What these have in common is that the food is doing a job beyond being eaten - marking a date, using a glut, requiring several people to make it, or…
One variable governs nearly every dish below: whether the potato is waxy or floury. Waxy holds its shape and suits salads and gratins; floury collapses and suits mash, baking and…
The engineering problem is always the same: cook the outside without drying the inside, on pieces small enough to be portable. Every tradition below solves it slightly differently. Here are…
What distinguishes these from a street of shops is that somebody built a roof over the whole thing on purpose, and then trade organised itself underneath. Here are seventeen.
1.…
Two variables define everything below: temperature, which determines whether the food is cooked or merely flavoured, and time, which determines how deep the effect goes. Here are fifteen.
1. Smoked…
Food naming is a poor historical record. Restaurants name dishes for regulars, stories improve with retelling, and the version that survives is usually the most quotable rather than the most…