#katu

#katu

Imam Cagdas has been making baklava the same way since 1887: entirely by hand, without any automation. The Gaziantep shop is now in its fifth generation of ownership.

Endo Kazutoshi was on the train to Paris when he heard about the fire that had destroyed his restaurant, Endo at the Rotunda, located on the eighth floor of the Helios building. The fire had started on a terrace and quickly spread, affecting the dining room and kitchen, built mostly from 200-year-old hinoki wood.

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.

Walking through the narrow bylanes of Mylapore neighbourhood at dusk is like watching a sepia-tinted postcard of Madras coming to life and gently reasserting itself over the Chennai of today. The 7th-century Kapaleeshwarar Temple, the fulcrum of commerce and culture, draws the devout into its timeless force field, and on nearby Pitchu Pillai Lane, a small crowd gathers around the Raghul Kuzhi Paniyaram street stall to buy kuzhi paniyarams: spongy orbs of pan-fried batter speckled with mustard seeds.

Med Salleh, which has has one Malaysian restaurant in Bayswater and two Vietnamese ones in Westbourne Grove and Earl's Court, has just added a fourth branch in Kentish Town. The newest site is Malaysian-focused, like the original, serving a menu of street food inspired by Med's upbringing in Malaysia, including dishes from his hometown of Kampar as well as flavours from Ipoh and Penang.

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.

Living in Japan in the early 2000s, Fralick fell in love with an Italian restaurant in the city of Shizuoka, where he ate Italian food, but with Japanese influences, like pastas made with uni and the fermented soybeans known as natto. "It really reminded me of home," says Fralick, who grew up in upstate New York and started his cooking career in Italian fine dining.

Country of origin labeling became mandatory on all international products entering the United States in 2009. The goal was to ensure American consumers knew where the products they were buying came from, enabling shoppers to make informed buying decisions. These products include everything from Mexican avocados to French wine to pasta from Italy, with the latter thankfully safe from recent U.S. tariffs. However, does the location a product comes from actually matter?

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.

Kolamba showcases Sri Lankan home cooking as it's eaten across the island. Bold spices, deeply layered curries, fragrant rice and freshly made roti, all designed to be shared. Hoppers (also known as appa/appam) are a Sri Lankan staple: thin and lacy at the edges, soft and slightly spongy in the middle, and just as good at breakfast as they are at dinner.

Two key elements at the heart of Portuguese eating culture are couvert and pastry. A couvert, comprising bread, butter, pickled or garlic carrots, cheese and fish pate (often sardine), comes as standard at every Portuguese restaurant and family dinner table alike, as it does at our restaurant Luso, where our fish paste is an ode to this way of dining.

In accordance with the lunar calendar, Ramadan could start as early as Tuesday this year, which falls well before the switch to daylight saving time on March 8 in the United States. This means that iftar will begin around 5:30 p.m. for most of the country for nearly three weeks, leaving a short window after work to get a comforting, nourishing meal on the table.

Ready in just over 30 minutes, these meatballs are easily assembled by hand using a combination of aromatic ingredients such as turmeric, coconut, ginger, lemongrass, and cilantro. The inclusion of fresh bread, egg, and shredded coconut ensures that the ground chicken stays wonderfully succulent as the meatballs are broiled to perfection, offering a little smokiness and char action. The chicken meatballs are served alongside a quick-to-assemble peanut dipping sauce, adding a rich, creamy counter that perfectly complements the other flavors in the dish.

At most, Lim recalls, maybe one item - say, a curry puff - would nod toward the local food culture. Because afternoon tea at the big hotels was "fancy" and expensive, Lim says even locals wanted the food to be authentically British. Why would anyone pay so much to eat a Malaysian snack they could buy down the street for just a few ringgits?

Filipino food is the kind of thing everyone should try at least once, but it's such a varied cuisine that it bears coming back often. Often bold, bright, and playful, Filipino food is full of life. And, unless you know a very ambitious home cook, there's nowhere better to have your first Filipino food experience than at your local Filipino restaurant.

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.

In recent years, across New York, modern Filipino spots have emerged: Naks by the Unapologetic Foods team and the now-closed Tadhana, both on the Lower East Side, and Barkada Social Club in Astoria. And now, Bukas Cafe, which continues that wave by presenting a menu so different from the traditional fare at longstanding pioneers like Renee's and Ihawan in Woodside's Little Manila.

And it makes sense, as Indian culture and cuisine are alive and well in the city - Washington is one of the top states of residence for Indian immigrants, and Seattle itself is among the U.S. metropolitan areas with the highest number of Indian-Americans. Meanwhile, the state offers great growing conditions for Indian staples such as rice, lentils, chickpeas, eggplant, okra, onions, peas, potatoes, and much more.

Japan's 7-Elevens are well-known for having all sorts of delicious and unique snacks that you just can't find in the United States. While the convenience store chain got its start in the U.S., it first opened locations in Tokyo in 1974. As of 2025, there were over 22,000 locations across Japan, which vastly outnumber the approximately 12,300 in the U.S.