Joe’s Stone Crab, the more-than-century-old seafood restaurant in Miami, is famous for this creamy sauce, which it serves as a condiment for stone crab claws. It’s also a great dressing for sandwiches, salads, or other chilled seafood.

Featured in “How Stone Crab Saved Me From a Lifetime of Bad Birthdays” by Francine Prose in the October 2010 issue.

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If we had to pick one food that sums up everything we love about Texas, it would be the elegant yet simple salad known as Texas caviar: black-eyed peas, minced onion, and garlic marinated with oil and vinegar. Invented in 1940 by chef Helen Corbitt, the dish evokes a significant moment in Texas cooking, when cooks helped usher the state into the gourmet era—not by imitating the ways of cities in the North but by using the ingredients at hand. Like “Texas tea,” as crude oil has been called, the salad’s name evokes a symbol of sophistication but with a wink that seems to say, “We do things differently here.” 

Oddly enough, Corbitt wasn’t a Texan. She was a New Yorker who moved to Austin in 1931 to take a position as an instructor in restaurant management at the University of Texas. Two weeks into the job, Corbitt was asked to cater a dinner using only local ingredients. The high-end staples she had long relied on—caviar, hearts of palm, and so on—were nowhere to be found in Austin at the time, so she made do with what she had, including those sensational black-eyed peas. —Cheryl and Bill Jamison

Featured in “Caviar and Pearls” by Cheryl and Bill Jamison in the June/July 2009 issue.

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This old-school appetizer from Los Angeles’ storied Musso & Frank Grill—now more than a century old—turns humble celery into a creamy, elegant hors d’oeuvre. While the restaurant peels the celery ribs before stuffing them, the dish is just as satisfying without that extra step.

Featured in the April 2009 issue.

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Use the ripest, sweetest, smoothest mangoes you can find, such as Champagne or Haitian varieties, to make this yogurt-enriched Indian fruit shake. Striking the perfect balance between sweet and tart, this mango lassi makes a fine breakfast smoothie, or cooling accompaniment to spicy meals.

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Poke has become a beloved fast food, but it is easy and quick to prepare at home if you have the right ingredients on hand. Cookbook author Kaui Philpotts got the recipe for this version—which features cubed sushi-grade tuna tossed with seaweed and chile flakes—from Hawaiian chef Sam Choy. Be sure to use only the freshest fish.

Featured in “Real Hawaiian” by Kaui Philpotts.

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The Middle Eastern spice blend za’atar (which combines sumac, oregano, sesame, hyssop, and other spices) flavors this simple cilantro-and-garlic dip. It’s ideal served alongside roasted meats, or slathered on fresh-baked pita.

Featured in “Season of Rejoicing: Celebrating Sukkot in Crown Heights” by Katie Robbins.

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I first encountered salmorejo—gazpacho‘s thicker, more decadent cousin—in Madrid. The cool and creamy tomato soup transcended seasonality. It was topped with egg and jamón ibérico, which wept fatty tears over its surface. Salmorejo demands that you act as a Spaniard and mop up every drop with bread. Then, like an American, you order another bowl. 

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While most celery recipes focus on the tender hearts, this crisp, refreshing salad makes a point to use up the whole bunch, including the oft-overlooked leaves. The recipe comes to us from Georges Testa, the third-generation owner of Le Moulin Bleu confectionery and tearoom in Provence. Like many locals, Testa observes Christmas with a meal called either the repas maigre (“lean meal”) or, paradoxically, the gros souper (“big supper”), which consists of seven meatless dishes such as brandade de morue, vegetable gratins, and a whole poached fish. This celery salad dressed with a simple mustard vinaigrette always makes an appearance on Testa’s holiday table but would serve as an excellent side dish any time of year. 

Featured in “Provence Noël” by Nancy Coons in the December 2006 issue.

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There are plenty of theories about Crab Louie’s name, including a tall tale involving the outsize appetite of Louis XIV. A recipe for the dish first appeared under the title “Crabmeat a la Louise” in chef Victor Hirtzler’s 1910 The Hotel St. Francis Cookbook. The hotel, now the Westin St. Francis, still stands on San Francisco’s Union Square, but it doesn’t serve the city’s best Crab Louie. For that, you must wait in line on Polk Street to nab one of 20 seats at Swan Oyster Depot. Peggy Knickerbocker raved about Swan in SAVEUR’s March 1998 issue—and convinced the place to divulge its Louie secrets, including the dressing, comprised of mayonnaise, ketchup, pickle relish, olives, and onions.

Dungeness crabs are fished in the Pacific waters from California to Alaska and prized for their sweet, buttery meat. The season begins in mid-November, but if you don’t live on the West Coast, order them cooked (whole or fresh-picked) from Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, or Giovanni’s Fish Market in California’s Morro Bay—which also ships them live.

Featured in the March 1998 issue.

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Nước chấm, a sweet-sour Vietnamese condiment, can add zing to any number of Vietnamese dishes—from chả giò (fried spring rolls), also known as nem rán, to bun cha (grilled meatballs with vermicelli). Make this nước chấm recipe from cookbook author Andrea Nguyen, who encourages adjusting the amounts of lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar to suit your taste and achieve the desired balance of sour, salty, and sweet.

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“Dolcissimi!” is the cry vendors use to hawk sweet blood oranges at the daily winter market in Catania, a city on the eastern coast of Sicily. Pomologist David Karp, who wrote about the fruit in our January/February 1999 issue, says of this simple salad: “It’s perhaps the most classic dish made with Sicilian citrus, a favorite in both the trattorias and home kitchens of the region.” Make sure to use the ripest blood oranges you can find—they’re the star of this show.

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