100 Best Recipes Ever: Southeast Asian Dishes

“Thailand is condiment heaven, with a gazillion sauces. This northern Thai-style one is extra-sour, because it uses both tamarind and lime,” says Naomi Duguid.

Chef Lulzim Rexhepi cuts turkey legs crosswise before simmering them first in broth, then in a delightful Thai red-curry sauce. This version skips the broth. To simplify the recipe more, have your butcher cut the drumsticks, or just cook them whole.

This spiced nut mix gets tossed with kaffir lime leaves, typically used in Thai curry sauces but here fried crisp. The dish is one of many kap klaem (drinking snacks) that Andy Ricker offers at Pok Pok’s Whiskey Soda Lounge. “These nuts are served all over Thailand, usually with some kind of dried fish mixed in,” he says.

Mai Pham gives a twist to this Thai street-food staple by adding bok choy and replacing the usual pork, chicken or beef with shrimp.

The classic flavors of Thai cuisine—sweet, salty, spicy, sour—can all be found in the dressing on this salad, a delicious tangle of chewy rice noodles, shrimp, squid and peanuts.

Jennifer Joyce’s party recipes are clever but extremely doable: She gives chicken meatballs a heavenly sticky glaze, for instance, by rolling them in sugar before baking.

Although Charles Phan says you can use any leafy green in this spicy main-course salad, he suggests watercress because it adds another subtle, peppery layer of heat to the dish. He also says it’s fine to partially cook the shallots ahead of time (even the night before) until they are golden, then let them cool; when you refry them before serving, they’ll become extra crispy.

In Vietnam, palate-cleansing ginger is typically served with rich foods like duck. Here, a pungent ginger dipping sauce is paired with salmon, which is loaded with omega-3 fatty acids.

The name says it all for these thin, super-crisp snacks from Vietnamese-food expert and former F&W Test Kitchen supervisor Marcia Kiesel. The pancakes, studded with pork, shrimp and mushrooms and folded around raw bean sprouts, represent everything we love about Southeast Asian cuisine—simultaneously hot and crisp, cold and juicy, and invigoratingly aromatic.

Cold-brewing involves steeping ground coffee in cold water. RBC NYC coffee bar uses the method here.