LarderJournal
Every spirit, every glass, every plate, and where in the world it comes from. Explained plainly, with 612 entries from 79 countries.
What's in the larder
Pick a shelf, or search for anything above.
Eight plates, eight countries
The dish each place is proudest of, and the story behind it.
Pizza Napoletana
Soft, blistered pizza baked 60–90 seconds at about 485°C. The Margherita's colours echo the Italian flag. Pizzaiuolo craft is UNESCO heritage.
Sushi
Sushi means the vinegared rice, not raw fish. Nigiri (hand-pressed) was Edo-era fast food; maki are rolls. Sashimi is raw fish without rice.
Tacos al Pastor
Vertical-spit pork brought by Lebanese immigrants.
Pho
Clear, fragrant beef noodle soup spiced with star anise, cinnamon and charred ginger.
Paella Valenciana
The original paella has no seafood; the crispy bottom is socarrat.
Injera & Doro Wat
Spongy teff flatbread is plate and spoon; doro wat is the festive chicken stew.
Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)
Tandoori chicken in a mild, buttery tomato gravy, created in Delhi by Punjabi refugees from Peshawar.
Ceviche
Fish 'cooked' in lime juice (leche de tigre).
A taste of Bihar
Sattu, mustard oil, smoke and jaggery: the food of the Gangetic plain.
Litti Chokha
Bihar's signature dish. Litti are wheat balls stuffed with sattu (roasted gram flour), ajwain, garlic, ginger, lemon and mustard oil, roasted over cow-dung cakes or coal and dipped in ghee. Chokha is smoky mashed baingan, tomato and aloo with mustard oil.
Champaran Mutton (Ahuna / Handi Meat)
Mutton slow-cooked in a sealed clay pot (ahuna/handi) over charcoal with whole garlic bulbs and mustard oil.
Thekua
Crunchy, jaggery-sweetened fried cookie pressed in a wooden mould, the sacred prasad of Chhath Puja.
Sattu Sharbat
Bihar's protein-rich summer drink made from roasted chana flour, drunk salty with onion and chilli or sweet with jaggery.
Khaja
Flaky, many-layered fried sweet; Silao khaja has a GI tag.
Malpua (Bihari)
Fried sweet pancakes dipped in syrup, made at Holi in Bihar.
Know your ingredients
The spices, herbs, cheeses and grains behind the world's cooking.
Every spirit starts as something that grows
The base tells you the family. Learn these and any bar menu makes sense.
Grain → whisky, vodka, gin, baijiu, soju
Barley, corn, rye, wheat, sorghum and rice are fermented into a 'beer', then distilled.
Sugarcane → rum, cachaça, rhum agricole
Molasses gives rum; fresh cane juice gives cachaça and agricole.
Grapes & fruit → brandy, pisco, grappa, rakia, feni
Distilled wine or fruit: Cognac from grapes, Calvados from apples, feni from cashew apples.
Agave → tequila, mezcal
Cooked agave hearts, fermented and distilled; mezcal is pit-roasted and smoky.
Classic cocktails, with exact measures
Mojito
Cuba's refreshing highball. Spec: 45 ml white rum, 20 ml fresh lime juice, 6 mint leaves, 2 tsp sugar (or 20 ml syrup), soda to top.
Negroni
Created in Florence around 1919 for Count Camillo Negroni. Spec: equal parts, 30 ml each gin, Campari, sweet vermouth.
Margarita
The benchmark agave sour. Spec: 50 ml tequila blanco, 20 ml triple sec, 15 ml fresh lime juice.
Caipirinha
Brazil's national cocktail. Spec: 60 ml cachaça, half a lime in wedges, 2 tsp white sugar.
Pisco Sour
Spec: 60 ml pisco, 30 ml lime juice, 20 ml syrup, 1 egg white, drops of Angostura on the foam.
Old Fashioned
One of the oldest cocktails. Spec: 60 ml bourbon or rye, 1 sugar cube (or 5 ml syrup), 2–3 dashes Angostura, a dash of water.
Travel the world by the plate
Every country's food and drink on one page.