Lonely Planet - The World’s Best Bowl Food: Where to find it and how to make it

MATT MUNRO / LONELY PLANET

WESTEND61 / GETTY IMAGES

Chia pudding Central
and South America

Museli Europe, USA,
Australia and UK

Zucchini and fig smoothie bowl
USA

Chicken & matzo
ball soup Jewish

New England clam chowder
USA

Sopa do Espirito Santo
Portugal

SALADS &
HEALTHY BOWLS

Jewelled couscous
with eggplant Morocco

Persian spiced cauliflower
and bulgur salad UK

Sesame tofu buddha
bowl Japan

Summer squash spaghetti
USA

Tarragon grilled chicken
grain bowl USA

Tempeh with spicy kale
and black quinoa USA

Wild rice and sweet potato
power bowl USA

RICE, PASTA
& NOODLES

Hong Shao Niu Rou Mian
Taiwan

Hyderabadi chicken biryani
India

Singapore noodles China,
(Hong Kong), UK, USA, Canada,
Australia (everywhere but
Singapore)

Yellow braised chicken rice
China

STEWS, BRAISES
& HEARTY bowls

Fish head curry Singapore
and Malaysia

Quinoa stew Bolivia
and Peru

Chocolate dessert bowl
Europe and North America

Foreword

BY JANINE EBERLE

So, what is bowl food? In a sense its the latest fad:
paleo-macro-bio lunches served on the blond-wood
tables of Edison-bulb-bedecked cafes. Dishes that
launched a million #powerbowl Instagram posts and a
fleet of food trucks.

But fads explode because they touch a deeper truth.
As we put together this book exploring bowl foods around
the world, it became clear that food just doesnt fall into
bowls by accident. The things we eat from them have
some common characteristics, from Iceland to Burma,
Ghana to Peru. Whether its a fiery chilli con carne, a
long-simmered Welsh stew or a spicy mound of Moroccan
couscous, these are meals that speak the international
language of comfort.

Theyre the foods that go to the heart of a cuisine,
and recall home, or childhood, or tradition. Theyre
among the worlds most beloved dishes macaroni
and cheese, Vietnamese pho, Japanese rmen. These
bowls have transcended their local roots and become
transcontinental comfort meals.

Youll find some recurring themes. What cuisine
doesnt have a cure-all chicken soup? From Jewish
chicken and matzo ball to Greek avgolemono to Korean
samgyetang, the art of concocting medicine from fowl
meat has long been a global pursuit. Theres the ancient
art of nose-to-tail eating, slow-cooking to make the
best of less desirable cuts of meat, from Frances boeuf

bourguignon to South African bredie. Crafty ways to
concoct deliciousness from yesterdays leftovers, like
Levantine fattoush built around stale pitta bread, to
Indonesias nasi goreng, using up rice from the night
before. The resourcefulness of peasant home cooks has
brought us some of our most loved meals.

Its not surprising that in a modern world where eating
healthily has, in many cases, replaced the need for eating
thriftily, weve returned to the bowl as a symbol for all
that makes us feel good about food. The triumph of
casual eating over formal dining and our predilection for
dining while sitting on the sofa watching TV also make the
bowl a natural choice of vessel.

And then theres what Oxford Universitys expert
in the psychology of taste Charles Spence calls the
multisensory nature of eating if you hold the bowl
while eating from it, its weight may lead you to feel more
satisfied with the meal. Foodie thought leaders have
stepped up to the plate or rather, bowl with Gwyneth