Best Picaron Near Me: Peru’s Squash and Sweet Potato Doughnut Peruvian street doughnuts are not made from flour and sugar alone. The dough contains roasted squash and sweet potato, which is why picarones are orange inside, lighter than they look, and taste faintly of vegetable underneath the sweetness. They are fried to order in front of you, shaped by hand into rings, and drowned in a dark syrup made from unrefined cane sugar. Here is…

Best Sorullitos de Maiz Near Me: Puerto Rico’s Cornmeal Sticks They look like fried cigars and taste like nothing else in the fritter world: slightly sweet, dense, crisp outside, and usually hiding a line of melted cheese down the middle. Puerto Ricans eat them at beach kiosks, at parties, and as a side to almost anything, always with a pink dipping sauce that sounds wrong and turns out to be essential. Here is the guide.…

Best Postre de Natas Near Me: The Milk Skin Dessert The name refers to milk skin, the layer that forms on the surface when milk is heated and left to cool. Most cooking treats that as something to skim off and discard. This dessert treats it as the entire point, collecting layer after layer over hours until there are enough to build something. It is patient work for a modest-looking result, which is exactly why…

Best Calçots with Romesco Near Me: Catalonia’s Charred Onion Season You eat these standing up, wearing a bib, holding a charred black onion above your head and lowering it into your mouth. It is messy in a way restaurants normally design against, and Catalans built an entire seasonal festival around it. The calçotada runs through winter and into spring, and outside that window you generally cannot get them at all. Here is the guide. What…

Best Picada Colombiana Near Me: The Shared Fried Platter A picada arrives as a wooden board or a metal tray covered in fried things, with toothpicks stuck in for everyone to pick at. There is no individual plating, no portioning, and no expectation that anyone eats one specific item. That is the point. It is designed for a table of people with beers, and its quality comes down to whether everything on it was fried…

Best Kartoffelsalat Near Me: Germany’s Regional Divide Ask a German about potato salad and you will learn where they are from before you learn anything about the dish. The country splits along a rough line, with the south making a warm salad dressed in broth and vinegar and the north making a cold one bound in mayonnaise. Both are called kartoffelsalat, both have committed defenders, and ordering without knowing which you are getting is how…

Best Tarta de Calabaza Near Me: The Spanish Pumpkin Tart Order this expecting American pumpkin pie and you will be surprised, usually pleasantly. The Spanish and Latin versions are typically lighter, less heavily spiced, and more likely to taste of pumpkin than of cinnamon and clove. Some are custard tarts, some are closer to cakes, and a few are savoury. Knowing which tradition a kitchen is working in tells you what will arrive. Here is…

Best Canelones Catalanes Near Me: Catalonia’s Boxing Day Tradition Most cannelloni is a dish you order because you fancy it. Catalan cannelloni is a dish tied to a specific date, made from specific leftovers, and eaten by an entire region on the same day. December 26 in Catalonia means canelons, made from the meat of the previous day’s Christmas stew, and the tradition is strong enough that supermarkets stock for it. Understanding that explains everything…