Guyana

Guyanese cooking is layered by history. Amerindian cassareep — a dark, molasses-like reduction of bitter cassava — anchors the country's most famous dish, pepperpot: a slow-simmered stew of beef or pork, cinnamon and cloves, kept going on the stove for days over Christmas. Alongside it: African-inspired cook-up rice, Indian dhal and roti, Chinese chow mein at a birthday, Portuguese sweet bread on a Sunday afternoon.

Nothing here is minimal. A Guyanese meal is a long meal, and the point is always the company at the table.

Morning at Bourda Market in Georgetown smells of ripe mango, curry powder and fresh fish. Vendors call out over trays of bora, karaila and pumpkin. Roti is folded warm from a griddle, doubles are wrapped in paper, and a paper cup of mauby is cold in your hand on the walk home.

Later, the pace slows. Curry chicken and dhal puri on a wide veranda, a bowl of metemgee thick with coconut milk, and children running under mango trees while the pepperpot keeps warm on the stove.