Best Bubble and Squeak with Bacon Near Me: A British Classic The name comes from the sound. Cold mashed potato and yesterday’s cabbage hit a hot pan and start to bubble and squeak, and the dish acquired the noise as its title some two centuries ago. It began as a way of using up Sunday leftovers on Monday, which is exactly the sort of thrifty origin that produces genuinely good food, and adding bacon turns…

Best Fricase de Pollo Near Me: Cuban Braised Chicken Cuban home cooking has a handful of dishes that everyone’s abuela made slightly differently and everyone insists their version was correct. Fricasé de pollo is firmly among them. Chicken braised in a sofrito base with potatoes, olives, capers, and often raisins, it hits a savory-briny-sweet combination that sounds chaotic and works completely. It is comfort food in the truest sense, rarely found on tourist menus and…

Best Grilled Hake with Potatoes Near Me: A Simple Classic Hake is the fish Spain eats more of than almost any other, and the reason is straightforward: cooked properly it produces large, snow-white flakes and a clean, delicate flavor that needs almost nothing done to it. Grilled and served with potatoes and good olive oil, it is a dish with nowhere to hide. There are perhaps four elements on the plate, and if the kitchen…

Best Bacalao Vizcaina Near Me: Basque Salt Cod in Red Pepper Sauce There is an argument among Basque cooks that the sauce should contain no tomato whatsoever. Purists insist that authentic bizkaina sauce is built entirely on dried choricero peppers, softened and scraped, and that tomato is a modern shortcut. You will find both versions, and the debate tells you something about how seriously this dish is taken. It is one of the defining preparations…

Best Carapulcra Near Me: Peru’s Ancient Dried Potato Stew Carapulcra has a serious claim to being the oldest stew in Peru. It is built on papa seca, potatoes that have been boiled, peeled, dried, and broken into chunks, a preservation method the Andes developed long before the Spanish arrived. Rehydrated and simmered with pork, chili, and peanuts, those dried potatoes produce something no fresh potato could: a dense, nutty, faintly smoky stew unlike anything else…

Best Chocotorta Near Me: Argentina’s No-Bake Icebox Cake Argentina’s most beloved birthday cake requires no oven. Chocolate biscuits are dipped in coffee or milk, layered with a mixture of dulce de leche and cream cheese, and left in the fridge overnight until the biscuits soften into something closer to cake than cookie. That is the entire recipe. It is the dessert Argentine children grow up with, and it inspires genuine loyalty about which biscuits are…

Best Rabbit Stew Near Me: A Guide to This Classic Dish Rabbit was once ordinary. It appeared on tables across Europe constantly, cheap and available, and every region developed its own way of stewing it. Then it quietly disappeared from most restaurant menus, and now finding it feels like a small event. Where it survives, it tends to be in kitchens that take tradition seriously, which is one reason seeking it out is rewarding. If…

Best Pastelitos de Guayaba Near Me: Cuban Guava Pastries Walk into a Cuban bakery in Miami at seven in the morning and the trays are already half empty. Pastelitos de guayaba go fast, and for good reason: puff pastry shattering into layers, a center of dark guava paste, a glaze that leaves your fingers sticky. They are the standard accompaniment to a cortadito, and they are one of those things that seem simple until you…