Unlatch the domed lid and you find a shallow tray with a long, dainty spoon for measuring. Below are tucked six canisters of spices, five of them - salt, cumin, coriander, red chilli and mango powder - arranged like petals around turmeric at the center.

Eggs have been a motif on Therouxs many travels, hawked outside train stations from Tanzania to Siberia

Jessamyn Rodriguezs first tagine a shallow terra-cotta dish with a tall peaked lid, painted all over with stars never made it home from Morocco.

The banana leaf was chalky and stiff from the freezer, in need of revival. Nicole Ponseca laid it across the stove and swept it gently over the flames.

Dough, fried. It is a humble snack, fuel for late-night stakeouts, comfort after a day toiling at the nuclear power plant. Its pleasures are prehistoric - fossilized ring-shaped cakes have been unearthed, dating back 8,000 years - and democratic. Free...

The ice cream had been cut into a half-moon slab that was dense to the touch and so cold my fingers went numb. It required teeth. It tasted as if it had been made on a planet with stronger gravity, concentrated yet airy, and smoking ...