Appetizers
Silky Hummus
Silky, pourable hummus with far more tahini than most recipes dare, whipped for five minutes with ice water. Peeling…
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Appetizers recipes
Small plates, dips and things to hand round with a drink. 204 tested recipes, ranked by what readers cook most.
Appetizers recipes — all 204 recipes
Appetizers
Authentic Guacamole
The Mexican original is made in a molcajete and contains no garlic, no cumin and no soured cream — just avocado…
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Appetizers
Buffalo Wings
The Anchor Bar original, baked rather than fried using a baking powder trick that makes the skin crackle like it…
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Appetizers
Chicken Karaage
Japan's definitive fried chicken: thigh meat marinated in soy, sake and ginger, dusted in potato starch and fried…
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Appetizers
Steamed Pork Dumplings
Juicy jiaozi with a hand-rolled wrapper thick at the centre and thin at the edge — the shape that stops the base…
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Appetizers
Punjabi Samosas
Properly made samosas have a blistered, flaky shell that stays crisp for hours — the result of a stiff dough…
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Appetizers
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Shredded chicken, cream cheese, ranch and hot sauce baked until bubbling. Invented in Buffalo, adopted by every…
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Appetizers
Loaded Nachos
The real thing, not a pile of chips with sauce poured over: every chip laid out individually, each one bearing its…
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Appetizers
Paneer Tikka
Cubes of paneer marinated in spiced yoghurt, threaded with peppers and onion, and charred hard under a grill until…
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Appetizers
Chicken Satay
Chicken marinated in turmeric and lemongrass, threaded onto skewers, grilled over charcoal, and served with a peanut…
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Appetizers
Deviled Eggs
Hard-boiled eggs halved, the yolks whipped smooth with mayonnaise and mustard and piped back in. The most reliably…
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Appetizers
Pork Gyoza
Pan-fried pork dumplings with a lacy crisp base and a juicy, cabbage-sweet filling. The steam-fry technique gives…
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Appetizers
Tzatziki
Thick strained yogurt, grated cucumber squeezed dry, garlic, dill and good olive oil. Made properly it is dense…
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Appetizers
Napa Cabbage Kimchi
Napa cabbage salted, coated in a chilli and fermented seafood paste, and left to ferment until it fizzes. Two days…
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Appetizers
Scallion Pancakes
Layered flatbreads made from a hot-water dough, rolled with oil and spring onion, coiled and flattened so they fry…
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Appetizers
Gỏi Cuốn (Fresh Spring Rolls)
Rice paper rolls packed with prawns, pork, herbs and vermicelli, served cold with peanut dipping sauce. Nothing is…
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Appetizers
Crispy Spring Rolls
Shatteringly crisp vegetable spring rolls with a filling that stays crunchy inside the wrapper. Cooling the filling…
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Appetizers
Belgian Frites
Fried twice in beef dripping — once low to cook, once hot to crisp — and served in a paper cone with mayonnaise.
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Appetizers
Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken
Marinated chicken chunks coated in sweet potato starch, fried twice, and tossed with salt, white pepper and fried…
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Appetizers
Beef Empanadas
Argentinian empanadas with a juicy, gently spiced beef filling, olives and egg, baked in a short pastry that stays…
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Appetizers
Xiao Long Bao
Shanghai soup dumplings: pleated parcels holding pork and a mouthful of hot broth, created by folding chilled aspic…
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Appetizers
Mozzarella Sticks
Batons of low-moisture mozzarella double-breaded and frozen solid before frying, so the crust sets before the cheese…
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Appetizers
Seekh Kebab
Spiced minced lamb moulded onto skewers and cooked over coals, kept juicy by fat, papaya paste and a rest in the…
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Appetizers
Tomato Bruschetta
Charred bread rubbed hard with raw garlic, doused in olive oil, and piled with tomatoes that have been salted just…
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Patatas Bravas
Twice-cooked potatoes with a shattering exterior and a fluffy interior, under a smoky brava sauce that carries…
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Appetizers
Peruvian Ceviche
Firm white fish cured for ten minutes in lime juice with chilli, red onion and coriander, served immediately with…
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Appetizers
Elote — Mexican Street Corn
Charred corn slathered in crema and mayonnaise, rolled in salty cotija and dusted with chilli and lime. It is the…
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Appetizers
Jamón Croquetas
A very thick béchamel studded with jamón, chilled overnight, rolled, crumbed and fried so the outside is crisp and…
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Appetizers
Maryland Crab Cakes
Maryland crab cakes are mostly crab: just enough binder to hold them, Old Bay for seasoning, and a grill rather than…
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Appetizers
Beer-Battered Onion Rings
Thick onion rings in a beer batter that fries into a light, blistered shell. The carbonation and the alcohol both do…
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Appetizers
Misal Pav
Sprouted moth beans in a thin, fiery gravy, topped with farsan, raw onion and coriander, with a slick of red rassa…
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Appetizers
Caprese Salad
Three ingredients in the colours of the Italian flag, which means there is nowhere to hide. Ripe tomatoes at room…
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Appetizers
Gambas al Ajillo
Prawns sizzled in olive oil with a great deal of garlic and dried chilli, served bubbling in the same dish with…
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Appetizers
Coxinha
Shredded chicken and cream cheese wrapped in a dough made from chicken stock and flour, shaped like a teardrop…
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Appetizers
Beef Suya
Thin beef skewers coated in yaji, a spice mix built on ground peanuts, chilli and ginger, grilled over coals and…
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Appetizers
Scotch Eggs
Soft-boiled eggs wrapped in seasoned sausage meat, breadcrumbed and fried until the crust is deep gold and the yolk…
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Appetizers
Char Siu Bao
Cantonese steamed barbecue pork buns: a snow-white, faintly sweet dough that bursts open at the top to reveal sticky…
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Appetizers
Queso Fundido
Melted cheese in a hot skillet with chorizo and roasted chillies, brought to the table still bubbling and scooped…
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Appetizers
Colombian Empanadas
Corn dough shells filled with potato and shredded beef, deep fried until the outside is crackly and deep yellow…
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Appetizers
Baba Ganoush
Aubergine charred directly over a flame until the skin is black and the flesh collapses, then whipped with tahini…
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Appetizers
Salt and Pepper Squid
Squid in a light cornflour crust, flash fried and tossed with chilli, garlic and toasted salt and pepper. A…
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Appetizers
Pan con Tomate
Toasted bread rubbed with a cut tomato and garlic, dressed with olive oil and salt. Four ingredients, and the…
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Appetizers
Chả Giò
Vietnamese fried spring rolls wrapped in rice paper rather than wheat wrappers, which gives a blistered, bubbly…
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Appetizers
Spanakopita
Spinach and feta between shattering layers of filo, brushed generously with olive oil and butter. The trick is…
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Appetizers
Labneh with Za'atar
Yoghurt strained through cloth for a day until it is thick enough to hold a spoon upright, spread on a plate, pooled…
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Appetizers
Crispy Vegetable Tempura
Tempura batter should be lumpy, ice-cold and barely mixed — everything you would consider wrong in any other batter…
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Appetizers
Yakitori Chicken Skewers
Charcoal-grilled chicken skewers lacquered in a tare that gets richer every time you use it. The Japanese izakaya…
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Appetizers
Haemul Pajeon
A large, shaggy pancake of spring onions and seafood, fried until the edges are lacy and crisp. Eaten on rainy days…
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Appetizers
Cheese Börek
Layers of filo or yufka with a feta and parsley filling, rolled into coils or layered in a tray and baked until…
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Appetizers
Vegetable Pakoras
Onion, potato and spinach bound in a spiced gram flour batter and fried into craggy, shatteringly crisp clusters…
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Appetizers
Takoyaki
Osaka's street-food icon: molten batter spheres with a nugget of octopus at the centre, turned with a skewer in a…
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Appetizers
Provoleta
A thick disc of provolone cooked in a cast iron pan until the bottom is a crust and the middle is molten, scattered…
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Appetizers
Sicilian Caponata
Sicilian sweet-and-sour aubergine with celery, olives and capers, finished with vinegar and sugar. Served at room…
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Appetizers
Moutabal
Aubergine charred whole over a flame until it collapses, then whipped with tahini, lemon and garlic into a smoky…
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Appetizers
Greek Keftedes
Greek meatballs bound with bread soaked in wine, scented with mint and oregano, and fried until dark. Eaten hot with…
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Appetizers
Gravlax
Salmon cured for two days under salt, sugar and a great deal of dill, then sliced paper-thin and served with a sweet…
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Appetizers
Aguachile
Raw prawns cured in minutes in lime juice blitzed with green chilli and coriander, layered with cucumber and red…
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Appetizers
Bitterballen
A stiff beef ragout chilled solid, rolled into balls, breadcrumbed and deep fried until the outside is crisp and the…
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Appetizers
Dolmades
Vine leaves rolled around rice, herbs, onion and pine nuts, packed tight in a pot and simmered under a plate with…
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Appetizers
Saganaki
A slab of hard sheep's cheese floured and fried until the outside is a crust and the inside is molten, hit with…
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Appetizers
Pulpo a la Gallega
Octopus boiled until tender, sliced into coins, and dressed with olive oil, coarse salt and a heavy dusting of…
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Appetizers
Agedashi Tofu
Silken tofu dusted in potato starch, deep fried until the outside is a thin crackling shell, and served in warm…
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Appetizers
Sopes
Thick masa discs with a pinched rim, griddled then lightly fried, and piled with beans, meat, lettuce, crema and…
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Appetizers
Coquilles Saint-Jacques
Scallops poached in wine, folded into a mushroom velouté, piped back into their shells under Gruyère and browned. A…
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Appetizers
Causa Limeña
Cold layers of yellow potato mashed with lime and ají amarillo, packed around a chicken or crab filling and turned…
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Appetizers
Sicilian Arancini
Sicilian rice balls with a molten mozzarella and ragù heart, breadcrumbed and fried until they shatter…
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Appetizers
Pissaladière
Nice's answer to pizza: a bread base under a thick layer of onions cooked down for an hour until they are sweet and…
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Appetizers
Vitello Tonnato
Cold poached veal under a sauce of tuna, anchovy and capers blended into mayonnaise. It sounds wrong on paper and is…
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Appetizers
Kelewele
Ripe plantain cut into cubes, tossed with ginger, chilli, cloves and anise, and deep fried until the edges…
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Appetizers
Lo Bak Go
Grated daikon bound with rice flour and studded with dried shrimp, Chinese sausage and mushroom, steamed into a loaf…
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Appetizers
Toast Skagen
Prawns folded into dill mayonnaise with a squeeze of lemon, piled on a round of butter-fried bread and topped with…
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Appetizers
Chawanmushi
A savoury egg custard steamed in a lidded cup, holding prawn, chicken and ginkgo nuts suspended in a set so delicate…
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Appetizers
Tunisian Brik
A sheet of malsouka pastry folded around tuna, capers, parsley and a whole raw egg, then deep fried so the yolk is…
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Appetizers
Chickpea Socca
A single thick pancake of chickpea flour, olive oil and water, baked fierce in a heavy pan until the edges blister —…
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Appetizers
Smoked Mackerel Pâté
Smoked mackerel beaten with cottage cheese, lemon and horseradish into a coarse pâté — twelve minutes, no cooking…
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Appetizers
Air Fryer Chicken Wings
Shatteringly crisp wings with no deep-frying and no batter. Baking powder on dry skin is the whole trick, and it…
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Appetizers
Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Hot, thick and properly cheesy, with every drop of water squeezed out of the spinach first. That one step is the…
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Appetizers
Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
Real buttermilk, fresh herbs and no packet. Ten minutes to make and it needs an hour in the fridge before it tastes…
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Appetizers
Quick Refrigerator Pickles
Cucumbers in a hot brine, in the fridge, ready by dinner. Not preserved and not shelf-stable — just crisp, sharp and…
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Appetizers
Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus
Bundles of five spears in a spiral of stretched bacon, roasted hot so the bacon crisps at the same moment the…
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Appetizers
Chana Chaat
Chickpeas tossed with raw onion, tomato, chaat masala and tamarind, assembled in ten minutes and eaten within…
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Appetizers
Muhammara
Roasted red peppers and walnuts ground to a coarse paste with pomegranate molasses and chilli. Aleppo’s dip rather…
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Appetizers
Batata Harra
Fried potato cubes tossed off the heat with a raw paste of garlic, coriander and chilli. The point is that the…
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Appetizers
Warak Enab
Vine leaves rolled around rice, tomato, parsley and mint, packed tight into a pot and cooked in lemon and oil. The…
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Appetizers
Makdous
Baby aubergines boiled soft, stuffed with walnuts, garlic and chilli, then packed under olive oil. A preserve rather…
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Appetizers
Shanklish Salad
A dry, sharp, thyme-rolled cheese crumbled over tomato and onion and dressed with oil. Shanklish is aged to the…
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Appetizers
Toum
Garlic and oil beaten to a stiff white emulsion with nothing else in it but lemon and salt. No egg, no dairy — the…
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Appetizers
Sambousek
Half-moon pastries of spiced lamb and pine nuts, fried until blistered. The dough is made with oil rather than…
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Appetizers
Spinach Fatayer
Triangular spinach pies, sharp with sumac and lemon, sealed so they hold their shape. The filling is never cooked…
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Appetizers
Cheese Rakakat
Cigarettes of filo around salty white cheese, fried until they blister. The cheese has to be one that softens…
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Appetizers
Balila
Warm chickpeas in their own liquor with cumin, garlic and lemon. Sold from carts for breakfast and about as simple…
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Appetizers
Maghmour
Aubergine and chickpeas stewed down in tomato and garlic until everything collapses. Often called Lebanese moussaka…
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Appetizers
Loubieh bi Zeit
Green beans braised soft in tomato and olive oil. Not blanched, not crisp — cooked until they give completely, which…
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Appetizers
Hummus Beiruti
The rougher city version: chickpeas left coarse, cut through with parsley, chilli and pickle. Made to be eaten as a…
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Appetizers
Fried Kibbeh
Torpedoes of bulgur and lean lamb, hollowed by hand, filled with spiced mince and pine nuts, and fried. The hardest…
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Appetizers
Salatet Raheb
The monk's salad: aubergine burned over a flame until it collapses, then chopped rough with tomato, onion and lemon…
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Appetizers
Carrot and Tahini Salad
Raw grated carrot dressed with a loosened tahini sauce and a lot of lemon. A five-minute salad that gets on the…
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Appetizers
Ta'ameya
Egypt's falafel, and a genuinely different thing from the Levantine one: split broad beans rather than chickpeas, a…
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Appetizers
Besara
Broad beans cooked to a purée with an enormous quantity of green herbs, poured out flat and topped with fried onion…
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Appetizers
Salata Baladi
The chopped country salad that arrives with everything: tomato, cucumber, onion and pepper cut small, dressed with…
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Appetizers
Egyptian Tahina
The Egyptian tahini sauce, thinner and sharper than the Levantine one, cut with vinegar as well as lemon and always…
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Appetizers
Baba Ghanoug Masri
The Egyptian version, which is a salad rather than a purée: charred aubergine chopped rough and mixed with tomato…
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Torshi
The pink pickled turnips that come free with every plate of ta'ameya in Egypt. Beetroot does the colouring; the…
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Appetizers
Betengan Mekhalel
Small aubergines boiled, stuffed with garlic, chilli and pepper, and kept under oil and vinegar. Sharper and hotter…
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Appetizers
Batates Mohammara
Potatoes roasted hard with cumin, coriander and a lot of garlic until the edges go almost black. Sold from carts by…
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Appetizers
Dukkah
Toasted nuts, seeds and spices pounded to a dry rubble, eaten by dipping bread in oil and then in the dukkah. Every…
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Appetizers
Renga
Smoked herring flaked and dressed with lemon, oil and raw onion, eaten at Sham el-Nessim with spring onions and…
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Appetizers
Gebna Domiati Salad
The soft white brined cheese of Damietta, cubed with tomato, cucumber and oil into a breakfast salad. Salty enough…
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Appetizers
Batarekh
Grey mullet roe, salted and pressed and dried into a hard amber block, sliced paper-thin with oil and lemon. Egypt…
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Appetizers
Harissa
Dried chillies rehydrated and pounded with garlic, caraway and coriander seed into a coarse red paste. Nothing like…
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Slata Tounsia
Tomato, cucumber, pepper and onion cut very small and dressed with olive oil and lemon. The Tunisian cut is finer…
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Omek Houria
Carrots boiled soft, crushed with harissa, garlic and caraway, and eaten cold with bread. The name means "your…
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Appetizers
Salata Blankit
Warm potato salad with harissa, capers and olives and no mayonnaise anywhere. Dressed while hot so the potato takes…
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Appetizers
Doigts de Fatma
Fatma's fingers: malsouka pastry rolled around cheese, parsley and meat and fried into crisp cigars. The same pastry…
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Appetizers
Céleri Rémoulade
Raw celeriac cut into matchsticks and bound in a mustard-heavy mayonnaise. The most ordered starter in France and…
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Appetizers
Poireaux Vinaigrette
Whole leeks poached until completely soft, pressed, and dressed while warm with a mustard vinaigrette. Served cold…
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Œufs Mayonnaise
Halved boiled eggs under a blanket of proper mayonnaise. There is a French society dedicated to defending it, which…
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Appetizers
Carottes Râpées
Grated carrot in a lemon and mustard dressing with parsley. Two minutes of work, and the only variable that matters…
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Salade de Lentilles
Green lentils dressed hot with mustard vinaigrette and shallot. Puy lentils if you can, because they hold their…
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Appetizers
Gougères
Choux buns with cheese beaten through, baked until hollow and eaten warm with a glass of something cold. Burgundy…
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Rillettes de Porc
Pork shoulder cooked for hours in its own fat until it can be pulled to threads, packed into a pot and sealed. A…
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Terrine de Campagne
A coarse country pâté of pork, liver and fat baked in a bain-marie and pressed overnight. Rustic on purpose — you…
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Jambon Persillé
Ham set in a parsley jelly made from its own cooking stock, from Burgundy. Turned out and sliced, and the parsley…
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Escargots à la Bourguignonne
Snails baked under garlic and parsley butter until it bubbles over the shells. The butter is the recipe; the snails…
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Tapenade
Black olives, capers, anchovy and garlic pounded to a rough paste. Named for the capers — tapena — which everyone…
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Anchoïade
Anchovies melted into olive oil with garlic and served warm for dipping raw vegetables into. Three ingredients and…
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Aïoli
Garlic pounded to a cream and emulsified with olive oil, sometimes with a yolk to help it. Provence eats it with…
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Brandade de Morue
Salt cod beaten with potato, garlic, oil and milk into a warm purée. Nîmes makes it without potato and everyone else…
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Œufs en Meurette
Eggs poached in red wine and served on fried bread under a sauce made from the same wine. Burgundy taking the…
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Saucisson en Brioche
A poaching sausage baked inside brioche. Lyon, and the trick is that the sausage is cooked and cooled before it is…
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Bagna Cauda
A hot bath of anchovy, garlic and oil kept warm at the table for dipping raw vegetables into. Piedmont in November…
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Carpaccio di Manzo
Raw beef beaten paper-thin under a mustard mayonnaise, rocket and parmesan. Invented at Harry's Bar in Venice for a…
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Baccalà Mantecato
Salt cod beaten with oil until it turns into a pale, fluffy cream. No potato, no garlic — Venice is firm about both.
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Sarde in Saor
Fried sardines buried in sweet-sour onions with pine nuts and raisins. Venetian sailors' food, and it needs two days…
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Insalata di Mare
Squid, prawns and mussels dressed with nothing but lemon, oil, garlic and parsley. Every element cooked separately…
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Fritto Misto
Seafood dusted in semolina flour and fried for a minute. The coating is nearly invisible, which is the difference…
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Carciofi alla Romana
Artichokes braised upside down in oil, water and a great deal of mint until they can be cut with a spoon. Roman…
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Carciofi alla Giudia
Artichokes flattened into a bronze flower and fried twice, from the Roman Jewish ghetto. The outer leaves should…
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Fiori di Zucca Fritti
Courgette flowers filled with ricotta and mozzarella, dipped in a thin batter and fried. The batter should be barely…
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Supplì
Roman rice croquettes with a piece of mozzarella at the centre that pulls into a thread when you bite it. Supplì al…
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Panelle
Chickpea flour cooked into a paste, set flat, cut into squares and fried. Palermo eats them in a bread roll, which…
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Giardiniera
Hard vegetables blanched and packed under vinegar and oil. Every Italian household has a jar and no two agree on…
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Farinata
A chickpea flour pancake baked screaming hot in a copper pan until the top blisters. Genoa eats it standing up, with…
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Potted Shrimps
Tiny brown shrimps set in spiced butter and turned out on toast. Morecambe Bay has sent them south since the…
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Devils on Horseback
Prunes stuffed with almonds, wrapped in bacon and grilled until it crackles. The savoury that survived, mostly…
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Angels on Horseback
Oysters in bacon, grilled hot and eaten on toast. The other half of the Victorian savoury pair, and much older than…
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Scotch Woodcock
Scrambled egg on anchovy toast, and there has never been any woodcock in it. Churchill ate it, the House of Commons…
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Jellied Eels
Eel poached in a spiced stock that sets to a clear jelly as it cools. East London has eaten them from a bowl with…
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Piccalilli
Cauliflower, onion and cucumber in a sharp turmeric-yellow mustard sauce, made from vegetables kept deliberately…
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Pickled Onions
Small onions in spiced malt vinegar, sharp enough to make your eyes water. Six weeks in the jar and they will keep…
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Cumberland Sauce
Redcurrant jelly loosened with port and sharpened with orange, mustard and ginger. Cold, clear, and the correct…
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Soused Herring
Herring fillets rolled and baked slowly in spiced vinegar, then left to go cold. Sharp, soft-boned, and a week in…
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Dressed Crab
A crab picked and returned to its own shell, brown meat one side, white the other. An hour of fiddly work and the…
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Appetizers
Devilled Whitebait
Tiny whole fish tossed in cayenne flour and fried until they rattle. Eaten by the handful, heads and all, with lemon…
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Potted Cheese
Hard cheese beaten with butter, mace and port and sealed under more butter. Eighteenth-century, requires no cooking…
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Har Gow
Crystal-skinned prawn dumplings with at least ten pleats, steamed until the wrapper turns translucent. The dish a…
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Siu Mai
Open-topped pork and prawn dumplings in a yellow wrapper, finished with a dot of roe. The other half of the dim sum…
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Cheung Fun
Sheets of rice batter steamed on a tray, rolled around prawns or beef and dressed in sweetened soy. The most…
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Chicken Feet in Black Bean Sauce
Chicken feet deep-fried, soaked until they puff, then braised in black bean and steamed. Three stages, two days, and…
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Appetizers
Sheng Jian Bao
Shanghai buns with a crisp fried base and soup inside, cooked base-down in a covered pan and finished with sesame…
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Appetizers
Smashed Cucumber Salad
Cucumber hit with the flat of a cleaver until it splits, salted, drained and dressed in garlic and vinegar. Fifteen…
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Appetizers
Bang Bang Chicken
Poached chicken torn into shreds under a sesame and chilli sauce. Named for the stick used to beat the meat loose…
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Appetizers
Century Egg with Cold Tofu
Century eggs on cold silken tofu with soy, chilli oil and a great deal of coriander. Assembly only, five minutes…
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Drunken Chicken
Poached chicken steeped for a day in Shaoxing wine and its own jellied stock, then sliced cold. Shanghai in summer…
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Red Oil Wontons
Pork wontons under a slick of red chilli oil, black vinegar and garlic. Sichuan's answer to the soup version, and…
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Marbled Tea Eggs
Hard-boiled eggs cracked all over and simmered in tea, soy and star anise until the shell pattern shows through as…
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Wood Ear Salad
Rehydrated wood ear fungus in black vinegar, garlic and chilli oil. Almost no calories, no cooking to speak of, and…
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Sichuan Chilli Oil
Hot oil poured over chilli flakes and spices in stages, so the sediment toasts without burning. Fifteen minutes, and…
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XO Sauce
Dried scallop and shrimp shredded and fried with chilli, ham and garlic until crisp. Invented in a Hong Kong hotel…
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Chilli Paneer
Battered paneer tossed with peppers and onion in a dark, glossy soy and chilli sauce. Indo-Chinese, and the one…
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Appetizers
Gobi Manchurian
Cauliflower fried in a spiced batter and tossed in a dark garlic and soy sauce. Kolkata Hakka cooking, and the dish…
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Chicken 65
Small pieces of chicken in a red, curry-leaf-scented coating, fried hard and tossed with yoghurt and chilli. A…
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Appetizers
Chicken Lollipop
Chicken wings frenched into a lollipop, battered red and fried. Bar food across India, and the reason wing drumettes…
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Appetizers
Fish Tikka
Firm white fish in a yoghurt and carom seed marinade, charred at the edges. Thirty-five minutes and no tandoor…
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Vegetable Momos
Pleated Himalayan dumplings of finely chopped cabbage and carrot, steamed and eaten with a fiery tomato chutney.
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Appetizers
Gyeranjjim
Eggs beaten with water and steamed in an earthenware pot until they rise like a soufflé. Twenty minutes, and it…
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Korean Corn Cheese
Sweetcorn bound with mayonnaise under a lid of grilled mozzarella. A side dish that arrives bubbling and never comes…
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Moo Ping
Pork shoulder marinated in coconut milk and white pepper, threaded on bamboo and grilled over charcoal. Bangkok…
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Pico de Gallo
Tomato, onion, chilli, coriander and lime, chopped small and salted. Fifteen minutes, no cooking, and it improves…
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Salsa Verde
Tomatillos and green chilli charred under a grill and blitzed with coriander and lime. Twenty-five minutes and…
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Tiropita
Feta and egg between layers of filo, baked until the top shatters. Cut it before it goes in the oven, not after.
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Şakşuka
Fried aubergine and courgette under a garlicky tomato sauce, served cold. Nothing to do with the egg dish of a…
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Albóndigas
Small pork and beef meatballs in an almond and saffron sauce. A tapas plate, and the sauce is thickened with bread…
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Coconut Chutney
Fresh coconut ground with green chilli and roasted gram, finished with a mustard seed tempering. The thing every…
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Pani Puri
Hollow crisp spheres filled with spiced water, potato and chickpea, eaten whole in one go. India's most-loved street…
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Appetizers
Dhokla
A steamed savoury sponge of gram flour, sharp with lemon and sweet with a sugar tempering. Gujarat's teatime, and…
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Bhel Puri
Puffed rice tossed at the last second with chutneys, onion, potato and sev. Bombay beach food, and it must be eaten…
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Pol Sambol
Fresh coconut pounded with dried chilli, red onion and lime until it turns coral pink. Fifteen minutes and no cooking.
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Lumpiang Shanghai
Thin pork and vegetable spring rolls, rolled pencil-thin and fried hard. Filipino parties are counted in these.
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Appetizers
Sisig
Pork face and belly boiled, grilled, chopped fine and served on a plate hot enough to keep frying it at the table.
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Appetizers
Beef Satay
Beef marinated in lemongrass and turmeric, threaded thin and grilled fast over charcoal, with a peanut sauce made…
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Papa a la Huancaína
Boiled potatoes under a yellow chilli and cheese sauce, cold, with olives and egg. Thirty-five minutes.
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Anticuchos
Beef heart marinated in ají panca and vinegar, grilled hard over charcoal. Lima's street food, and the marinade is…
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Sfiha
Open lamb pies the size of a saucer, tart with pomegranate molasses. Baalbek makes them flat and thin.
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Hiyayakko
Cold tofu with ginger, spring onion and soy. Ten minutes, four ingredients, and it depends entirely on the tofu.
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Masala Pav
Soft rolls split and griddled in butter with a spiced onion and tomato mixture pressed into them. Twenty-five minutes.
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Appetizers
Dabeli
A spiced potato filling in a buttered roll with pomegranate, roasted peanuts and sev. Gujarat's answer to the vada…
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Appetizers
Samosa Chaat
A samosa crushed under chickpea curry, yoghurt and three chutneys. Twenty-five minutes if the samosas are bought.
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Aloo Chaat
Potato cubes fried until the corners shatter, tossed with chaat masala, lime and coriander. Thirty minutes.
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Appetizers
Dahi Vada
Lentil dumplings soaked soft, squeezed and drowned in sweetened yoghurt with two chutneys. Cold, and best made a few…
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Appetizers
Chili Cheese Fries
Chips under beef chilli and melted cheese, eaten with a fork before the bottom layer surrenders. Forty-five minutes.
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Obatzda
Ripe Camembert mashed with butter, paprika and beer into a spread for pretzels. Fifteen minutes and no cooking.
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Pkhali
Vegetables blanched, squeezed and pounded with walnut, garlic and coriander into small mounds. Georgia's table…
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Esquites
Corn cut off the cob and fried, then dressed with mayonnaise, lime, chilli and cheese and eaten from a cup with a…
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