Kitchen Language

Spanish for "on the ground", the solera system is a technique for aging alcohol by fractional blending.

Brush up on your food terminology with us, from commonplace colloquialisms to obscure obsessions, as we demystify culinary lingo in our Kitchen Language column.

Brush up on your food terminology with us, from commonplace colloquialisms to obscure obsessions, as we demystify culinary lingo in our Kitchen Language column.

What gives the characteristic smoky char to flatbreads like naan, kebabs and tandoori chicken?

Brush up on your food terminology with us, from commonplace colloquialisms to obscure obsessions, as we demystify culinary lingo in our Kitchen Language column.

This classical French technique is right at home in Asia.

Brush up on your food terminology with us, from commonplace colloquialisms to obscure obsessions, as we demystify culinary lingo in our Kitchen Language column.

After sweetness, sourness, bitterness, and saltiness, umami is the fifth taste that is often described as a savoury or meaty flavour.

Brush up on your food terminology with us, from commonplace colloquialisms to obscure obsessions, as we demystify culinary lingo in our Kitchen Language column.

The hot plate from Spain that's changing the cooking game

The grandmother of European sauces is the essential building block for many a soup and gravy.

In French cuisine, cooking au jus is a natural way to enhance the flavour of meat by serving it the light gravy that is given off by the meat as it cooks.

Rempah is a complex paste of spices used as the foundation of many Malay, Indonesian and Peranakan dishes.

What exactly is "wok's breath" and how does one achieve it? We give you the low-down on wok hei, a quintessential feature of Cantonese cooking.

This Malay colloqualism is the perfect way to describe that cloying feel you get when you've had too much of a good thing.

This Hokkien term is used to describe astringency in tannin-rich food and drinks.

This Malay word is used to describe the rich creaminess of coconut milk in food.