Asian

Bangkok-style noodles with shrimp, chicken and Thai chilies from Arun's in Chicago.

This innovative dish from Susanna Foo, the Philadelphia restaurant that takes its chef-owner's name, combines Asian and southwestern influences. Serve it with rice.

Preparation time: 25 minutes Cooking time: 5 minutes Sichuan cooking is popular throughout China, and in recent years, adventurous Chinese restaurant diners have discovered how delicious it can be. This is one of the best known dishes from that area.

To make things even easier, use a cabbage slaw mix. Serve with: Deli rice salad.

Matt McMillan, Big Bowl's executive chef, threw together these items for his lunch one day. We ran it as a special the next week. It's simple and delicious.

The secret to this Chinese favorite is not to let the noodles sit in the sauce very long — toss them together a few seconds before serving.

Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 15 min

This recipe combines the oriental technique of velveting with the Indian flavors of a fresh herb chutney.

These hors d'oeuvres—a dressed-up version of shrimp toasts—are adapted from a recipe by Chinese cooking authority Nina Simonds, a longtime contributor to our pages.

Note: To slice the cucumber in the following recipe into a paper-thin spiral, we used a Japanese rotary device known as the Benriner vegetable slicer.

This very typical Lao dish may also be made with fish, pork, beef, or, in Southeast Asian tradition, water buffalo meat. While laap is often made with raw meat or fish, our chicken-based rendition is stir-fried, as it was when Lao cooks served it to us. A powder made from toasted glutinous rice subtly flavors the dish.