Burmese

Served with a side of plain jasmine rice, chicken kebat is Burmese home cooking at its simplest.

Semolina flour is ground from durum wheat and is usually used to make pasta; toasting it deepens its flavor, and its fine grain yields a tender, custardy cake.

If it's melon season, you have to make this. In Burma (Myanmar), gin thoke, meaning "ginger mix," is a blend of crispy fried garlic, sesame seeds, and ginger, and is eaten as a sweet digestive snack after meals. Although not native to the region, melons are a refreshing and delicious complement to this dressing, together making a perfect summertime side dish. The ginger is key to this salad. Ideally, the gingerroot should be so young that the skin is almost transparent and the roots are tipped with pink.