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Bean Akyaw

The Burmese yellow split-pea fritter, sold by street vendors in hot oil-spattered cones of newspaper across Yangon's evening markets. You soak yellow split peas overnight until they're softened but not mushy, then blitz to a coarse sandy paste with shallot, garlic, ginger, turmeric and coriander. No flour, no binder; the natural starch in the peas holds the fritters together as they fry. Tablespoonfuls drop into hot oil and fry until they're deep gold and craggy at the edges. Eaten hot from the cone with a sour-sweet tamarind dipping sauce, a wedge of lime, and whatever you can carry while you walk on through the evening crowds.

Snacks 6 hours 35 minutes Serves4

Beef Pho

This dish works best with raw beef that has been sliced paper thin, as it cooks in seconds when placed in the hot broth.

Vietnamese 50 minutes Serves4

Doi Maach

The celebration-day Bengali fish curry, the one you cook for a Saraswati Puja lunch or a weekend when family are visiting. "Doi" means yoghurt, "maach" means fish, and that's the dish in two words: pieces of firm-fleshed freshwater fish (traditionally rohu, katla or sometimes bhetki) first lightly fried in mustard oil until the skin is taut and gold, then poached gently in a thickened yoghurt sauce. The gravy is pale ivory rather than yellow or red, with the warming whole spices (cardamom, cinnamon, bay) doing the work that chilli powder does in northern curries. The critical move is timing: you whisk the yoghurt smooth and add it off the heat so it doesn't split, then the fish goes back in to finish poaching gently in the silky gravy. A touch more refined than a workaday machher jhol, eaten with steamed gobindobhog rice and a small spoon of ghee melted over the top.

Bengali 40 minutes Serves4

Fennel Shellfish Laksa

A fragrant Malaysian noodle soup combining shellfish with a spicy coconut curry broth, rice noodles, and fresh herbs. The balance of heat from chillies and creaminess from coconut milk makes it a comforting yet exotic dish.

Malaysian 40 minutes Serves4

Goan Fish Curry

A Goan coconut masala paste is ground from soaked Kashmiri chillies, coriander seeds, cumin, peppercorns, garlic and ginger with fresh coconut and tamarind. Onion is softened in coconut oil with green chilli and curry leaves, the masala is fried until the oil separates, water and salt are added for a brief simmer, and the fish is slid into the gravy for a gentle poach. The dish is sharply acidic, deeply red and just hot enough.

Goan 40 minutes Serves4

Goan Prawn Pulao

A bright green masala paste of coriander, mint, green chilli, ginger and garlic is ground with a splash of vinegar. Basmati is rinsed, soaked and drained. Whole spices and onion are softened in coconut oil, the prawns briefly seared and lifted out, then the green masala is fried into the onion before the rice is added to toast. Stock goes in for the steam; the prawns return at the end so they don't overcook.

Rice 1 hour 15 minutes Serves4-6

Gỏi Bắp Cải

Poached chicken is shredded and tossed with finely shredded cabbage, carrot and onion that has been softened in a light vinegar bath. A bright nước chấm style dressing brings everything together and toasted peanuts and fried shallots finish the top. The trick is balance: the salad should be crunchy, not waterlogged, and the dressing should taste sharp on its own before it hits the salad.

Sides 35 minutes Serves4

Gỏi Cuốn

Pork belly is simmered until tender, prawns are poached briefly, and vermicelli is cooked just al dente. Everything cools to room temperature, then rice paper rounds are dipped briefly in warm water and rolled around lettuce, herbs and the protein with the pink of the prawns showing through the wrapper. The peanut-hoisin sauce is the make-or-break: it should be thick, sweet and lightly garlicky.

Snacks 55 minutes Serves12

Kayan Thee Hnut

A Burmese aubergine dish, the kind of thing that turns up on a weekday table next to a simple curry and rice. You cube the aubergine and salt it for twenty minutes to draw out the bitter water, then squeeze it dry. Onion fries dark-gold in oil; garlic, ginger and turmeric go in briefly; then the aubergine joins them and fries for eight minutes until silky-soft and just collapsing. Fish sauce, chilli powder and a touch of palm sugar season the pan, and toasted crushed peanuts scatter over at the end for crunch. Eaten warm with rice and a small piece of fish.

Sides 55 minutes Serves4

Kerala Fish Curry

A masala paste of shallot, ginger, garlic and red chilli is bloomed in coconut oil with mustard seeds, fenugreek and curry leaves. Coconut milk is poured in and the curry brought to a simmer, then tamarind water and a tomato are added. The fish goes in last and poaches in the gravy for just long enough to set; over-stirring breaks the pieces.

Indian 40 minutes Serves4

Lahori Fried Fish

Firm white fish is scored, rubbed with a spice paste of ginger-garlic, Kashmiri chilli, ajwain (carom), turmeric and lemon, and rested for ½ hour. A separate gram-flour batter (besan, rice flour, ajwain and a pinch of bicarb for crispness) is whisked to a thick coating consistency. Each fillet is dipped in the batter and shallow-fried in mustard oil until the crust deep-gold-crackles. Eaten with a heavy dusting of chaat masala and a squeeze of lemon.

Lahori 1 hour Serves4

Malaysian Curry Laksa (Laksa Lemak)

A two-part dish: a deeply concentrated prawn-and-chicken stock built from roasted prawn shells, layered with a freshly pounded laksa paste of dried chilli, galangal, lemongrass and candlenuts. The two are joined with coconut cream to create a glossy, fragrant broth that bathes rice vermicelli, tofu puffs and prawns. Finished at the table with sambal, lime, fresh coriander and bean sprouts.

Malaysian 1 hour 35 minutes Serves4

Mohinga

Myanmar's national breakfast, the rice-noodle soup that streetcorner stalls in every city open before dawn for. You cook catfish (or any firm white fish) in spiced water first, then shred the cooked flesh and turn the cooking liquid into the soup base. A spice paste of shallot, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and turmeric fries in oil; a chickpea-flour slurry thickens the broth to a silky consistency; banana-stem (or hearts of palm or cabbage as substitute) softens in. Fish sauce, paprika and lime balance the seasoning. Rice vermicelli portions into bowls, broth ladles over, and a heavy plate of garnishes arrives at the table: crispy split peas, halved boiled eggs, lime wedges, fresh herbs, chilli flakes. Each diner builds the bowl to their own taste. The morning meal of Myanmar.

Burmese 1 hour 30 minutes Serves6

Nga Hpe (Burmese Fish Cakes)

The Burmese fish cakes that arrive at lahpet-thoke salad tables and street snack stalls alike, bright with lime and curry leaf. You cube skinless firm fish fillets and pulse them in a food processor with shallot, garlic, ginger, lime, fish sauce and a small egg into a sticky paste. A spoon of beaten cornflour binds it. Curry leaves, sliced spring onion, chopped cilantro and a fresh chilli go in for fragrance and bite. Patties form by hand (keep your hands slightly damp so the mixture doesn't stick), then shallow-fry in batches at 170°C for two or three minutes per side until they're deep gold and crisp at the edges. Eaten warm with a sour-sweet tamarind dipping sauce.

Sides 45 minutes Serves6

Octopus Curry (Cari Ourite)

Cari ourite is the dish that turns up at every Mauritian fisherman's Sunday lunch, and at every Creole restaurant on the south coast. The technique is to braise octopus low and slow in a tomato-and-onion masala that leans on fresh thyme and a finishing pinch of garam masala instead of the heavier dried-spice masalas you find in cari boeuf or cari poulet. Octopus has a sweet, slightly mineral flavour that needs space, so the seasoning is restrained: thyme for aroma, tomato for body, ginger and garlic for the base, mild curry powder for depth, garam masala right at the end for top-note warmth. The tentacles cook for around 45 minutes (small octopus) to an hour (larger). The biggest variable is the octopus itself; small frozen octopus, sold cleaned at most fishmongers and many supermarkets, is reliable and the freezing actually helps tenderise the flesh. Difficulty is moderate; the cook is mostly passive once the masala is built. Serve with plain steamed rice and a satini cotomili (coriander chutney) or a spoon of pickled chilli. A simple green salad with vinaigrette on the side keeps it honest.

Mauritian 1 hour 25 minutes Serves4

Ohn No Khao Swè

Myanmar's coconut-chicken noodle soup, the dish closest in spirit to a Thai khao soi but with its own Burmese identity. You poach chicken thighs in stock with shallot, garlic, ginger and turmeric for twenty-five minutes, lift them out and shred the meat. The stock cooks down with coconut milk, fish sauce and paprika, thickened with a slurry of chickpea flour and water into a silky soup. Yellow egg noodles cook separately. Everything piles into the bowl at the end: noodles first, soup ladled over, shredded chicken in the middle, then heaping garnishes (sliced shallot, crispy fried shallot, halved boiled egg, lime wedges, cilantro, chilli flakes). The garnishes are half the dish; eat with chopsticks in one hand and a spoon in the other.

Burmese 1 hour 15 minutes Serves4

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