Around the world, one dish at a time.
One thing everyone has to do when swinging through Paris, however quickly, is eat steak frites at a classic Parisian bistro. And, thanks to a tip from Kate McCulley, we did exactly that, at Restaurant Chartier. Set in the heart of Montmartre, in a listed …
Greek food doesn’t have the world’s best reputation. Much of it falls under the shadow of Turkish food – and, at the risk of alienating every single Greek reader, that’s because the Ottoman occupation left its mark all over the Mediterranean in culinary terms, and …
“What is balsamic vinegar?” Well, this staple of international food culture comes (all but the very worst of it) from the region around Modena, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, where it is a local obsession. Think fillet steak in a balsamic sauce (filetto di manzo all’aceto balsamico), …
If there’s one plant that symbolises South-East Asia, it is, of course, the lotus. One of the miraculous things about the lotus is that almost every part of it is edible. The beautiful flowers can be eaten. The leaves are most often used as natural, …
To say I’m a little obsessed with Beijing duck would be putting it mildly. Almost every city in China has its own way of doing roast duck (and, in some parts, roast goose), but it’s Beijing duck that we foreigners think of when we think …
Chinese toffee apples, in all their myriad persuasions, are one of my favourite Chinese street sweeties, and add colour to any hutong as they sit threaded on their long, slender sticks. Whether sold from a bicycle, a cart or a street stall, they’re pretty much …
What does a British pound buy you, foodwise? In most parts of the world, a lot. In fact, even in Western Europe you can feed yourself on junk food for under a quid. In this series, I’m going to be finding food you can buy …
If there is one dish that the Greeks do better than anyone in the world, it’s octopus salad. And, after several dismal, dry and bland, attempts at octopus salad in Turkey (like samphire, this is an area that Turkish cooks just seem to get wrong), …