Root Vegetable

Char Kway Teow These slightly sweet, salty rice noodles, with lots of garlic and a hint of heat, are a popular street food in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. There's a bit of chopping involved, but the ingredients are remarkably easy to put together.

Bahmi goreng You'll be hard-pressed to refuse seconds of this irresistible stir-fry. Tender Chinese egg noodles, crisp green snow peas, and Chinese long beans mingle with plenty of rich, garlicky sauce. Cubes of tofu and shredded omelet add even more texture.

Sukiyaki The term comfort food might have been coined for this bowl of rich, home-style broth surrounding thinly cut beef and a selection of Asian vegetables. The traditional accompaniment of beaten egg makes a silky dipping sauce.

Bibimbop A glorious combination of fresh stir-fried vegetables, each cooked separately to allow its flavors to stay true, is liberally seasoned with garlic and sesame oil. To gild the lily, every serving is topped off with a rich fried egg that gets added just before eating.

Fiery habaneros impart brightness to a rich pork dish like Yucatecan-style pork.

Moroccan hospitality, always gracious, begins with mezes, the enticing little dishes set out to welcome guests before the meal. Cumin and mint are a classic combination, and they work particularly well with roasted beets — the cumin underlines their earthiness, and the mint freshens their undeniable sweetness.

Aligot gratin with horseradish cream Peasant ingenuity triumphs in this simple, soul-satisfying dish from France's mountainous Auvergne region. It's the perfect foil for grilled or roasted meat.

Brik The old joke is that brik turns into a brick if the pastry (in Tunisia, malsuqa) is not thin enough. We found spring-roll wrappers had just what the dish required — they are delicate but sturdy enough for the eggy stuffing.

In this confit, called tfaya, all the ingredients blend together, taking on a melting softness as well as the distinct notes of honey. Added to savory dishes like the couscous or even the lamb, it provides an unexpected brightness along with the sweetness.

This vegetarian showstopper will bowl you over with its layers of flavor — one bite is enough to understand why it's often called one of the world's great dishes. Barley couscous, lighter and more aromatic than the well-known semolina version, serves as a nutty, fluffy base; tender-firm vegetables and a fragrant, golden broth are ladled over; and crunchy fried almonds and sweet onion confit add even more texture and flavor to the beguiling complexity.

At the thought of Morocco, the mind tends to wander to the teeming heart of Marrakech; but the windswept coastal city of Essaouira, with its whitewashed buildings and heaping displays of glimmering fish (which you can have grilled on the spot), offers another sort of paradise. We can't supply Essaouira's particular perfume of sea and smoke, but the simplicity and clean flavors of this lemon-infused dish will take you there in spirit.

The ubiquity of pomegranates in Morocco inspired food editor Maggie Ruggiero to add one nontraditional ingredient — pomegranate juice — to this very traditional meze; its tartness turns up the volume on all the flavors, and its color lends a beautiful mahogany sheen.

Once a favorite breakfast of the Chinese, this dish might more accurately be called a daikon scramble. But the Chinese words for carrot and daikon are almost the same, and "cake" refers to the way the rice flour binds the ingredients.

Fresh radishes (plentiful at the market this time of year) add color and crunch to this slightly sweet vinaigrette-based slaw.

These bread-basket staples are as good with eggs as they are with the grilled "barbecue" beef and slaw.

We've made this colorful dish using fresh cooked rice instead of leftover takeout. There's plenty here for a hearty breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

In India, no two families use the same masala blend. We think the combination here is perfect for potatoes, but have fun trying your own mixtures at home.

The spice in this dish from Jennifer Maeng, executive chef at Korean Temple Cuisine in New York City, adds more than taste. A compound found in red-hot pepper may also rev up your metabolism. Wok star!

Sink your teeth into a ssäm, Korea's answer to a burrito. This recipe from David Chang, co-chef at Momofuku Ssäm Bar in New York City, trades tortillas for crisp lettuce to save calories and fat.