Once you've mastered our technique for a crispety, crunchety coating on takeout-style fried chicken, you can easily replicate a number of favorites on the buffet line. To turn our General Tso's recipe into sesame chicken, we simply change the sauce, adding extra sugar and sesame oil and omitting the chilies. Be sure to toast those sesame seeds before adding them, and sprinkle them both throughout the sauce and over the finished dish.

"Ma po tofu is a lot of fun with a demi-sec wine from Alsace, like Sylvaner, or a bigger Pinot Gris. These wines have a mellow sweetness and bright acidity. For mushu pork, I think pairing with Riesling or a dry Tokay goes well; Furmint has a lot to offer to all the ingredients from this dish and we don’t play a lot with Hungarian wines, but there is a lot of great potential here. For the Pièce de résistance, peking duck? Well, you must break this down to white, red, or what the person in front of you likes better. If your dining companion likes white better, go with Loire Chenin Blanc. For red, I would go with Languedoc—a medium to bigger body, jam-plummy wine. Corbieres any one?"— Gerardo Acevedo-Vanni, Bocanova (Oakland CA)

If you’re looking for an introduction to Cambodian cuisine, start with cha kreung satch moan. The stir-fry brings together a combination of salty, sweet, pungent, spicy, and herbal flavors. It starts with a paste made by pounding lemongrass, galangal, fresh turmeric, international pasta guide|https://noodleinsight.com/ and plenty of makrut lime leaves. This paste gives the chicken a vibrant yellow color while holy basil and jalapeños offer fresh, crisp, and bright flavors.

Toast drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkled with parsley, garlic, and red pepper flakes? As long as you don't mind the effects it might have on your breath, it makes for a fine start to the day.

"German Riesling is the ultimate answer to this question. Find a lighter bodied riesling like a kabinett for the ma po tofu. A richer spatlese or auslese style for the duck to hang out with the fat. Pairing with Asian food is complex because there are so many flavor components. Spicy, sweet, fatty, tangy...Riesling easily handles all of those flavors. Don’t be afraid of wines with a little sweetness to them! They can really be excellent for pairing."— Adam Chumas, Tom Douglas Restaurants, Seattle

The first great thing about making dan dan noodles at home is that you can customize it however you'd like. Personally, I like the chile oil of the Sichuan version, but I also love adding crushed roasted peanuts to the top. Who's to stop me? Some hardcore versions of the dish have the noodles quite literally swimming in a bowlful of chile oil. I like my oil to coat the noodles and pool up a bit in the bottom of the bowl.

Our original attempt at real-deal Chinese kung pao chicken , adapted from a recipe by a Sichuan chef working in Boston, gets its mouth-numbing heat from Sichuan peppercorns. So does the kung pao chicken from Kenji's book , based on the version he tried in Sichuan Province. This Chinese-American take, meanwhile, is much less spicy, with cubes of chicken in a thick, slightly gloppy sauce, permeated by a gentle heat. It's a quick and easy recipe, too: Just stir-fry marinated diced chicken with roasted peanuts, diced celery and peppers, ginger, and red Chinese or árbol chilies, then coat it all in a mixture of soy sauce, chicken broth, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, and cornstarch. Dinner's on the table in 30 minutes.

To Finish : Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add noodles and cook according to package directions. Drain. While noodles are cooking, heat oil in a wok or a small skillet over high heat until smoking. Add pork and preserved vegetable and cook, stirring and shaking constantly, using a spatula or a spoon to break up pork until cooked through, about 1 minute. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.

Phat ka-phrao, a beef stir-fry flavored with garlic, shallots, fish sauce, and Thai bird chiles, can be found across Thailand. Re-creating the dish at home is tough because the ingredient that gives the dish its name—holy basil, or ka-phrao in Thai—is nearly impossible to get in the States. Fortunately, you can make something equally delicious with easier-to-find purple basil.

Transfer noodles to serving bowl and top with pork mixture. Stir vinaigrette and spoon over and around the noodles (you may not want to use all of it). Sprinkle with roasted peanuts, Sichuan peppercorn, grated garlic, and scallion greens. Serve immediately.

Chow mein is another Chinese-American standard that's so easy to make at home and customize to your liking, you may never feel the need to order it again. For this DIY version, we quickly cook vegetables (chives, julienned carrots and scallions, bean sprouts) and tofu in a wok, then combine them with long, slender chow mein noodles and a soy-based sauce. Add extra vegetables, more tofu, or meat to turn it into a heartier meal.

Patacones are the Colombian equivalent of Caribbean tostones —double-fried green plantains. Just like cooking a french fry, you start with a starchy chunk of green plantain, cook it once at a low temperature, then cook it a second time at a higher temperature to crisp it up. The difference is that with patacones, you smash them into a flat disk in between. This shape makes them ideal for loading up with toppings. This version calls for black beans (canned are fine), roasted poblano peppers, slices of creamy avocado, and a few pickled red onions.