Marie Kacouchia's recipe for a warm bowl of Creamy Carrot-Ginger Soup can be tailored with cacao, soumbala and chile powders.

The starchy side dish can be made from a wide variety of grains or vegetables, and its appearance is as humble as its appeal is universal.

This is how a Damascus dish became my Alabama family story, one generation at a time.

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its independence from Great Britain on July 4, the foods that filled the tables of the Founding Fathers—the late-18th-century statesmen who were most influential in the new country’s creation—are a reminder that elite households relied on ingredients carried through trade routes connecting the Mediterranean, Africa, Asia and regions now known as the Middle East.

Chef and restaurateur Shane Delia re-creates a rice-and-milk pudding he discovered along Türkiye’s Black Sea coast, one of many sutlaç found on menus in the region; this recipe gets additional texture from a pistachio crumble.

Surely, Yavuz Ozborme’s fine-tuning of the avocado dip in a quest for continuous improvement is a metaphor for adjusting to life since he and his brother came to London and opened Buffalo Grill in Greenwich.

This popular fish stew is served in honor of special guests.

Mashkhoul, an aromatic white rice dish, offers a flavorful accompaniment to stews and meats or can be enjoyed on its own.

A writer prepares cookbook author-restaurateur Asma Khan’s recipe for Shimla Mirch Machli in her London kitchen—and is transported to the places of her grandparents’ birth.

The berkoukes are giant couscous balls cooked into soups and stews, with little differentiation across North Africa and the Levant.

What begins as a lesson in a beloved recipe becomes a journey through diaspora, friendship and the scents that tie us to places we’ve never lived.

A sultan’s 500-year-old cookbook still ripples across South Asia, from kitchens to street stalls to celebratory tables, preserving centuries of technique and taste.