The spices are merely a vessel for culture, community, storytelling, and politics. The recipes were so fresh, simple, and seasonal. That's not the version of South Asian food that most people know.
Pary Baban's journey to promote Kurdish cuisine began with her first London restaurant, where she faced skepticism about the recognition of Kurdish food. She believed that if she didn't advocate for it, no one would, emphasizing the need to put Kurdish food on the map.
Every spring, Jews all over the world gather together to celebrate Passover, which celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. They read the Haggadah, the story of the Jews' escape, and eat a variety of traditional foods that make up the Seder meal.
The most important thing for me is to highlight every part of our history, whether it's beautiful or ugly, bad or good. Haitian cuisine has developed through colonization, slavery, and centuries of poverty, and Salomon wants to acknowledge that history while telling nation's story through food.
Scotch eggs are a pub food delicacy - a soft-boiled egg wrapped in a thin layer of sausage, coated in breadcrumbs, and then deep fried until crisp and delicious, ideally with a yolk in the center that is still runny. They are as heavy in the hand as they sit in the belly, a classic British dish that sticks to the ribs and girds one against the cold grey drizzle.
Venezuelan cuisine is a vibrant melting pot of its cultural influences, where Indigenous roots, African heritage, and Spanish flavors come together to create rich, satisfying dishes packed with character. Venezuela's food scene shares many similarities with those from other Latin American countries, but focuses more on building layers of sweet, savory, and tangy depth rather than turning up the heat with bold spices.
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.
At the center of the physical space - a fomer Café Cerés location near Minnehaha Falls - stands a gold-tiled structural pillar that the owners want to turn into a literal pillar of the community. Customers snap Polaroids, tack them to the pillar and add handwritten notes about where they're from or their hopes for the future. The goal is to eventually cover the entire surface.
The "best" meatballs do not exist, at least according to Elvira, who is not technically a nonna. Though she did fit a particular American idea of the "nonna" with her stern rebukes about the tiny departures I took from her meatball recipe. She had hurried over to her daughter's friend's home on a Thursday night with short notice when she learned that a journalist would be in Rome trying to find the absolute best way to make Roman-style meatballs.
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.
The spicy lamb grinder is a variation on Bar Gernika's lamb grinder, which combines some of the best aspects of a gyro, French dip, and cheesesteak into one flavor-packed sandwich. Served on crusty and fluffy French bread, the lamb is tender and thinly shaved, reminiscent of shaved meat from a gyro. The meat is topped with cheese, grilled onions, and peppers, and the whole thing comes served with a side of au jus for that French dip experience.
The capital of my home country, and the location of my new restaurant, Marcus Addis Restaurant & Sky Bar, is both the center of Ethiopia and a core component of our nation's culture. Restaurants and artistic institutions go hand and hand in Addis. Here, galleries, museums, and markets come together to create a steady, electric rhythm that comes alive in the city's restaurants and kitchens.
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.
The sauce alone packs a punch with its tangy and savory sweetness, carrying the simmered warmth of molasses, brown sugar, vinegar, and tomato-based condiments. It's a seamless blend into the pasta's own hearty base, further highlighting all of the dish's existing goodness. Then you've got the beans, adding bulk along with nutty and earthy notes as they cling onto the al dente pasta.
The best restaurants in Albuquerque tell a greater story of this city and state. Albuquerque's rich blend of traditional New Mexican cuisine and Route 66 roadside fare has evolved into one of the most unexpectedly diverse dining scenes in the Southwest. The Duke City's working-class vibes and demographic breadth has led to a tremendous spread of establishments- from hole-in-the-wall lunch spots to James Beard-recognized fine dining joints defining their own categories of place-based cuisine. So whether you're in pursuit of dishes that will transport your tastebuds around the world, or simply looking to sink your teeth into the best huevos rancheros or handheld burrito in the city, you can find it all here in the heart of the Land of Enchantment.
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.
Northern Italian cooking is built for long meals, cold weather, and patience, which is exactly the sort of food you want when settling in for hours of competition. From Lombardy and Piedmont to Emilia-Romagna and Liguria, these regions favor slow braises, creamy risottos, rich broths, and breads meant to be torn and shared. Whether you're feeding a crowd or committing to a cozy afternoon
When Araceli Maldonado, a Mexican baker in London, read on Instagram that British chef Richard Hart had said that Mexico didn't have a bread culture, she felt a pang of sadness. On her last trip back home, she decided to visit the bakery that Hart had opened in the heart of the Roma neighborhood in Mexico City.