Fry

The origin of this dish is unknown, but it's a common menu feature of many Italo-American restaurants of the red-sauce variety. In kitchen lingo, a shoemaker is a shortcutting, skillful hack; a shoemaker cobbles things, a meal, together from the meager things on hand. In Italian, scarpa translates as "shoe" and scarpariella is slang for shoemaker. The actual name for one who plies this trade is calzolaio. In Chicken Scarpariella, a spring chicken is "hacked" up in to small pieces and quickly cooked with a few common ingredients.

This sophisticated appetizer from Aqua in San Francisco is nice for a special occasion.

Hangtown Fry This omelet hails from Hangtown, a town northeast of Sacramento that was named for the notorious hangings once held there (it's now called Placerville). The dish seems to have come into existence during the Gold Rush, as the high-priced breakfast of a lucky miner, and later became a specialty at San Francisco's Tadich Grill. It is traditionally served with bacon.

Chapati or Roti This is the basic bread of India—it is made every day in North Indian homes. Its smooth, soft, and very pliable texture comes from the finely ground whole wheat flour. Only water is added to make the dough. It is then rolled into thin rounds ranging in size from four to eight inches (the size varies from state to state) and baked on a griddle. It takes a bit of practice to learn to roll the dough properly. Don't worry if your first few batches are not perfectly round, or if they don't roll out to the full size indicated. With practice you will soon master this technique. In the meantime, the bread will still taste good, even if doesn't look perfect.

Active time: 10 min Start to finish: 35 min

The dressing for this salad is based on an old Pennsylvania Dutch recipe.

Active time: 10 min Start to finish: 10 min

The predicaments of six kids growing up under one suburban roof were the cornerstone of each Brady Bunch episode. In "The Personality Kid," which first aired in 1971, Peter thinks he's dull and goes looking for a new image. Trying on Humphrey Bogart for size, he asks Alice what's for dinner. "Pork chops and applesauce," Peter repeats à la Bogart. "Ain't that swell." His parents and Alice make lighthearted fun of Peter's new accent. Active time: 50 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

Sheila Stein of Woodbury, New York, New York, writes: "We've eaten several times at La Viola of Syosset. Their chicken française is excellent. Could you get the recipe for me?"

This recipe incorporates two popular foods from the Toi San region of southern China: One is the Chinese boneless barbecued pork strips known as cha siu, and the other is fresh rice noodles. The latter are sold in 1-pound packages, either as rumpled sheets that must be cut into strips or as precut 1/2-inch-wide strips.

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 25 min Chuck blade steaks are a wonderful cut — luxurious flavor at a bargain price. They may appear under different names — flatiron or book steaks, for instance — in your butcher case, but they're easy to spot: Neat ovals that are slightly larger than your palm and bisected by a slender white ribbon — of gristle.

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 20 min I always use white cornmeal, as do many southerners — it has better flavor and tends to have a finer grind. When traveling, I look for cornmeal from specialty mills, but at home I stick with Kentucky Kernel or Nunn-Better, which I get at the local grocery. I urge people to buy cornmeal that has been grown and ground close to home — freshness is more important than brand.

These crisp turnovers are traditionally enclosed in pastry dough. Making and rolling out the dough can be quite time-consuming, so potsticker wrappers are used in this recipe instead.