1,165 articles
Tzatziki
Tzatziki (τζατζίκι), also cacık in Turkish, is a cold Greek dip of strained yogurt, grated cucumber, garlic, olive oil, and dill or mint, served as meze and with gyros or souvlaki.
Ube halaya
Ube halaya is a Filipino dessert in which grated purple yam is slow-cooked with coconut milk, condensed milk, butter, and sugar into a thick, deeply purple jam, likely arising as a Spanish colonial-era fiesta food.
Udon
Udon (うどん) is a thick, chewy Japanese wheat noodle made from flour, salt, and water, served hot in dashi, cold with dipping sauce, or stir-fried; famous styles include Sanuki udon of Kagawa and firm Yoshida udon.
Umeboshi (梅干し)
Umeboshi (梅干し), Japanese salted and sun-dried pickled ume (Prunus mume) fruit, a Heian-era medicine and preserved food; traditional types carry about 20% salt, Wakayama's Nanko-ume is the signature variety, and pickling yields sour umezu brine.
Unleavened bread
Unleavened bread, including matzo, chapati, roti, and tortilla, is bread baked without yeast or baking powder. It is the oldest bread known, dating to 14,400 years ago, and is ritual food in Passover.
Uzbek plov
Uzbek plov (osh, palov): Uzbekistan's national rice dish, cooked as zirvak of meat, onion and carrot layered with rice in a kazan; UNESCO-listed in 2016, with distinct regional styles.
Vacherin (dessert)
Vacherin (dessert), a French meringue dessert; also vacherin glacé. A decorated meringue or almond-paste ring filled with ice cream, Chantilly, and fruit, named for its resemblance to Vacherin Mont d'Or cheese.
Vada (வடை) (food)
Vada (வடை) is a savoury Indian deep-fried snack of ground pulses, flour, or vegetables. Best known as medu vada, a ring-shaped urad dal fritter with sambar and chutney; in Mumbai it names the potato patty of vada pav.
Vada pav
Vada pav (वड़ा पाव), also called the Indian or Mumbai burger, is a Maharashtrian street food: a spiced deep-fried potato fritter (batata vada) in a soft pav roll with chutneys. Credited to Ashok Vaidya at Dadar station in the late 1960s and tied to Shiv Sena politics.
Varieties of biryani
Varieties of biryani: regional styles of the layered South Asian rice-and-meat dish, from Hyderabadi kachchi and Lucknowi pakki to Thalassery, Ambur, Sindhi, and Sri Lankan buriyani, differing in rice, spices, and dum technique.
Vark
Vark (varak, waraq, वरक़), edible silver leaf, is a 0.2–0.8 μm pure silver or gold foil decorating South Asian sweets; India's FSSAI requires 999/1000 fineness and bans animal-origin manufacture.
Vegan cheese
Vegan cheese, also called dairy-free or plant-based cheese, mimics dairy cheese using coconut oil, starches, nuts, soy, and gums instead of casein; lower protein, EU naming bans, and a USD 2.43 bn 2021 market distinguish it.
Velouté sauce
Velouté sauce: one of Escoffier's five French mother sauces, a light chicken, veal, or fish stock thickened with a blond roux; distinct from béchamel (milk-based) and parent of suprême, allemande, and bercy sauces.
Vermicelli
Vermicelli, also known as Siwayan, is the name for very thin noodle or pasta strands, covering Italian wheat pasta, Asian rice vermicelli, and starch glass noodles.
Vichyssoise
Vichyssoise (crème vichyssoise glacée) is a chilled puréed leek-and-potato cream soup, usually garnished with chives. Invented in New York by Ritz-Carlton chef Louis Diat around 1917 from his mother's hot soup; unlike hot potage Parmentier, and never popular in France.
Vienna sausage
Vienna sausage (Wiener Würstel): thin parboiled pork-and-beef sausage created in Vienna in 1805 by Frankfurt-trained butcher Johann Georg Lahner; also the American canned cocktail sausage sold since Libby's 1903.
Vinaigrette
Vinaigrette (French, from vinaigre, vinegar): an emulsion of oil and an acid, usually vinegar or citrus. Distinguished from creamy dressings by its oil-and-acid base; classic 3:1 ratio, mustard as common emulsifier.
Virgin boy egg
Virgin boy egg (童子蛋, tongzi dan) is a Dongyang, Zhejiang springtime dish of eggs boiled in the urine of boys under ten; listed as Dongyang municipal intangible cultural heritage in 2008, with disputed health claims.
Vol-au-vent
Vol-au-vent: a French hollow puff-pastry case with raised walls and a lid, filled with sauce-bound savory mixtures such as chicken, mushrooms, or sweetbreads. Also called vidé or koninginnehapje in Belgium; its small individual form is the bouchée à la reine.
Wafer
Wafer: a thin crisp baked good from batter between hot plates, also a US thin cookie, the Eucharist host, and a semiconductor slice; 2.5 mm thick, 1–2% moisture.
Waffle
Waffle: a batter cake baked in a hinged waffle iron, giving a crisp gridlike surface; also called gaufre. Known for higher sugar and fat than pancake batter, Belgian Brussels and Liege varieties, and frozen Eggos.
Wagashi (和菓子)
Wagashi (和菓子) are traditional Japanese confections of plant-based ingredients like adzuki paste, rice flour, and sugar, classified by moisture into fresh, half-fresh, and dry sweets, tied to the tea ceremony, seasons, and annual events.
Watergate salad
Watergate salad, also called Pistachio Delight or Green Fluff, is a no-cook American dessert salad of pistachio pudding mix, crushed pineapple, whipped topping, marshmallows, and pecans, created by Kraft in 1975 and renamed after the Watergate scandal era.
Wedding cake
Wedding cake (also bride cake): decorated cake, usually white-iced and tiered, served at weddings. Traces from Roman cake-breaking customs and English bride pies to Victoria's 1840 tiered plum cake and the modern global standard.
Weisswurst
Weisswurst (Weißwurst), Munich's white sausage: a Bavarian scalded sausage of veal and pork, poached, eaten with sweet mustard and pretzel before noon, legendary 1857 origin.
Welsh rarebit
Welsh rarebit, also Welsh rabbit (caws pobi), is a Welsh dish of toast topped with a melted cheese sauce made with ale, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce; first recorded as Welsh rabbit in 1725.
Wensleydale cheese
Wensleydale cheese: British crumbly cow's-milk cheese from Wensleydale, Yorkshire Dales; protected version Yorkshire Wensleydale holds UK/EU PGI status; monastic origins around 1150; Hawes creamery, Saputo then Lactalis ownership.
Whey
Whey is the liquid byproduct of cheesemaking, about 93% water with lactose, soluble proteins (β-lactoglobulin, α-lactalbumin), and minerals; processed into whey protein concentrate (34–80% protein) and isolate (90%+), once waste, now a prized, price-surging food ingredient.
Whey mineral concentrate
Whey mineral concentrate (GRN 52) is a milk-mineral powder from whey, used as a calcium source in beverages, foods, and dairy; FDA had no questions in 2001.
Whey protein isolate
Whey protein isolate (WPI) is a dairy ingredient, at least 90% protein by dry weight, made from cheese whey by membrane filtration or ion exchange; used in supplements, sports drinks, and protein-fortified foods, GRAS in the US since 2000.