Walking through the narrow bylanes of Mylapore neighbourhood at dusk is like watching a sepia-tinted postcard of Madras coming to life and gently reasserting itself over the Chennai of today. The 7th-century Kapaleeshwarar Temple, the fulcrum of commerce and culture, draws the devout into its timeless force field, and on nearby Pitchu Pillai Lane, a small crowd gathers around the Raghul Kuzhi Paniyaram street stall to buy kuzhi paniyarams: spongy orbs of pan-fried batter speckled with mustard seeds.
Mamak stalls in Malaysia are where everything comes together - after work, after football, where the night ends or carries on. When I look at Morley's in London, I see that same energy and sense of community, which makes this feel bigger than just a collaboration.
Though they were only serving in town for one night, the chefs and staff behind the Mexico City supernova Masala y Maíz managed to cause what felt like a temporary ripple in L.A. dining during their pop-up last week. It reminded this diner that despite the era's current dedication to culinary and cultural boundaries - you should only cook what you know, write what you know - a spirit of mixture and melding can actually lead to something extraordinary, and not cringey, in practice.
When Ceylon India Inn opened near Times Square in the early 1900s, the city's first South Asian restaurant quickly became a hub for New York's burgeoning community of desi (a term used to describe people of South Asian descent) dock workers, and students. More than a century later, there are more than 400 such restaurants across the five boroughs, enticing a far more diverse array of diners.
Med Salleh, which has has one Malaysian restaurant in Bayswater and two Vietnamese ones in Westbourne Grove and Earl's Court, has just added a fourth branch in Kentish Town. The newest site is Malaysian-focused, like the original, serving a menu of street food inspired by Med's upbringing in Malaysia, including dishes from his hometown of Kampar as well as flavours from Ipoh and Penang.
Coriander and cumin aren't direct substitutes. Cumin is more pungent and earthy, so if used in place of coriander, I recommend using about half the amount and adding a touch of citrus zest or fennel seed to restore brightness.
India is a country with countless regional specialties, each with its own history, culture, and unique use of spices. I wanted our guests to experience that variety and feel as though they were traveling across India one meal at a time.
Soaked and blended, cashews become a stand-in for heavy cream, keeping stuffed shells, soups, pasta sauces, and desserts luxuriously dairy-free. Toasted and roughly chopped, they add crunch to salads, curries, stir-fries, and more. There are so many reasons to love cooking with these seeds-that's right, "cashew nut" is technically a misnomer, since they grow outside the fruit rather than inside a hard shell like true nuts.
Pav bhaji, or Indian spiced mash, is a home cook's friend. It's not fussy, and it will take most leftover vegetables and transform them into something delicious. Add a squeeze of lemon, chopped onion and fresh herbs, and mop up with a butter-fried roll, just as the people of Mumbai do. The odd potato? No problem. A bit of cauliflower? Sure. Some peas from the freezer? Ideal! What you do need, however, is a secret weapon in the form of pav bhaji
A sandwich might sound like a "boring" meal, but these vegetarian sandwiches are anything but uninspired! I've spent years testing different combinations of veggie sandwich fillings in my kitchen, and over the years I've collected my favorite ideas for making meatless lunches and dinners. These vegetarian sandwiches have become my go-to's for quick weeknight dinners and healthy lunches that actually make me look forward to the meal.
Kolamba showcases Sri Lankan home cooking as it's eaten across the island. Bold spices, deeply layered curries, fragrant rice and freshly made roti, all designed to be shared. Hoppers (also known as appa/appam) are a Sri Lankan staple: thin and lacy at the edges, soft and slightly spongy in the middle, and just as good at breakfast as they are at dinner.
Variations of coconut fish curry abound up and down the Swahili Coast, so much so that the dish is often broadly referred to as East African fish curry. This version of coconut fish curry leans heavily on xawaash, a spice blend that is at the heart of Somali cuisine. This Is my malaay qumbe, coconut fish curry. Variations of coconut fish curry can be found all throughout East Africa.
Your spice cabinet is like a passport of sorts, allowing you to sample the flavors and ingredients of different cuisines and cook dishes from around the globe. As such, building a robust collection of both staple spices, and more underrated and unique ones is important. If you're shopping for new additions to step up your seasoning game, look no further than garam masala and ras el hanout. Although these spice mixes may have similar colors and ingredients, there are some major differences between the two that warrant adding both to your spice cabinet.
Here's a healthy dinner idea that's so hearty and satisfying, it will please everyone around the table: this Moroccan Chickpea Stew! It's ultra flavorful: the sweet potatoes get tender and creamy, the chickpeas soak up all those gorgeous spices, and everything comes together in one pot. I love serving this stew with quinoa for a tasty plant based dinner that's also gluten free. If you like, a dollop of Greek yogurt: and most definitely a squeeze of lemon to brighten the flavors!
The first whiff of garam masala, for example, might transport you back to a wonderful meal that you had at your favorite Indian restaurant last weekend. Curry powder, on the other hand, despite bearing the word "curry" in its title - which is what you ordered at the Indian restaurant, right? - is unlikely to awaken such a connection. Its aroma might, however, remind you of dishes coming from countries like Jamaica, Thailand, and Japan.
And it makes sense, as Indian culture and cuisine are alive and well in the city - Washington is one of the top states of residence for Indian immigrants, and Seattle itself is among the U.S. metropolitan areas with the highest number of Indian-Americans. Meanwhile, the state offers great growing conditions for Indian staples such as rice, lentils, chickpeas, eggplant, okra, onions, peas, potatoes, and much more.
Khan started Darjeeling Express as a pop-up at Soho pub The Sun & 13 Cantons in 2014 before taking on a permanent site in Kingly Court. She decided not to reopen there post-lockdown and chose instead to move the restaurant to a bigger site in Covent Garden, where she stayed until the summer of 2022. Following another pop-up stint, this time in west London, Khan moved Darjeeling Express back to Kingly Court at the beginning of 2023.
This creamy Spinach Lentil Curry is comforting, richly spiced without being heavy and made with just a few pantry staple ingredients in about 30 minutes. Prep Time: 10 minutes. Cook Time: 20 minutes. Servings: Makes 4 servings of approximately 1.5 cups each. Nutrition: 269 calories with 17g protein + 19g fibre. Dietary Info: Vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free. Difficulty: Easy! One-pan recipe with minimal ingredients and prep needed.
The paratha ($18), a beautifully single, hella-fluffed and towering round, sits on top of creamy dal where the sambal oil adds some nice heat. The abacus seeds ($24), where soft, earthy gnocchi made with taro are paired with smoky and chewy mushrooms, and amped up with chile and shaoxing wine. The rendang ($34) comes with pulled stewy spicy smoky oxtail (Kelang's Caribbean influence), rounded out with a delightful rice mixture of djon djon (a Haitian black mushroom rice) and nasi ulam (Malaysian herbed rice).
A true one-pot meal, this Indian-spiced rice is made with store-bought spicy simmer sauce, paired with tofu and cauliflower. It's hearty, filling and you can load it up with a range of herbs or crunchy nuts as toppings. We are staying in a little loft in San Francisco right now, trying to find our next place to live. The kitchen is tiny: two electric burners, a microwave, roughly 2 feet of counter space.
My better half was quite used to me waking up on a Sunday morning and saying, "I think we'll go to Cork today, or London." Indeed, on one occasion it was France, as the BBC weather forecast informed me that it was "calm down around the Lizard", and so would be a perfectly calm sailing from Rosslare to Cherbourg. Ringing Irish Ferries to make a booking, the somewhat startled chap had said "Do you realise, missus, it's now 11am and the boat sails at 4pm?"
Entering Korai Kitchen in Jersey City for its weekly Dawat dinner series feels like entering owner and chef Nur-E Gulshan Rahman and daughter Nur-E Farhana Rahman's home. "Dawat" is the Bengali word for "invitation," and people are invited to partake in the family's only dine-in service, a three-hour BYOB meal full of homestyle, halal, Bangladeshi food by way of Dhaka for $95. "This is my mom's interpretation of Bangladeshi food," Nur-E Farhana explains during the meal.
