You Voted, and Six New Kitchens Opened — Spain, Greece, Turkey, Peru, Poland, Philippines

In July we added Vietnam and then asked which country should be number thirteen. Four on the shortlist: Nigeria, Turkey, Greece and the Philippines. Send it through the contact form, we said, one word is fine.

You did. Then we went and did something slightly different with the answer — instead of adding one kitchen, we added six. Spain, Greece, Turkey, Peru, Poland and the Philippines are all open: 102 new dishes, seventeen per country, and a free recipe behind every single one.

Three of your four shortlisted countries are in. The fourth is not, and that is the awkward part of this post, so it is near the bottom rather than buried at the end. There is also a seventh kitchen, which opened while this post was being written — it is further down.

🇪🇸 Spain — tapas, garlic and long lunches

Six mains, five street plates, three sweets and three drinks, same shape as every other kitchen. The one to order first is Paella Valenciana, mostly because the recipe contains the rule that separates real paella from rice stew: once the rice goes in, you never stir it again. The crust that forms on the bottom is called socarrat, and it is the point of the whole dish.

Also open: Patatas Bravas (sauce over the top, never underneath — the crunch has to survive to the table), Tortilla Española, and Crema Catalana.

🇬🇷 Greece — one of yours

You asked for it, so here it is in full: Moussaka, Souvlaki, Gyros, Spanakopita and eleven more.

Two things we learned writing these recipes and will now not shut up about. The chips go inside the gyros — this is not a liberty, it is how it is served in Greece. And Loukoumades go leathery within the hour, which makes them the rare dessert that genuinely cannot be delivered. Fitting, for a site where nothing is delivered anyway.

🇹🇷 Turkey — also one of yours

Charcoal, yoghurt and syrup-soaked everything. Adana Kebab comes with the detail nobody tells you: knead the mince for a full five minutes until it turns sticky and paste-like, because that stickiness is the only thing keeping it on the skewer.

Lahmacun, Menemen and Künefe are in too. Künefe is only itself while the cheese still pulls, so eat it standing up, immediately, in the kitchen.

🇵🇪 Peru — the one nobody asked for

Peru was not on anyone's shortlist. We added it anyway, and it might be the best kitchen on the site. Ceviche cures for two to ten minutes, not the hour you may have been led to expect, and the limes get squeezed by hand because a machine crushes the pith and turns the juice bitter. The milky liquid left in the bowl is leche de tigre and is drunk straight from it.

Then Lomo Saltado, Ají de Gallina, Causa Limeña and Picarones.

🇵🇱 Poland — serious winter food

Dumplings and sour soups. Pierogi, Bigos, Żurek, Pączki.

Our favourite entry in the whole batch is Zapiekanka — half a baguette under grilled cheese and mushrooms, with ketchup zigzagged down the middle. The ketchup is not garnish. It is how the thing is served, from a hatch, at night, which is roughly the situation this entire website exists to simulate.

🇵🇭 Philippines — the third one you picked

Chicken Adobo carries the rule every Filipino cook repeats: once it comes to the boil, do not stir it for five minutes, so the vinegar can cook off its raw edge.

Sisig arrives on a cast-iron plate hot enough to cook the egg you crack over it. Sinigang, Turon and Halo-Halo round it out — halo-halo means "mix-mix", and the neat layers exist purely to be destroyed with a long spoon before you eat.

🇲🇾 And a seventh, opened today: Malaysia

This one is a day younger than the rest of the post. Malaysia is live — 17 more dishes, which is why the count at the top says 19 kitchens rather than eighteen.

It earns its place by being three cuisines arguing on one plate: Malay, Chinese and Indian, often at the same table. Nasi Lemak is the one to start with, and the recipe is really a sambal recipe — you fry the chilli paste until the oil splits out red at the edges, and an underfried sambal tastes raw no matter what else you do to it.

Also open: Roti Canai (the dough has to rest four hours or it tears every time you stretch it), Char Kway Teow, Satay Kajang and Cendol.

One confession: there is no teh tarik in the Malaysian kitchen, because our Thai menu got there first and no dish name may appear twice on the site. Malaysians should feel free to take that up with us through the contact form. In its place you get Sirap Bandung, Kopi O and Air Mata Kucing — "cat's tears", which is a much better name than anything we would have come up with.

The one we still owe you: Nigeria 🇳🇬

Nigeria was on the shortlist, people asked for it, and it is not here. We are not going to dress that up.

It is also the gap that matters most, because it is not one missing country — it is a missing continent. There is currently no African kitchen on FoodNeverComes at all, which is a strange thing to be true of a site with 19 of them. Jollof rice, suya, egusi soup, puff puff and moi moi are exactly the kind of food this site should have had before it had a third European kitchen.

You can, absurdly, already switch the whole menu into naira (₦) from the currency row. There is just nothing Nigerian behind it yet. If you want that fixed, say so through the contact form — the shortlist worked last time, and this is the one still outstanding.

Small things that came with the six

• Six new currencies. Prices show in ₺, zł, S/ and ₱ in the new kitchens, or € in Spain and Greece. As always it is only a display currency — nothing is charged in any of them, because nothing is charged at all.
• The World Tour badge got harder. 👑 now wants all 19 cuisines. If you had already completed it, you have a few more orders to place. Sorry.
• Two dishes had to be renamed. No dish name may repeat anywhere on the site, and the new batch collided twice with Mexico: Horchata de Chufa became Leche Merengada, and Leche Flan became Ube Halaya. A checker now runs over all 276 names before anything ships, which is a boring paragraph to write and a genuinely useful thing to have.

Go and order something you have never heard of

That is the actual invitation here. With 19 kitchens open, the fun has quietly shifted from ordering the thing you were already craving to scrolling until you hit a word you do not recognise — kwek-kwek, salep, emoliente, su böreği — and putting it in a cart that costs nothing.

And if it turns out you were properly hungry rather than just browsing, the recipe is right there on the dish, free, no signup. The food still never comes. 🛵

Quick answers

What cuisines did FoodNeverComes just add?
Seven: Spain, Greece, Turkey, Peru, Poland and the Philippines, plus Malaysia, which opened a few days later. Each one adds 17 items — 6 mains, 5 street dishes, 3 sweets and 3 drinks — and every dish links to a free recipe.

Is Malaysian food on FoodNeverComes?
Yes. The Malaysian kitchen has 17 dishes including nasi lemak, beef rendang, char kway teow, curry laksa, roti canai, satay kajang, cendol and ondeh-ondeh, each with a free recipe. There is no teh tarik, because the Thai menu already uses that name.

How many cuisines and dishes are on FoodNeverComes now?
19 cuisines and 276 dishes, with 268 free recipes behind them.

Did FoodNeverComes add Nigeria?
Not yet. Nigeria was on the reader shortlist and is the one country from it that has not been added. There is still no African kitchen on the site, which is the biggest gap on the menu — requests through the contact form are how the last few cuisines got picked.

Do the new Spanish, Greek, Turkish, Peruvian, Polish and Filipino dishes have real recipes?
Yes. Every one of the 102 new dishes links to a free, full recipe with ingredients and method — no signup, no paywall, no email required.

Can I see prices in Turkish lira, złoty, soles or pesos?
Yes. Each kitchen shows its own local currency by default, and you can pin any currency for the whole site from the 💱 Prices in row in the flag menu. It only changes the displayed price — nothing is ever charged.