengdu people crave most when they are far from home. The flavour is rich, salty and savoury with a slow chilli warmth rather than a sharp burn, and the leeks bring a sweet, green crunch. Eat it with a big bowl of rice to soak up the red oil. Chef's tip: chill the boiled pork for 15 minutes in the freezer before slicing; firm pork gives clean, even 3 mm slices that curl beautifully in the wok.

60 min

Mexican Snacks & Starters

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EloteMexican street corn

Elote (corn on the cob) is sold all over Mexico from street carts in the evening: grilled or boiled cobs speared on a stick, slathered in mayonnaise and crema, rolled in crumbly cotija cheese and dusted with chilli powder, with a squeeze of lime. Charring the corn adds smokiness to the sweet kernels, and the creamy, salty, sour and hot toppings make it irresistible. Serve it at a barbecue or as a snack; kids can skip the chilli. Cotija is often made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian-rennet feta or a vegetarian hard cheese if that matters to you. Chef's tip: let the cobs cool for a minute before spreading the mayonnaise, so it clings rather than sliding off.

20 min

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Kung pao chicken

Named after a 19th-century governor of Sichuan, gong bao chicken is weeknight food in Chengdu: small cubes of tender thigh meat tossed in a wok with scorched chillies, tingling Sichuan pepper and crunchy peanuts. Its signature is the glossy sauce Sichuan cooks call 'lychee flavour', sweet and sour in equal measure, clinging lightly rather than pooling on the plate. The chilli here perfumes the oil more than it burns, so it is the gentlest of the classic Sichuan stir-fries. Serve it with plain steamed rice and a green vegetable such as stir-fried pak choi. Chef's tip: mix the sauce in a bowl before you light the hob, because the whole stir-fry is over in about four minutes and there is no time to measure once the wok is hot.

25 min