Main course
Jokbal (Soy-Braised Pig's Trotters)
Pig's trotters braised for two hours in soy sauce and spices until the skin turns to gelatin, then cooled and sliced thin. Slice it hot and it falls apart, so it has to go cold first — and the star anise and cinnamon must stay sparing or it tastes medicinal.
Griot (Braised-then-Fried Pork with Pikliz)
Haiti's national dish: pork marinated in épis, simmered until it gives, then lifted out and deep-fried so only the outside crusts. Braise first and fry second is the whole technique — fried from raw, the outside burns while the inside stays tough.
Kibbeh bil Sayniyeh (Baked Bulgur and Lamb Tray)
Syrian tray kibbeh: fine bulgur and finely minced meat worked into a clay-like dough, pressed into two layers around a pine-nut meat filling and baked. It stands or falls on wringing every drop of water from the bulgur and letting the filling go completely cold.
Ćevapi (Grilled Minced Meat Fingers with Somun and Onion)
Bosnia's national dish: minced meat worked to a sticky paste with no egg and no breadcrumbs, shaped into fingers and grilled over charcoal. A little bicarbonate and an overnight rest are what give them their springy bite, and they are eaten in warm somun with raw onion.
Amiwo (Tomato Cornmeal with Fried Fish)
Benin's signature dish: a red tomato and chilli sauce that cornmeal is stirred into until it sets firm. The point is that the cornmeal is cooked in sauce rather than water — and if you don't set some sauce aside first, there is none left to serve alongside.
Chakhchoukha (Torn Flatbread with Lamb and Chickpea Sauce)
Algeria's signature dish: paper-thin semolina flatbread torn up by hand and moistened with a red lamb and chickpea sauce. Despite the similar name it has nothing to do with Tunisian shakshuka, and crisping the bread ruins it.
Bazin (Barley Dough Dome with Lamb Tomato Sauce)
Libya's dish for a gathering: a stiff barley dough beaten smooth in boiling water, stood up as a dome, with a lamb and tomato sauce poured around it and eaten communally. The flour has to go into boiling water, and the sauce goes around the dome rather than over it.
Calulu (Fish Stew with Greens and Okra)
Angola's signature fish stew: dried smoked fish, fresh fish, greens, okra and aubergine layered in the pot and simmered without stirring. The savoury backbone is the dried fish rather than the fresh, and not stirring is the only way the fish stays in pieces.
Chipsi Mayai (Chip Omelette)
Tanzania's national street food: freshly fried chips bound into a single round omelette. The name means exactly 'chips and eggs', and the whole thing succeeds or fails on whether the chips are still hot and crisp when they hit the pan.
Waakye (Rice and Beans Cooked with Sorghum Leaves)
Ghana's national breakfast: rice and black-eyed peas cooked together in the red liquor drawn from dried sorghum leaves, which give both the colour and a faint earthy note. The colour is not a dye, and half the dish is what goes on top of it.
Mantu (Steamed Dumplings with Yogurt and Split Pea Sauce)
Afghanistan's dish for guests: thin-skinned dumplings filled with almost as much onion as meat, steamed, then layered with garlic yogurt below and a yellow split pea tomato sauce above. Mantu is finished less by the dumpling than by how the two sauces are stacked around it.
Nyama Choma (Charcoal-Grilled Goat)
Kenya's national dish: goat grilled slowly over charcoal for well over an hour, then chopped on a board. There is almost no seasoning — salt is essentially the whole list — so the fire and the time are the recipe. Served with kachumbari and ugali.
Buuz (Steamed Mutton Dumplings)
Mongolia's steamed dumpling, filled with nothing but mutton and onion. No vegetables and plenty of fat, so a pocket of broth collects inside as it steams — which is why the first bite needs care. Families make them by the hundred for Tsagaan Sar, the lunar new year.
Musakhan (Sumac Chicken on Flatbread)
Palestine's national dish: onions cooked down in olive oil and loaded with sumac, spread over flatbread, topped with roast chicken and pine nuts. Sumac is a main ingredient here, not a garnish — it goes in by the cupful — and the bread soaking up the juices is the whole point.
Moambe Chicken (Poulet à la Moambe)
The national dish of the DR Congo: chicken simmered in a thick sauce of ground palm nut pulp. The pulp — not palm oil — is the whole point, and a hard boil splits the fat out, so it stays at a gentle simmer. Served with rice and pounded cassava leaves.
Kedjenou (Sealed-Pot Chicken)
Côte d'Ivoire's sealed-pot chicken: bird, onion, tomato and aubergine shut into an earthenware canari and cooked with no added water at all. The vegetables make the entire sauce themselves, and instead of stirring you shake the pot — the name literally means 'to shake'.
Bougna (Kanak Earth-Oven Parcel)
The Kanak feast dish of New Caledonia: root vegetables and chicken packed with thick coconut milk into banana leaves and buried for two hours over hot stones. Passing the leaves through a flame so they fold without splitting, and sealing the parcel completely, is the whole technique — a leaking parcel simply dries out.
Iraqi Dolma (Mixed Stuffed Vegetables)
Iraq's great feast dish: onion cups, vine and chard leaves, peppers, aubergine and courgette all stuffed with rice and lamb, layered into one pot, simmered in a tamarind-and-lemon broth, then turned out whole onto a platter. A layer of potato on the bottom and a plate pressing from above are what keep it intact.
Pique Macho (Beef and Sausage over Fries)
Bolivia's great sharing platter from Cochabamba: crisp fries piled with seared beef and sausage, then onion, tomato and hot locoto pepper, finished with zigzags of mayonnaise and mustard. Reduce the sauce onto the meat in the pan so the fries stay crisp, and serve the moment it is plated.
Mansaf (Lamb in Fermented Yogurt Sauce)
Jordan's national dish: lamb simmered in a white sauce made from jameed — dried fermented sheep's-milk yogurt — and served over flatbread and rice on one large platter. Never boiling the sauce and stirring it in one direction is what makes or breaks it, and the pale meat is correct.
Kabsa (Spiced Rice with Chicken)
Saudi Arabia's national dish: basmati cooked in a spiced tomato broth, topped with chicken browned separately until glossy and a scatter of butter-fried nuts and raisins. Dried lime is what makes it kabsa rather than spiced pilaf, and measuring the broth to 1.5× the rice is what keeps the grains separate.
Ndolé (Bitterleaf and Peanut Stew)
Cameroon's national dish: bitterleaf wrung through changes of water to draw out its bitterness, then simmered into a ground-peanut sauce with beef and smoked fish. Washing the leaves properly and never letting the peanut sauce boil are what make or break it.
Rolex (Chapati Egg Roll)
Uganda's signature street food: a homemade chapati bonded to a vegetable-studded omelette and rolled up. The name has nothing to do with the watch — it's "rolled eggs" said fast. The trick is laying the chapati on while the egg is still wet, so the two become one.
Bryndzové Halušky (Potato Dumplings with Sheep Cheese)
Slovakia's national dish: dumplings made from a grated-potato batter pressed through a colander into boiling water, folded with bryndza sheep's cheese loosened with the cooking water, and finished with crisp bacon and its fat. Keeping the cheese off the heat is what makes or breaks it.
Cepelinai (Stuffed Potato Dumplings)
Lithuania's national dish: raw potato grated fine and wrung dry, bound with the starch recovered from its own squeezed liquid, stuffed with pork and boiled into torpedo-shaped dumplings, served under a bacon and sour cream sauce. Recovering that starch is what makes or breaks them.
Stegt Flæsk med Persillesovs (Crisp Pork with Parsley Sauce)
Denmark's national dish, chosen by public vote in 2014: pork belly sliced 5 mm thick and roasted on a rack until glassy and crisp, served with boiled potatoes and a white sauce loaded with parsley. The thickness, the amount of parsley, and the pickled beetroot on the side are the whole thing.
Beshbarmak (Boiled Meat and Noodles)
Kazakhstan's national dish: hand-rolled sheets of noodle boiled in the broth from a three-hour meat simmer, topped with thin-sliced meat and a heavily peppered onion sauce. The remaining broth — sorpa — is served alongside in cups. The name means "five fingers," for how it's eaten.
Kottu Roti (Chopped Roti Stir-Fry)
Sri Lanka's signature street food: cooled roti chopped on a hot griddle with vegetables, egg and meat using two metal blades. A ladle of curry gravy at the end is what moistens it — and that clanging outside a kottu shop is exactly this chopping.
Thieboudienne (Fish and Rice)
Senegal's national dish: broken rice cooked in a deeply fried tomato broth. Fish steaks are stuffed with a parsley-garlic roff and browned, vegetables poach in the broth and come out one by one, and the rice goes in last. The crust at the bottom of the pot — xoon — is the most fought-over part.
Nihari (Slow-Cooked Beef Stew)
Pakistan's national dish: bone-in beef shank and marrow bones simmered five hours with a fennel-heavy spice blend, then thickened with a wheat-flour slurry. Melted collagen and marrow give it a broth that clings to your lips — and in Pakistan it's breakfast, eaten with naan before dawn.
Mititei (Grilled Meat Rolls)
Romania's national grill food: ground meat kneaded hard with garlic-infused stock, cumin and — crucially — baking soda, rested overnight and grilled over charcoal. Casing-free sausages whose springy bite comes entirely from that soda. Mustard and white bread are not optional.
Svíčková na smetaně (Beef in Cream Sauce)
Czechia's national dish: a whole cut of beef braised two hours with root vegetables, the braise itself blended into a velvety sauce and finished with cream. The cranberry jam and whipped cream on top aren't decoration — that sweet-sour contrast is the point, and bread dumplings mop up the rest.
Fish Amok (Steamed Fish Curry)
Cambodia's national dish: white fish folded into a fragrant kroeung of lemongrass and turmeric with coconut cream and egg, then steamed in banana-leaf cups. The egg sets it into something closer to a savory custard than a curry.
Siga Tibs (Sautéed Beef)
Ethiopia's go-to restaurant order: beef seared hard in spiced clarified butter, then tossed with berbere and fresh rosemary. It arrives in a clay pot over live coals with injera to scoop it up. One pan, 20 minutes — get the spices right and it tastes like the real thing.
Kabab Koobideh (Persian Minced Kebab)
Iran's national kebab: ground lamb kneaded with nothing but grated onion, pressed onto flat skewers and grilled over charcoal. The ingredient list is startlingly short — squeezing the onion dry and kneading long enough are what make or break it. Served over saffron rice with sumac.
Plov (Pilaf)
Uzbekistan's national dish: rice steamed undisturbed over a rich broth of seared meat and sweet carrots. It's what gets cooked in a giant cauldron at every wedding, and it's on the UNESCO intangible heritage list. One pot feeds six.
Shrimp Scampi
An Italian-American classic: shrimp seared in garlic butter, deglazed with white wine and finished with lemon and parsley over linguine. One pan, 15 minutes, and it tastes like a restaurant plate — the best return on effort you can serve guests.
Classic Meatloaf
The great American weeknight dinner: ground meat bound with a milk-soaked breadcrumb panade, shaped into a loaf and baked under a sweet-tangy ketchup glaze. One bowl, one pan, almost impossible to get wrong — and the leftovers make a legendary sandwich.
Spanakopita
A Greek pie of spinach, feta, and herbs layered in thin, crackly phyllo pastry and baked crisp. Shatteringly flaky outside, savory and moist within. With shop-bought phyllo it is an easy vegetarian treat to make at home.
Carbonnade Flamande (Flemish Beef Stew)
A Flemish stew of beef braised slowly in Belgian dark beer until meltingly tender and rich. The bitterness of the beer, the sweetness of brown sugar, and a slice of mustard-smeared bread give it real depth. A one-pot winter treat that just needs time.
Croque Monsieur
The classic French cafe sandwich — ham and cheese between toasted bread, topped with béchamel and a blanket of Gruyère, baked until golden. Crisp outside, molten cheese within. Add a runny fried egg on top and it becomes a "croque madame".
Yakitori
Japanese chicken skewers — bite-size chicken and scallion threaded onto sticks and grilled while basted with a sweet-savory tare (soy glaze). The classic izakaya bite: lightly charred outside, juicy within. Enjoy it as salted "shio" or glazed "tare".
Char Siu (BBQ Pork)
Cantonese barbecue pork (siu) marinated in a sweet-savory glaze and roasted until glossy and lightly charred. Tender inside with that signature red sheen, it is sliced over rice and noodles or piled onto ramen.
Stamppot
A Dutch winter comfort classic — boiled potatoes mashed together with a vegetable like kale and served with smoked sausage. The name comes from "stampen" (to mash). A few ingredients, one pot, and a hearty, warming plate.
Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken
Chicken marinated in minced lemongrass and garlic, stir-fried with fish sauce for savory depth (ga xao sa ot). The bright lemongrass aroma and sweet-salty sauce make this one-pan Vietnamese dish a rice-devouring favorite.
Pollo al Ajillo (Garlic Chicken)
Bite-size chicken browned in olive oil with plenty of garlic and finished with white wine — the Spanish garlic chicken, the poultry cousin of gambas al ajillo. One pan, and irresistible with bread to mop up the sauce.
Aloo Gobi
A beloved Indian vegetarian curry of potato (aloo) and cauliflower (gobi) cooked down with turmeric, cumin, and spices. A "dry" curry with no gravy, cooked till tender and fluffy — great with rice or naan and chapati. One pan, and fully vegan.
Chilaquiles
A Mexican breakfast of crisp tortilla chips briefly simmered in salsa until just softened, then topped with cheese, crema, and eggs. A hearty brunch that puts leftover tortillas to work — delicious with green (verde) or red (rojo) salsa.
Cacio e Pepe
The classic Roman pasta made from just Pecorino Romano, freshly ground black pepper, and pasta water. Only three ingredients, but the trick is emulsifying the cheese with the starchy water into a silky, cream-like sauce — a rich cheese pasta with no butter and no cream.
Menemen
A Turkish breakfast of tomatoes and green peppers simmered down, then eggs stirred in and cooked soft. Made in one pan in minutes and scooped up with fresh bread. Simple ingredients, simple method, deep flavor — a beloved Turkish brunch.
Fettuccine Alfredo
An Italian pasta of butter and Parmigiano melted into starchy pasta water and tossed through wide fettuccine. The original uses no cream at all — just butter, cheese, and pasta water emulsified into a silky sauce. A rich cheese pasta in 15 minutes from a handful of ingredients.
Chicken Shawarma
A Middle Eastern favorite — chicken marinated in yogurt and warm spices, roasted until charred and juicy, then thinly sliced. Traditionally cut from a vertical spit, but easy at home in a pan or oven. Wrap it in pita with garlic sauce, or serve over rice.
Tempura
Japanese-style fritters — shrimp and seasonal vegetables in an ice-cold batter, fried into a light, lacy, shatteringly crisp coating. The magic is the contrast of the airy crust and tender inside; eat it hot with a dip of tsuyu.
Bobotie
South Africa's national dish: curried minced meat studded with raisins and almonds, baked under a golden egg-and-milk custard. Sweet, savory, and fragrant, this comforting casserole is served with yellow rice and chutney.
Beef Rendang
Indonesian Padang's celebrated dish: beef slow-cooked in coconut milk and a spice paste until the liquid reduces to a dark, clingy glaze. Layered with aromatics into deep flavor, it's often ranked among the world's most delicious foods.
Aussie Meat Pie
Australia's national hand pie: minced beef simmered in a rich gravy, packed into crisp pastry and baked golden. Flaky outside, savory and saucy inside. Store-bought pastry makes it easy at home — serve with ketchup for the true Aussie way.
Gyros
A Greek wrap of marinated pork or chicken grilled until crisp-edged, piled into a soft pita with tzatziki, tomato, onion, and even fries. At home, thinly sliced meat seared in a pan makes it quick and easy.
Orange Chicken
American-Chinese favorite: crispy fried chicken tossed in a glossy sweet-and-sour orange sauce of orange juice, soy, sugar, and vinegar. Crunchy on the outside, sticky-glazed all over — irresistible over a bowl of rice.
Napolitan
A Japanese diner-style pasta: boiled spaghetti stir-fried with sausage, onion, bell pepper, and mushroom in ketchup. Named after Naples but born in Japan, it's a sweet-savory nostalgic favorite loved by all ages.
Chicken Tikka Masala
Yogurt-and-spice marinated chicken, charred then simmered in a rich tomato-cream masala sauce. Popularized in Britain, this Indian-style curry balances gentle spice and a velvety sauce — perfect with rice or naan.