Rice Dishes

🇵🇹Algarve, Portugal

Arroz de lingueirão

Arroz de lingueirão is Algarve rice cooked with razor clams, garlic, onion, coriander, and the clams’ briny liquor.

🇧🇷Brazil

Arroz de Linguiça

Brazilian sausage rice: white rice cooked with sliced smoked linguiça, onions, garlic and tomatoes. A simple, comforting one-pot meal, especially in the south and interior.

🇨🇴Barranquilla, Colombia

Arroz de Lisa

A Barranquilla specialty of mullet fish cooked with rice, vegetables, and spices, served in a bijao leaf with yuca, cheese, and suero. A Caribbean-coast icon.

🇦🇴Angola

Arroz de Marisco

Wet rice cooked with prawns, squid, clams and white fish in a tomato and coriander broth.

🇵🇹Portugal

Arroz de Polvo

Octopus and rice baked in the oven until the grains absorb a rich garlicky tomato broth.

🇵🇹Algarve, Portugal

Arroz de safio

Arroz de safio is Algarve rice simmered with conger eel, tomato, onion, garlic, and herbs until the grains absorb the fish broth.

🇨🇷Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Arroz Guacho

Sticky rice soup with seafood, traditional in Guanacaste province, similar to asopao, rich and comforting, coastal.

🇨🇺Cuba

Arroz imperial

A Cuban party dish of seasoned yellow rice layered with shredded chicken, mayonnaise, cheese, and roasted red peppers, baked and unmolded.

🇨🇴Meta, Colombia

Arroz Llanero

An Orinoquía rice dish cooked with oxtail, vegetables, and spices, giving it a rich, beefy flavor. A plains specialty, served with plantains and avocado.

🇵🇷Puerto Rico

Arroz Mamposteao

Puerto Rican arroz mamposteao, also called arroz junto when rice, beans, meat or seafood and sofrito are cooked together into one moist pan.

🇵🇪Peru

Arroz Tapado

A homestyle layered dish: rice on bottom and top, with a filling of ground beef, carrots, olives, and hard-boiled egg in the middle.

🇨🇴Colombia

Arroz Tumbacatre

A Pacific-coast rice dish of fish, shrimp, and coconut milk, cooked with cilantro cimarrón and spices. A Chocó specialty, rich and aromatic.

🇪🇸Balearic Islands, Spain

Arròs brut

Arròs brut is a Mallorcan soupy rice cooked with mixed meat or game, seasonal vegetables, mushrooms, and aromatic spices.

🇧🇯North (Parakou / Borgou / Bariba), Benin

Atassi

A rice and beans dish; originally from northern Benin; now popular nationwide; served with sauce goussi or sauce tomate; a hearty, protein-rich meal.

🇹🇬Togo

Ayimolou

Togo's beloved rice-and-beans breakfast: long-grain rice and black-eyed peas cooked together and tinted red with a light tomato sauce; often sold wrapped in banana leaves by street vendors in the morning.

🇦🇿Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani Plov

Plov

Rice steamed separately from its topping: saffron-stained grains piled over a crust of flatbread or batter, with the meat, fruit or herb garnish cooked apart and served alongside.

🇲🇴Macao

Bacalhau Fried Rice

Arroz Bacalhau

Macanese bacalhau with fried rice; salted cod shredded and mixed with eggs and rice; a delightful combination of savory and salty flavors; a Portuguese-influenced Macanese dish; the cod is usually shredded; the bacalhau fried rice that is a Macau fusion classic.

🇮🇷Iran

Baghali Polo

باقالی پلو

Rice steamed in layers with fresh broad beans and a great deal of dill, served with lamb shank cooked separately.

🇧🇸Bahamas

Bahamian Peas and Rice

Peas 'n' rice

Rice cooked with pigeon peas, salt pork, thyme, tomato paste and browning until the grains take a light brown colour.

🇧🇭Bahrain

Bahraini Quzi

قوزي

Roasted lamb stuffed with rice, meat, eggs, and other ingredients — a celebratory Bahraini dish, the centrepiece of weddings and large gatherings.

🇰🇭Cambodia

Bai Domram

បាយតម្រំា

Rice dish of the Khmer royal court, cooked the day before and left to cool overnight to absorb the morning dew, then scented with jasmine flowers.

🇧🇷Brazil

Baião de Dois

A hearty Northeastern dish of rice and beans cooked together with cheese, herbs, and sometimes dried meat, similar to a pilaf.

🇭🇰Hong Kong

Baked Pork Chop Rice (Ju Pa Fan)

Ju Pa Fan

Baked pork chop rice; a Cantonese restaurant and cha chaan teng classic; pork chops breaded and fried, then baked over rice with tomato sauce and cheese; a Western-influenced Hong Kong dish; the rice gets crispy at the edges; a hearty, comforting meal; the pork chop rice that is a cha chaan teng staple.

🇲🇹Malta

Baked Rice

Ross il-forn

Rice baked in a minced-meat and tomato sauce with egg, saffron and curry powder, cut into squares like its macaroni cousin.

🇵🇰Balochistan, Pakistan

Balochi Pulao

بلوچی پلاؤ

A Balochi rice dish cooked with lamb, raisins and whole spices, often in a sealed pot.

🇮🇳India

Banana Leaf Rice

South Indian meal served on banana leaf with various vegetable curries and rice, fresh banana leaf with variety of vegetables and crispy papadum, a Malaysian Indian icon

🇳🇬Nigeria

Banga Rice

Niger Delta rice cooked in palm-fruit extract with spices and meat or seafood.

🇻🇳Vietnam

Banh Chung

Bánh chưng

Square glutinous rice cake stuffed with mung beans and pork, wrapped in dong leaves and boiled for hours, the essential Tet dish.

🇵🇰Bannu, Pakistan

Bannu Beef Pulao

بنوں بیف پلاؤ

Rice cooked in a deeply reduced beef stock with almost no spice beyond coriander seed and black pepper, so the flavour is stock and fat alone.

🇸🇴Somalia

Bariis Iskukaris

The national dish of Somalia — basmati rice cooked in a single pot with meat (goat, lamb, beef, camel, or chicken), vegetables, and the Somali spice blend xawaash (cumin, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, turmeric); the name means 'cooked mixed together'; topped with raisins, peas, fried potatoes, onions, and peppers; served at weddings and celebrations; always accompanied by a fresh banana on the side.

🇵🇭Philippines

Beef Tapa Breakfast

Tapsilog

The classic Filipino breakfast of cured beef (tapa), garlic fried rice (sinangag), and a fried egg (itlog).

🇰🇷South Korea

Beef Tartare Bibimbap

육회비빔밥

Bibimbap topped with Korean beef tartare (yukhoe) marinated in soy sauce and sesame oil, mixed with raw egg yolk.

🇧🇿Belize

Belizean Rice and Beans

Rice and beans

Rice cooked together with red kidney beans in coconut milk and thyme so the grains turn pale brown, plated with stewed chicken, potato salad and fried plantain.

🇧🇫Burkina Faso

Benga

A rice and beans plate (black-eyed peas or cowpeas) with tomato-onion sauce; simple, nourishing, and affordable; a daily staple in Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso.

🇧🇲Bermuda

Bermuda Hoppin' John

Peas and Plenty

A rice and black-eyed peas dish cooked with onions, salt pork, bacon, and sometimes chouriço sausage; eaten on New Year's Day for prosperity; a Bermuda picnic and gathering staple

🇮🇩Jakarta, Indonesia

Betawi Coconut Rice

Nasi Uduk

Betawi-style rice cooked in coconut milk with lemongrass, pandan, cinnamon, and cloves, served with side dishes.