travel
How to Order Food in Korea, and What All Those Little Dishes Are
Banchan are free and refillable, most stews are built on anchovy stock, and several dishes cannot be ordered for one person. A practical guide to Korean menus.
The guides
Know what to order
Guides for the moment you are sitting down with a menu you cannot read, or one you can read and still do not trust.
Vietnamese menus divide along lines most visitors never see — the noodle, the region, and the sauce. Here's what the categories actually mean and what the herbs are for.
Thai menus are grouped by cooking method, the heat lives in places you wouldn't guess, and one three-letter word does more work than any phrasebook. A practical guide.
Japan is harder for vegetarians than its vegetable-forward reputation suggests, and the reason is a stock that appears in almost everything and is listed on almost nothing.
Italian menus are structured in a way that quietly catches out visitors — a primo is not a starter, contorni are not included, and the coperto is not a scam. Here's how to read one.
A practical guide to Japanese menus for travellers — how they're structured, the words worth memorising, and what to do when there are no pictures and no English.