#prawn-noodle-stall

#prawn-noodle-stall

Hiroshi Hiraoka, one of the most respected ramen chefs in Japan and the chef-owner behind Sapporo's Japanese Ramen Noodle Lab Q, is heading to New York City this month for a series of limited-time pop-ups at two Manhattan restaurants. The events will bring his refined "tanrei" style ramen, rarely experienced outside Japan, to diners at Towa in Flatiron and nonono in NoMad.

When the students or workers don't have money, it is easy to grab it and go. It's cheap, that's how we started it. When people don't want to spend a lot of money for lunch, it's five bucks, and you're satisfied.

Med Salleh, which has has one Malaysian restaurant in Bayswater and two Vietnamese ones in Westbourne Grove and Earl's Court, has just added a fourth branch in Kentish Town. The newest site is Malaysian-focused, like the original, serving a menu of street food inspired by Med's upbringing in Malaysia, including dishes from his hometown of Kampar as well as flavours from Ipoh and Penang.

Fall's scarlet and gold was fading from the mountains around Sapporo as I sat with a small group around a heavy wood table with a charcoal grill in the center. We watched a chef cook channel rockfish over the coals. This northern Japanese delicacy is cherished for its meltingly sweet flesh, which takes on a light pink color because of the species' shrimp-heavy diet.

Singapore, Michigan, was a thriving lumber town in the late 1800s, until erosion from mass deforestation caused the surrounding sand dunes to shift and swallow it whole. Yet just as quickly as the town disappeared under sand, its namesake in the East emerged from it: Around the world, Singapore is renowned for its use of land reclamation - importing sand to increase landmass and spur urban development.

When the new Sydney Fish Market flung open its doors for the first time on Monday morning, one regular clientele was notably absent. There were no seagulls. And, by extension, no poo. I've been waiting 50 years for this, one man carrying several shopping bags told me as he exited the shiny new building. I couldn't bring friends here from Europe to sit out there [at the old market] with the birds and the shit.

I spent the first half of 2025 in Paris, and while I loved living in a walkable city overflowing with art and culture, I often found myself craving a taste of home. Fortunately, Paris has not one but two Chinatowns: Belleville and the 13th arrondissement. Belleville is an artsy, historically progressive neighborhood shaped by centuries of immigration from Europe, Africa, and Asia. At its center is Parc de Belleville, known for its rotating street art and sweeping sunset views of the Eiffel Tower.

Stir-frying is all about wok hei, or wok's air' in English, which you can think of as the height of fire', or the level of heat. It's said that Chinese cooks have good wok hei if they have a true understanding of the heat of their wok and how to handle it in all situations, and a stir-fry's success is based on the quality of the cook's wok hei.

Kolamba showcases Sri Lankan home cooking as it's eaten across the island. Bold spices, deeply layered curries, fragrant rice and freshly made roti, all designed to be shared. Hoppers (also known as appa/appam) are a Sri Lankan staple: thin and lacy at the edges, soft and slightly spongy in the middle, and just as good at breakfast as they are at dinner.

Christmas is lovely, but my kids think Chinese new year is by far the best holiday. I might be biased, but, unusually, I am inclined to agree with them. As my eldest puts it, New clothes, cash, booze and food what's not to love? There's the added bonus that cash is absolutely more than acceptable in fact, it's de rigueur, so there's no shopping for mundane socks and smelly candles. Chinese new year is full of rituals and, just as at Christmas, every family has its own, but they are all variations on a theme. Symbolism looms large in Chinese culture, and at new year it centres around messages of prosperity, luck and family.

Lately, I've been craving malatang, the individual hot pot restaurant concept with roots in Sichuan, and have thus tried almost every version in the city recently. Growl Growl (which also has a location in Boston) is my favorite so far. The inclusions here are pretty straightforward, but I liked the accouterments the most. The broth options are varied, including "global inspirations" like Japanese sukiyaki broth and Thai tom yum broth.

On the first Fish Friday of 2026, restaurants of all sizes are spotlighting fish and seafood on their menus with some new items and a few deals. Lent, a time when many Christians abstain from meat, began on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18. It lasts 40 days, ending on Thursday, April 2. Easter Sunday will be on April 5. Here is what some restaurant chains have announced on their websites, in social media or in news releases.

Beginning as Hong Kong milk tea specialists popping up at various markets and festivals across London, HOKO opened a cha chaan teng on Brick Lane in 2023, serving char siu rice, pork chop buns, French toast and other HK diner dishes. The team then did a wonton pop-up at Wun's Tea Room & Bar in Soho in 2024 and it was such a success that it's now coming back as a permanent concept.

The paratha ($18), a beautifully single, hella-fluffed and towering round, sits on top of creamy dal where the sambal oil adds some nice heat. The abacus seeds ($24), where soft, earthy gnocchi made with taro are paired with smoky and chewy mushrooms, and amped up with chile and shaoxing wine. The rendang ($34) comes with pulled stewy spicy smoky oxtail (Kelang's Caribbean influence), rounded out with a delightful rice mixture of djon djon (a Haitian black mushroom rice) and nasi ulam (Malaysian herbed rice).

Ever since Noodle Inn on Old Compton Street went viral, it's had people queuing around the block for its hand-pulled biang biang noodles slapped down on the counter, and knife-cut noodles, cut off from blocks of dough straight into the pot. It became so popular that at the back end of 2025, a second site opened in the City, close to Liverpool Street station. And the team isn't losing any momentum as a third location is now on the way.

At most, Lim recalls, maybe one item - say, a curry puff - would nod toward the local food culture. Because afternoon tea at the big hotels was "fancy" and expensive, Lim says even locals wanted the food to be authentically British. Why would anyone pay so much to eat a Malaysian snack they could buy down the street for just a few ringgits?

Filipino food is the kind of thing everyone should try at least once, but it's such a varied cuisine that it bears coming back often. Often bold, bright, and playful, Filipino food is full of life. And, unless you know a very ambitious home cook, there's nowhere better to have your first Filipino food experience than at your local Filipino restaurant.

The infamous Sea Islands of America cluster along the Atlantic coastline from Georgia through South Carolina, each cradling a history and culture unique to itself. From cultural distinctions to Gullah food traditions, storytelling folk art, and sweetgrass basket weavers, these barrier islands couldn't be more distinctly defined. But they do have one enduring commonality: A wealth of seafood that defines the way locals and visitors eat.

In the 1960s and 70s, Ruby Lee's parents ran the Pagoda Cafe in Burleigh Heads, a surf town in Queensland. They worked 14-hour days and opened the restaurant year-round, even Christmas. When they did eventually close for one day a year, it was for lunar new year. It was the only day that I can recall ever eating out with the family while growing up, says Lee.