1,165 articles
Kofta
Kofta (Persian kufta/koofteh, "pounded meat") is a minced-meat dish family of Persian origin, shaped as balls or fingers and grilled, fried, boiled, or simmered; spread across the Middle East, Mediterranean (köfte, kefta), and Mughal India, with varieties like kufta tabrizi and Daud Basha.
Kokoretsi
Kokoretsi (Greek κοκορέτσι, Turkish kokoreç) is a grilled Balkan-Anatolian dish of lamb or goat intestines wrapped around seasoned offal; the Greek Easter version includes organ meats, the Turkish street version is chopped and served in bread.
Kombu (Laminaria japonica) extract
Kombu (Laminaria japonica) extract, also called kombu or dashima extract, is an umami flavoring from Japanese kelp; GRAS-notified as GRN 123 (Fuji Foods, 2003) for soups, seasonings, and meat products, and rich in soluble iodine.
Konpeitō (金平糖)
Konpeitō (金平糖) is a traditional Japanese sugar candy that originated from the Portuguese confeito. It is made by coating a seed core with syrup in a rotating pan.
Korean barbecue
Korean barbecue (K-BBQ; 고기구이) is dining where meat such as bulgogi, galbi, and samgyeopsal is grilled at the table's center with banchan. It differs from American barbecue by tabletop cooking, shared grills, skewer-derived jeok roots, and group-coded social ritual.
Korean fried chicken
Korean fried chicken (치킨, chikin): double-fried, starch-coated fried chicken from South Korea, with yangnyeom sweet-spicy or soy-garlic glazes; born of post-Korean War US influence, paired with beer as chimaek.
Korma (قورمہ)
Korma (قورمہ, qorma, kurma) is a South Asian braising technique and dish family from Mughal cuisine: meat or vegetables slow-cooked in yogurt, cream, or nut paste, with northern creamy, southern coconut, and mild British restaurant variants.
Kosher salt
Kosher salt, better called koshering salt, is a coarse-grained salt used to draw blood from meat in kashering; its large crystals and lack of iodine made it the default salt of American chefs and recipe developers.
Kouign-amann
Kouign-amann (Breton 'butter cake') is a laminated pastry of bread dough, salted butter, and sugar from Douarnenez, Brittany, created around 1860 by baker Yves-René Scordia and baked to a caramelized crust.
Krupuk
Krupuk (kerupuk, keropok, kroepoek) is a Southeast Asian deep-fried starch cracker, usually tapioca with shrimp, fish, or garlic, documented in Java since the 9th-10th century and a major Indonesian snack and export.
Kugel
Kugel (Yiddish kugel, "ball") is an Ashkenazi Jewish baked pudding of noodles or potatoes with eggs and fat, served on Shabbat and holidays; it began as bread dumplings in cholent about eight centuries ago in Germany.
Kulfi (कुल्फ़ी)
Kulfi (कुल्फ़ी), Indian frozen dairy dessert made by two-fold milk concentration and still freezing without air, denser and slower-melting than ice cream; Mughal-era origins, kulfiwallah street vendors, FSSAI-regulated, stevia-sweetened variants studied.
Kürtőskalács
Kürtőskalács (chimney cake, Baumstriezel) is a Székely-Transylvanian spit cake of wound yeast dough with a caramelized sugar shell; first recorded 1679, first recipe 1784, Hungarian Hungarikum since 2015.
Kutia
Kutia (кутя) is the Ukrainian ritual Christmas grain dish of cooked wheat or barley with honey, poppy seed, and nuts, eaten three times in the winter cycle (Rich, Generous, Hungry kutia) and tied to ancestor veneration.
Laddu (लड्डू)
Laddu (लड्डू, also ladoo, laddoo) is a round Indian sweet defined by shape, not ingredients; besan, boondi, motichoor, and other varieties, with a history from Harappan food balls and the medicinal ladduka of the Sushruta Samhita.
Lahmacun
Lahmacun (Arabic lahm bi-ajin; Armenian lahmajo), also called Turkish or Armenian pizza, is a paper-thin meat-topped flatbread baked at high heat, popular across Turkey, the Levant, and Armenia, with a protected Gaziantep geographical indication.
Laksa
Laksa (叻沙) is a spicy Southeast Asian noodle soup from Peranakan cuisine, in two main forms: coconut-milk curry laksa and sour tamarind-fish asam laksa, with regional variants such as Katong, Sarawak, and Johor laksa.
Lamington
Lamington: Australian and New Zealand square of sponge or butter cake coated in chocolate and desiccated coconut, sometimes jam- or cream-filled; named after Lord Lamington, Governor of Queensland 1896–1901; first printed recipe 17 December 1900.
Lángos
Lángos (langoš, langalló) is a Hungarian deep-fried yeasted flatbread, originally baked near the oven flame, classically rubbed with garlic and topped with sour cream and grated cheese; a designated hungarikum street food.
Lao Gan Ma (老干妈)
Lao Gan Ma (老干妈) is a Chinese chili-sauce brand founded by Tao Huabi in 1996 in Guiyang, Guizhou. Known for its soybean chili crisp, it holds about one fifth of China's chili-sauce market, sells in 160 countries, and reported record 5.4 billion RMB revenue in 2025 without loans, financing, or listing.
Larb (ລາບ)
Larb (ລາບ, Thai ลาบ), also laap or laab, is the national minced meat or fish salad of Laos, eaten in Isaan Thailand, Shan State, and Yunnan, bound with khao khua toasted rice powder, herbs, and chili, served with sticky rice; a UNESCO-listed symbol of Lao identity.
Lard
Lard is rendered pig fat, especially abdominal visceral fat, used in cooking and baking. Also called manteca de cerdo; distinguished from rendered pork fat and tallow. Contains 38-43% saturated fat, smoke point 121-218°C, once a major US export to the UK.
Lardon
Lardon (plural lardons; also lardoon): a small strip or cube of fatty bacon or pork fat, French in origin from lard, used in dishes such as coq au vin and quiche Lorraine or threaded into lean meat for larding.
Lasagna
Lasagna (lasagne) is a baked Italian dish of layered wide pasta sheets with cheese, tomato sauce, and often meat or ragù and béchamel. Codified Bolognese version uses spinach egg pasta; name from Greek laganon or Latin lasanum.
Latke
Latke (Yiddish; Hebrew levivah/levivot): Ashkenazi Jewish fried potato pancake of grated potato, onion, egg, and flour or matzo meal, eaten at Hanukkah for the oil miracle, with cheese-pancake origins in 14th-century Italy.
Lavash (լավաշ)
Lavash (լավաշ) is a thin wheat-flour flatbread baked on the wall of a tonir clay oven, central to Armenian cuisine and inscribed by UNESCO in 2014, with a related 2016 multinational flatbread listing; it keeps dry up to six months.
Lebkuchen
Lebkuchen, German spiced honey-gingerbread, traditionally from Nuremberg; Nürnberger Lebkuchen (Lebküchner documented 1395, guild 1643) holds EU PGI status since 1996, with Elisenlebkuchen capped at 10% flour and at least 25% nuts.
Lefse
Lefse is a Norwegian soft flatbread, best known in its potato form (potetlefse) made of riced potato, flour, butter, and cream, cooked on a griddle (takke). Distinct from crisp flatbrød, it has many regional varieties and is a Norwegian-American holiday staple.
Liège waffle
Liège waffle (gaufre de Liège): dense Belgian street-food waffle from Liège, Wallonia, made of yeasted brioche dough with caramelizing pearl sugar, baked in a 24-hole iron, eaten plain by hand, distinct from the lighter Brussels waffle.
Limburger
Limburger: semi-soft washed-rind cow's milk cheese from the historical Duchy of Limburg, also called Herve in Belgium. Famous pungent rind aroma from Brevibacterium linens and related smear bacteria; mild creamy interior; 30-40% milk fat; only US maker is Chalet Cheese, Wisconsin.