Food Strategy

If you go into any Korean supermarket, you'll find several staples sold in an overwhelming array: kimchi, anchovies, pickled garlic, and a variety of rice cakes that are not available at Chinese or Japanese stores. At a Chinese store, on the other hand, you might find a few packages of presliced rice cakes (nian gao, in Chinese) for use in stir-fry dishes, but even a small Korean supermarket will carry an impressive range of rice cakes (dok, in Korean).

A meatball is ground meat rolled into a small ball, sometimes along with other ingredients, such as bread crumbs, minced onion, eggs, butter, and seasoning.

Ravioli is a filled pasta encasing a variety of fillings from meats to cheeses to vegetables. Early versions of the pasta can be traced as far back as the Roman Empire, although it wasn’t until the Middle Ages that the ravioli we know today was first developed. In Emilia-Romagna ravioli are typically filled with ricotta e spinach (ricotta and spinach), whereas in the small region of Molise, ravioli scapolesi is filled with sausage and chard. In northern Italy, pumpkin ravioli is a popular pasta dish served in winter, traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve.

Homemade doughnuts are amazingly tender. In all honesty, they can also be a major pain to make, but when you're aiming to impress, these will do the job every single time.