Rice Dishes

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Kol Pis No Rais

Cold fish and rice — canned tuna mixed with rice, sometimes with peas and corn; a simple, everyday PNG dish adapted from imported tinned fish and rice.

🇮🇳Kolkata, India

Kolkata Biryani

कोलकाता बिरयानी

A biryani from Kolkata with potatoes and eggs, lightly spiced with nutmeg and mace. It evolved from Awadhi biryani and is distinctively mild.

🇰🇵North Korea

Kongbap

콩밥

Rice cooked with beans, eaten often at breakfast for the protein it adds; a plain, nourishing staple of North Korean daily life; when rice runs short it is stretched with barley, millet, or corn; a simple dish that reflects the austere reality of North Korean food; the foundation of many meals.

🇪🇬Egypt

Koshari

كشري

Egypt's national dish: layers of rice, brown lentils, chickpeas, and pasta topped with spiced tomato sauce, crispy fried onions, and a sharp garlic-vinegar dressing

🇱🇰Colombo, Sri Lanka

Lamprais

ලම්ප්‍රයිස්

Stock-cooked rice, a mixed meat curry, blachan, seeni sambol, ash plantain and two frikkadel meatballs wrapped in a banana leaf and baked.

🇧🇳Brunei

Lemang

Glutinous rice cooked in bamboo tubes lined with banana leaves with coconut milk, traditionally for Eid, smoky bamboo aroma with creamy texture, festive

🇱🇷Liberia

Liberian Jollof Rice

Jollof Rice

Liberian one-pot rice cooked in a seasoned tomato and pepper base with meat or fish.

🇱🇷Liberia

Liberian Rice and Gravy

Rice and Gravy

Plain steamed rice topped with a Liberian meat, fish, or vegetable gravy; the everyday meal format that lets each household's soup take centre stage.

🇺🇸Hawaii, United States

Loco Moco

A Hawaiian comfort plate of rice topped with a hamburger patty, fried egg, and brown gravy.

🇲🇫Saint Martin

Locri

Lokri

A rice and chicken dish similar to risotto; made with chicken, vegetables, lime juice, tomato paste, and local hot sauce; a special dish for holidays on Sint Maarten

🇩🇴Dominican Republic

Locrio

Locrio de Arenque

A Dominican one-pot rice dish cooked with meat or seafood, tomato, sofrito, and spices until every grain is coated; chicken, pork, fish, herring, pigeon pea, and salami are common forms.

🇮🇷Iran

Loobia Polo

لوبیا پلو

Rice cooked with green beans, minced or diced meat, tomato and cinnamon so the grains stain pale red.

🇰🇷South Korea

Lotus Leaf Rice

연잎밥

Rice with chestnuts, jujubes, and mushrooms wrapped in lotus leaves and steamed, a Korean Buddhist temple food with a fragrant lotus aroma.

🇹🇼Taiwan

Lu Rou Fan

滷肉飯

Finely diced pork belly simmered in soy, rice wine, sugar and five spice until the fat turns to jelly, spooned over white rice with a braised egg.

🇮🇳Lucknow, India

Lucknowi Biryani

लखनवी बिरयानी

An Awadhi biryani cooked with marinated meat and rice in the pakki style, using yogurt and saffron. It is more subtle and aromatic than Hyderabadi biryani.

🇦🇫Afghanistan

Maash Pulao

ماش پلو

Mung beans and rice cooked together with dried apricot, raisin and bulgur into a sweet-savoury vegetarian pilaf.

🇦🇪United Arab Emirates

Machboos

مجبوس

Machboos (majboos) is Gulf spiced rice cooked in meat or fish stock with loomi dried lime, onions, and a warm bezar-style spice mix; the protein and local garnish change by household and coast.

🇰🇼Kuwait

Machboos Laham

مجبوس لحم

Lamb boiled with loomi, cinnamon and bezar, the meat lifted out and browned while the rice finishes in the spiced stock, then piled up with the meat on top.

🇰🇼Kuwait

Maidem

ميدم

White rice topped with fish that has been boiled, flaked, fried with onion and spice, and heaped back over the grains.

🇧🇴Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Majadito

A Santa Cruz dish of rice cooked with charque, onions, tomatoes, and spices, finished with a fried egg.

🇮🇩South Sulawesi, Indonesia

Makassar Rice Cake

Burasa

Makassar rice cake cooked in coconut milk, wrapped in banana leaves, served with coto or konro.

🇸🇦Saudi Arabia

Mandi

مندي

Mandi is rice served with meat cooked in a tandoor or pit so smoke and rendered fat perfume the grains; the Saudi form carries a strong southern and Yemeni culinary tradition.

🇯🇴Jordan

Maqluba

مقلوبة

Rice layered with fried aubergine, cauliflower and lamb or chicken in a pot, cooked, then upended onto a tray so the layers show.

🇰🇼Kuwait

Marabyan

مربين

Rice cooked with fresh or dried Gulf shrimp, coriander, dill and loomi, a Kuwaiti coastal staple from when the town lived on the sea.

🇲🇷Mauritania

Marolaym

One-pot dish of lamb or goat meat with rice in an onion base; a variant of chubbagin with a lighter sauce and no tomato; flavored with onions, oil, and mild spices; a simple, everyday rice-and-meat dish across Mauritania.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Maru we-llham

Marou wa lham

Maru we-llham is rice cooked slowly in a lightly salted meat sauce, with the meat arranged at the centre; Sahrawi and Mauritanian versions commonly use camel or other meat.

🇮🇳India

Masale Bhaat

मसाले भात

A Maharashtrian spiced rice dish with vegetables and goda masala. It is a festive one-pot rice.

🇰🇼Kuwait

Mashkhool

مشخول

White rice cooked over a bed of onion rings, turmeric and black pepper laid at the bottom of the pot, so the base browns while the top steams white.

🇰🇼Kuwait

Mashwi Jeder

مشوي جدر

Beef or chicken layered under rice with onion and potato in a heavy pot, cooked through, then inverted onto a tray so the potato crust ends up on top.

🇧🇭Bahrain

Masli

المصلي

Bahraini rice dish where chicken, meat, fish, or shrimp is cooked directly in the pot with the rice — simpler than machboos, with the protein incorporated rather than served on top.

🇸🇦Saudi Arabia

Mathlotha

مثلوثة

Mathlotha layers jareesh wheat porridge, qursan flatbread, and basmati rice beneath roasted meat, keeping three textures visible.

🇲🇷Mauritania

Mauritanian Fish and Rice

Chubbagin Lélé et Raabie

Fish and rice cooked with vegetables in a tomato and chili sauce; the Mauritanian version of Senegalese ceebu jën, adapted with local fish from the Atlantic coast and Mauritanian spice preferences.

🇲🇺Mauritius

Mauritian Briani

Briani

Rice layered with marinated chicken, mutton or fish, potatoes, saffron-yellow curd and fried onion, sealed and steamed so the potatoes soak the fat.

🇬🇲The Gambia

Mbahal

Mbaxal

Rice mixed with a pounded paste of smoked and salted fish, peanuts, black-eyed peas, okra, chilli, bitter tomato, and locust bean.

🇸🇳Senegal

Mbakhal

Mbaxal

Rice cooked with groundnut paste, dried fish and vegetables into a thick, savoury one-pot.

🇮🇳India

Memoni Biryani

میمونی بریانی

A spicy biryani from the Memon community of Gujarat and Pakistan, made with lamb, yogurt, and potatoes. It is rich and aromatic.