I started making this dish in a Turkish cooking class a few years ago. People were skeptical about how it would taste because of the abundance of spices, but it turned out to be one of the most requested recipes I have. It’s a beautiful dip for vegetables or toasted bread or pita. It’s not only packed with flavors, it’s very healthy and good for you!

There is nothing like fresh pita hot out of a piping hot oven! I watched a woman in Nazareth quicky roll and bake the soft dough into pillowy mounds of the best bread I’d ever eaten. She let me try to make it myself, and she kindly showed me I was rolling the dough too thinly.

Carpaccio is a term for very thin slices of raw beef or fish, but this is a vegetarian option that is packed with so many bursts of flavors and textures. Serve it with fresh bread so you can just scoop up the carpaccio and eat it like a dip.

If I had to choose my last meal it would be nachos. It is truly my favorite food. These potato nachos are a close second to the traditional tortilla chip nachos, and if you make these at a party you’ll be the hero. It sounds a bit strange to add so much salt to the water, but you must allow all the water to evaporate, giving the potatoes a salty coating. Cover them with your favorite nacho toppings and watch them disappear in minutes!

In Bali, there are street cafés called Warungs, where an open fire with burning coconut husks are spitting under racks filled with bamboo sticks packed with flavorful chicken. Unlike the chicken skewers we often make with large chunks of meat, satay is small pieces of meat, sometimes minced with spices, that are threaded onto bamboo sticks, lemongrass stalks or sugar cane.

Naan is a light and bubbly flatbread well-known in India, and best when made in a tandoor oven. I happen to own a tandoor because I fell in love with naan on my first trip to southern India. On the beach in Goa there were tents with delicious naan baking in make-shift tandoor ovens.

I learned to make delicious hummus from Chef Nir Feller in Tel Aviv. It really makes a difference if you cook dried chickpeas, instead of using the ones in a tin. It takes some time to cook them, but you can cook a huge batch and freeze them for using later. Be sure to freeze the cooking liquid separately to use also.

One of the best days I spent in Istanbul was cooking in the home of Ela, and then shopping in the Spice Market. Ela lived in the modern neighborhood just across the Galata Bridge in Istanbul. Her apartment overlooked the Black Sea, and we sat in her living room drinking hot tea while she told me stories of cooking with her grandmother as a child.

When I was in college I studied abroad for a semester. One weekend, my friend Piper and I went to Greece. We spent a day on a boat visiting three Greek islands. When we were at Hydra we found a small estiatório serving fresh bread and fried feta. It was covered in sesame seeds and honey that had been harvested on the island.

Marcello took me to the city of Parma in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. It was only an hour from his home in Bologna, and he surprised me with a private tour in a salumificio (prosciutto factory). Prosciutto de Parma can only be made in the province of Parma, and the pigs eat on grains and the whey from Parmesan cheese, also made in Parma.

It was a rainy day in Paris, and I decided to dry off by tucking into a little bistro in the St. Germaine neighborhood where I was staying. Inside, there was one vacant table waiting just for me. Everyone was happily drinking wine and snacking, while laughing in spite of the rain. I asked the maître d’ what he thought I should order. “The steak tartare, madame, without question.”

Causas are a unique layered potato dish that is served chilled as an appetizer or light meal. I first had them in Lima, Peru and I loved the artistic presentation and slightly spicy flavor in the different layers.

While I was in Bali I spent a day cooking with a woman named Nina. Her kitchen was outside, covered with a tin roof and surrounded by coconut trees. Next to the house was a huge pile of dried coconut shells the family used to burn for fuel to heat the house. One of the dishes we made was grilled shrimp satay, which is marinated shrimp on a skewer grilled over fire.

Galettes are one of my favorite things to make! They’re like a pie without the pan, and you eat it like pizza. This one is a savory gallette that is perfect as a vegetarian meal or as a side dish with dinner. It’s also good for brunch! 

Lahmacun is similar to pizza, and is a popular dish in Turkey, Syria, and Armenia. It generally does not have cheese on it, and is often eaten rolled up. It is a traditional street food in Istanbul, Turkey and I at a lot of it while I was there. You can make the topping a day or two before making the pizza, which makes it a great dish to serve for a dinner party.

When I was in Peru I fell in love with ceviche, a simple dish made with fresh fish. One night at a restaurant in Lima I saw “vegetable ceviche” on the menu and ordered it. It was so different and tasty I decided to design my own version. Tiger milk is a sauce for ceviche that is made with minced white fish, but I use coconut milk for this vegan version. I actually won an award in a chef competition with this recipe, and I’ve been serving it at my “Around the World” dinners for the past year. It requires a bit of preparation with so many ingredients, but it is worth it, I promise!

Samosas have a diverse history as a popular snack that was carried by Asian traders traveling across the world, eventually settling in India where they are most well-known. Samosas are different all over India, depending on the area and region. Some are filled with meat and chiles, some with paneer, and others with potatoes and peas.

This is a delicious smoky dip that is from Lebanon, but common in most middle eastern cuisines. It is used to spread on bread, meats, or vegetables. Some of the best I ever had was in a small bar in Jordan near Petra. It was a cave that had been converted into a bar with the most delicious snacks.

The name of this recipe comes from the 2 basic ingredients, water and chile. It can be as spicy as you like by adding more or less chiles. I learned to make it while cooking with my friend Alondra in c, Mexico on the Pacific coast. Although we made it with shrimp, I also had it with fresh tuna in a nearby beach café.

Paneer is a cow’s milk cheese from India that has very little flavor on its own. Because it doesn’t melt, it absorbs all the flavors from the sauces and marinades it comes in contact with. It’s often added to curries and stir-fry, but I like to coat it in a spicy masala marinade and grill it over a hot fire.