1,165 articles
Taco
Taco: Mexican dish of a folded or rolled corn or flour tortilla around meat, beans, or salsa; varieties include al pastor, carnitas, and tacos de minero; distinct from the fried Tex-Mex hard-shell taco.
Taffy (candy)
Taffy (candy): a chewy cooked-sugar confection aerated by repeated stretching and folding; salt water taffy is its Atlantic City, New Jersey, boardwalk variant from about 1880, not made with ocean water.
Tahini
Tahini (ṭaḥīna, طحينة; Hebrew t'khiná), also called tahina or sesame butter, is a paste of toasted ground hulled sesame from the Middle East, used in hummus, baba ghanoush, taratoor and halva; energy-dense, over 80% fat.
Taiyaki (たい焼き)
Taiyaki (たい焼き) is a Japanese sea-bream-shaped baked wheat confection filled with anko, derived from imagawayaki in the Meiji era; attributed to Naniwaya Sohonten (1909, Tokyo), founder Kanbe Seijiro, with tennen (single-mold) versus yoshoku (mass-produced) styles and the Korean relative bungeoppang.
Take-out
Take-out, also known as takeaway or carryout, is food prepared by a restaurant to be eaten elsewhere, usually at home, together with delivery and drive-thru.
Takoyaki (たこ焼き)
Takoyaki (たこ焼き), grilled octopus balls, is an Osaka street food invented in 1935 by Aizuya's Endo Tomekichi from rajioyaki; batter with dashi, egg, octopus, and tenkasu, cooked in a dimpled griddle, topped with sauce and mayonnaise.
Tamago Sando
Tamago Sando is a Japanese egg salad sandwich made with creamy mashed eggs and soft shokupan. It is a standard convenience store item that has gained international popularity.
Tamagoyaki (卵焼き)
Tamagoyaki (卵焼き), Japanese rolled omelette also called atsuyaki tamago or dashimaki tamago: beaten seasoned egg fried in thin layers and rolled in a rectangular pan; Kanto style is sweet, Kansai style dashi-based.
Tandoori chicken
Tandoori chicken (तंदूरी चिकन): yogurt-and-spice-marinated chicken roasted in a charcoal-fired clay tandoor; a Punjabi dish popularized by Moti Mahal in post-1947 Delhi, with disputed credit between Kundan Lal Gujral and Kundan Lal Jaggi.
Tanghulu (糖葫芦)
Tanghulu (糖葫芦, bingtanghulu) is a Chinese winter street snack of fruit, classically hawthorn, skewered and dipped in sugar syrup cooked to the hard-crack stage (~300°F), forming a glassy shell; Song-dynasty origin, cariogenic like jam, viral on TikTok with burn warnings.
Tangyuan (汤圆) (food)
Tangyuan (汤圆), also called fuyuanzi or tangtuan, is a Chinese glutinous rice ball with sweet or savory filling, boiled and served in soup, the signature Lantern Festival food; southern tangyuan is wrapped from wet dough, unlike northern rolled yuanxiao.
Tapas
Tapas are small Spanish food portions served with a drink, free or ordered; related formats include raciones, media raciones, and Basque pintxos. Defined by the RAE, recognized in a 2018 BOE heritage resolution, with a UNESCO candidacy underway.
Tapenade
Tapenade is a Provençal spread of crushed olives, capers, and anchovies bound with olive oil; named from Provençal tapeno (caper), codified in 1880 by chef Meynier at La Maison Dorée, Marseille, in black and green versions.
Tapioca
Tapioca: starch extracted from the cassava root (Manihot esculenta), also called cassava or manioc starch; made into pearls by heating moist starch; used as thickener, in puddings, paper, textiles, and adhesives.
Taquito
Taquito (Spanish, 'little taco'), also called rolled taco, taco dorado, or flauta: a Mexican dish of small rolled tortillas, usually corn, filled with beef, chicken, or cheese and fried until crisp; word attested 1917 in New Mexico, defined 1929.
Taramasalata
Taramasalata (taramosalata, ταραμοσαλάτα) is a Greek and Turkish meze dip of salted cured fish roe (tarama) blended with bread or potato, olive oil, and lemon juice, traditionally served on Clean Monday, pale beige to pale pink unless dyed.
Tarte Tatin
Tarte Tatin: French upside-down caramelized apple tart from the Tatin sisters' hotel in Lamotte-Beuvron, Sologne; legend of accidental invention, popularized by Curnonsky and Maxim's, guarded by the Confrérie des Lichonneux.
Tartufo
Tartufo (Tartufo di Pizzo) is an Italian hand-shaped gelato dessert of hazelnut and chocolate ice cream around a molten chocolate core, dusted in cocoa; invented in Pizzo, Calabria, in 1952 by Don Pippo and protected by EU PGI status.
Tater tots
Tater tots: bite-sized fried potato nuggets invented in 1953 by Golden and Nephi Grigg at Ore-Ida in Ontario, Oregon, to use French fry scraps; trademarked by Ore-Ida, released 1956, sold to Heinz in 1965.
Tavern-style pizza
Tavern-style pizza is a Chicago thin-crust pizza with a cracker-crisp base, toppings spread to the edges, and a cut into squares called the party cut.
Tempeh
Tempeh (tempe) is an Indonesian fermented soybean cake from Java, made with Rhizopus molds, over 400 years old, high in protein (18 g per half cup), and a Codex-standardized staple food.
Tempura (天ぷら)
Tempura (天ぷら) is the Japanese deep-fried battered seafood-and-vegetable dish of Portuguese origin, defined by its thin Edo-style coating, tentsuyu or salt serving, 160-180 C frying, and distinct Nagasaki and Satsuma-age variants.
Texas toast
Texas toast is thick-sliced white bread, about twice normal thickness, buttered and grilled; invented in 1941 at the Pig Stand in Beaumont, Texas, by Royce Hailey and cook Wiley W. W. Cross, now served nationwide.
Textured vegetable protein
Textured vegetable protein (TVP, also TSP or textured plant protein), a dehydrated extruded ingredient from defatted soy flour (also lentils, peas, faba beans), invented by ADM in the 1960s, approved for US school lunches in 1971, used as meat extender or meat analogue.
Thai curry
Thai curry (แกง, kaeng) is a Thai cuisine dish built from curry paste, coconut milk or water, and meat, seafood, or vegetables. Known types include gaeng phet, gaeng keow wan, panang, and massaman; pastes date to the Sukhothai period.
Thali (थाली)
Thali (थाली), the Indian round platter and set-meal format of katoris with dal, bread, rice, curd and regional dishes; from Vedic sthali to Karnataka-invented restaurant thalis and Thalinomics pricing.
Thousand Island dressing
Thousand Island dressing is a creamy American condiment of mayonnaise, ketchup, and pickles, named after the Thousand Islands region of the St. Lawrence River; competing origin stories credit Sophia LaLonde of Clayton, NY, chef Theo Rooms of Chicago's Blackstone Hotel, and Waldorf-Astoria maitre d' Oscar Tschirky.
Tiffin
Tiffin: Anglo-Indian word for a light midday meal, snack, or afternoon tea; also the stacked steel lunch carrier and, in Mumbai, the dabbawala-delivered packed lunch. South Indian tiffin rooms serve dosas, idli, and filter coffee.
Toad in the hole
Toad in the hole: traditional British dish of sausages baked in Yorkshire-pudding batter (eggs, milk, flour), served with onion gravy; name first recorded in Grose's 1787 Provincial Glossary.
Toast sandwich
Toast sandwich: a Victorian sandwich of thin cold toast between two slices of bread-and-butter with pepper and salt, from the invalid cookery chapter of Isabella Beeton's 1861 Book of Household Management.