Foodbook

Cacio e Pepe

Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Three ingredients — pasta, pecorino, black pepper — and a window of about ninety seconds to get them to behave.

Carbonara

Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Eggs, cheese, pepper, cured pork — the four-ingredient Roman that refuses to forgive you.

Pesto

Sun, 10 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Green sauce, mortar and pestle, peak basil — a fifteen-minute counterweight to the six-hour ragù.

Risotto Milanese

Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Saffron, rice, marrow — the Milanese dish that gilds the plate with the world's most expensive spice.

Margherita

Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Tomato, mozzarella, basil — three colours of the flag on a 90-second flatbread.

Tonkotsu

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Pork bones, twelve hours, a hard boil — milky-white broth that started as bones and water and ends as the heaviest soup in Japan.

Lasagne

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Green spinach pasta, beef-and-pork ragù finished with milk, besciamella, parmigiano — the Bolognese baked pasta and the model for every other lasagne.

Mapo Tofu

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Numbing, spicy, oil-red — the Sichuan dish that taught the world the word mala.

Tiramisù

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Coffee-soaked ladyfingers, yolk-and-mascarpone cream, cocoa dusting — the Italian dessert that conquered the world in thirty years.

Miso Soup

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Dashi, miso, tofu, wakame — Japan's daily breakfast bowl, built on a broth that won't tolerate a boil.

Coq au Vin

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A tough old rooster and a bottle of Burgundy, given two hours to come to an understanding.

Tempura

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Ice-cold batter, hot oil, lacy crust — a Japanese refinement of a Portuguese technique.

Pad Thai

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Sour-salty-sweet rice noodles, finished at the table with lime, peanut, and chili — Thailand's most-exported dish.

Jiaozi

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Pork-and-chive dumplings — northern China's New Year food, the ancestor of every potsticker, gyoza, and pierogi cousin.

Al Pastor

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Mexico's most famous taco — a Lebanese shawarma spit, transplanted to Puebla, dressed in chiles and pineapple.

Yangzhou Fried Rice

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Cold rice, hot wok, char siu and shrimp — the canonical Chinese fried rice and the standard every other version measures against.

Butter Chicken

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Delhi, 1950s — tandoori chicken meets a tomato-cream gravy and travels around the world.

Boeuf Bourguignon

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Beef chuck, Burgundy, lardons, pearl onions, mushrooms — the French peasant braise that became *haute cuisine* through Julia Child's translator.

Peking Duck

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The dish that engineers a bird — air-dried skin, mahogany glaze, three courses from one duck.

Ratatouille

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Provençal summer vegetables — eggplant, zucchini, peppers, tomato — each cooked separately, folded together, eaten the next day.

Hummus

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Cooked chickpeas, tahini, lemon, garlic — a dish that argues with itself across borders and still tastes the same in every kitchen.

Guacamole

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Hass avocado, white onion, serrano, cilantro, lime, salt — the Mexican five-ingredient table dish, eaten in the fifteen minutes after it's made.

Green Curry

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Thai green curry — the coconut-fat-suspension dish that lives or dies by whether you cracked the cream.

Paella

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Chicken, rabbit, two beans, saffron — the rice dish that Valencia wrote and the rest of the world misquoted.

Tandoori Chicken

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Yogurt-marinated bone-in chicken char-roasted in a 500°C clay oven (or the closest a home kitchen can manage).

Bouillabaisse

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Marseille's saffron-and-orange fish stew — a fisherman's leftover dish that grew into a Provençal institution with a written charter.

Tabbouleh

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A parsley salad with bulgur — not the reverse. Beirut's standard mezze, fragrant with mint and lemon.

Tortilla Española

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Potato, egg, onion, olive oil, salt — five ingredients into Spain's universal bar-counter wedge.

Nigiri

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

A finger of seasoned rice and a slice of fish — Edo-period fast food that became the standard by which all other one-bite dishes are judged.

Crème Brûlée

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Vanilla custard set in a bain-marie, demerara sugar caramelised under a blowtorch to a hard amber shell.

Mole Poblano

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Puebla's brown-black-velvet sauce — chiles, seeds, nuts, fruit, spices, chocolate — the most complex single dish in the Americas.

Tom Yum

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Hot, sour, salty, sweet — Thailand's most famous soup, built on shrimp heads and a triangle of lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaf.

Köttbullar

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Swedish meatballs — beef-pork blend, cream gravy with a splash of soy, lingonberry jam on the side.

Gravlax

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Salt, sugar, dill, time — Scandinavian fishermen's preservation, modernised into a brunch staple.

Kung Pao

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Sichuan stir-fry of cubed chicken, dried chiles, Sichuan pepper, peanuts — mala balanced, dark-vinegar sauced.

Biryani

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Hyderabadi dum biryani — raw meat marinated in spiced yogurt, layered with par-cooked basmati, sealed under dough, and cooked entirely by trapped steam.

Falafel

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Raw soaked chickpeas, fistfuls of fresh herbs, a hot fryer — the Levantine street snack that travels everywhere and stays recognisably itself.

Saag Paneer

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Punjabi spinach-and-fresh-cheese curry — the vegetarian Indian dish most often quoted, often misnamed *palak paneer*.

Gazpacho

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Cold tomato-and-bread soup from Andalusia — drunk from a glass on a hot afternoon, eaten from a bowl at lunch.

Adobo

Meat braised in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaf — the Philippines' national-dish-by-default, with as many versions as households.

Bak Kut Teh

Pork ribs simmered for hours in a peppery garlic broth (Singapore Teochew style) or a dark herbal medicinal broth (Klang Hokkien style) — the breakfast dish that takes itself seriously.

Banh Mi

A French baguette colonised by a Vietnamese pantry — pâté, cold cuts, pickled daikon and carrot, cilantro, chili, in a crackling crust.

Beef Noodle Soup

Slow-braised beef shank and tendon in a soy-spice-Sichuan-chili broth, over hand-pulled wheat noodles — Taipei's most-defended dish.

Bibimbap

Rice, vegetables, gochujang, an egg — a Korean bowl that's photographed for its arrangement and eaten by mixing it apart.

Bulgogi

Thin-sliced beef in a soy-pear-sesame marinade, grilled fast at the table — the dish that taught the world Korean BBQ.

Bun Bo Hue

A spicy lemongrass-and-shrimp-paste beef broth with round rice noodles, beef shank, pork knuckle, and a chili-oil slick — Hue's rival to pho and arguably the better soup.

Bun Cha

Grilled pork patties and slices in a bowl of warm fish-sauce dressing, rice vermicelli on the side, fresh herbs by the handful — Hanoi's lunchtime institution.

Char Kway Teow

Flat rice noodles seared in pork lard with prawns, cockles, Chinese sausage, egg, chives, and bean sprouts — Penang's smoky wok-breath noodle, the Singapore-Malaysian hawker king.

Char Siu

Cantonese honey-glazed barbecued pork — mahogany red, sticky-charred edges, hung over a fire on long forks ("fork-roasted").

Char Siu Bao

Soft white steamed buns filled with diced sweet-savoury char siu pork — the Cantonese dim sum bun that turned the leftover roast pork into a second dish.