Best Arepa Domino Near Me: Venezuela’s Black Bean and Cheese Classic Venezuelan arepa fillings are named with a directness that borders on comic. There is one named after a bikini, one after a widow, and this one after a domino tile, because black beans against crumbled white cheese looks exactly like the black and white of a domino. It is one of the most popular fillings in Venezuela, it happens to be entirely vegetarian, and…

Best Lebkuchen Near Me: Germany’s Spiced Christmas Cake German Christmas markets smell of two things: mulled wine and lebkuchen. The second is a spiced cake somewhere between gingerbread and a soft biscuit, made in Nuremberg since medieval times, often baked on thin wafers and glazed or covered in chocolate. The finest grade contains almost no flour at all, which is not a shortcut but the legal definition of quality. If you are searching for the…

Best Tembleque Near Me: Puerto Rico’s Coconut Pudding The name is a description of behavior. Tembleque means wobbly, and a properly made one trembles when the plate moves without collapsing, which is the exact texture Puerto Rican cooks aim for. It is made from coconut milk, sugar, and cornstarch, contains no eggs or dairy, and is dusted with cinnamon before serving. Simple, white, intensely coconut, and inseparable from Christmas in Puerto Rico. If you are…

Best Knockwurst Near Me: The German Garlic Sausage Knockwurst is the sausage that snaps. Short, thick, and stuffed into a natural casing that resists the first bite before giving way, it carries considerably more garlic than most German sausages and a pronounced smokiness from proper curing. It sits somewhere between a frankfurter and a bratwurst without being either, and once you know the difference it becomes difficult to accept substitutes. If you are searching for…

Best Cazon en Adobo Near Me: Andalusia’s Marinated Fried Fish Cádiz has a way with fried fish that the rest of Spain concedes. Among its best-known contributions is cazón en adobo: chunks of firm white fish steeped for hours in a marinade of vinegar, garlic, oregano, and cumin, then floured and fried until the outside crisps. The vinegar tang against hot fried fish is a genuinely distinctive combination, and it is one of those tapas…

Best Bollos Preñaos Near Me: Asturias’s Chorizo Bread Rolls The name translates, roughly, as pregnant rolls, which tells you exactly what they are: bread rolls with something hidden inside. In this case a whole chorizo, baked into the dough so that its paprika-red fat bleeds into the crumb as it cooks. They come from Asturias in northern Spain, they are eaten at festivals and on hiking days, and they are among the most straightforwardly satisfying…

Best Ajiaco Boliviano Near Me: Bolivia’s Spiced Stew Order ajiaco in Bogotá and you get a thick chicken and potato soup with corn and a herb called guascas. Order it in La Paz and something quite different arrives: a brothy stew built on ají chilies, with potatoes, meat, and often peas, carrying real heat and a deep red-orange color. Same name, different countries, genuinely different dishes. If you are searching for the best ajiaco boliviano…

Best Tequenos Near Me: Venezuela’s Fried Cheese Sticks No Venezuelan party happens without them. Tequeños arrive on trays at birthdays, weddings, christenings, and any gathering large enough to justify frying, and they disappear immediately. A strip of dough wound around a baton of firm white cheese, deep fried until golden, producing a crisp shell around cheese that stretches when you pull it apart. They are the country’s default party food, and they are genuinely hard…

Best Tarta de Pollo Near Me: The Latin Chicken Tart Argentine bakeries sell savory tarts by the slice all day, and tarta de pollo is among the most reliable of them. Chicken in a creamy or tomato-based filling, enclosed in pastry, baked until golden, and cut into wedges. It is the sort of thing people eat standing up at a counter for lunch, or take home whole for a family dinner. Simple, filling, and entirely…

Best Tarta de Santiago Near Me: Galicia’s Almond Cake You recognize it before you taste it. A pale golden cake dusted with icing sugar, and stenciled across the top in negative space, the Cross of Saint James. That cross is a protected mark, not decoration, and the cake beneath it contains no flour at all. Tarta de Santiago has been made in Galicia for centuries, tied to the pilgrimage that ends in Santiago de Compostela,…