MAIN INGREDIENTS
In the 1970s and 1980s, the fried chicken industry in South Korea expanded with the emergence of various fried chicken restaurant chains. These chains started experimenting with different flavors and sauces, moving beyond the original, stripped-down version of fried chicken.
One of the most famous snacks in Indonesia is batagor, a fried fish dumpling served in a traditional spicy sauce. It has roots in the Chinese culinary tradition, which has left a trace on many Indonesian dishes. Although this famous snack is reminiscent of the more famous Chinese dumpling, its distinguishable characteristic is that it is fried, not steamed.
The most common fish used to make the dish is wahoo, but tuna, mackerel, and even prawns can also be used. Potatoes, tofu, or cabbage are also occasionally added to the dish. Batagor is the perfect snack because of the way it is served. When fried, the dumplings are cut into small bite-sized pieces and covered in peanut, soy, and chili sauce with a splash of lime juice.
MOST ICONIC Batagor
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Also known as dry-frying, karaage is a Japanese cooking technique in which various foods are first lightly coated in arrowroot starch, then deep-fried. The use of arrowroot starch preserves the natural water content of fried foods and produces a crispy outer surface, but alternatively, other coating ingredients such as wheat flour, tapioca, or potato starch can also be used.
Karaage can be used for frying various meats and fish, but it is most often associated with chicken, and involves a special variant called tatsutaage, where pieces of chicken are first marinated in a mixture of sake, soy sauce, and sugar which are then lightly covered with arrowroot starch and deep-fried.
MOST ICONIC Karaage
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Fritto misto is one of those dishes that differs widely across the country. Along the Italian seaside, it will always include crustaceans and mollusks, typically shrimp and squid, and often paranza, which is a collective name for very small whole fish such as fresh anchovies, sardines, baby mackerel, or mullet.
In northern parts of the country, particularly in Piedmont, fritto misto is mostly made with vegetables and, depending on the season, includes semolina, veal brain, brochettes of cheese and prosciutto, sometimes even apples and amaretti biscuits.
VARIATIONS OF Fritto misto
MOST ICONIC Fritto misto
View moreKaripap or curry puff is a small, deep-fried or baked pastry shell filled with thick chicken and potatoes curry. It is believed that the flavorful snack was invented by the Malays from the Malay Peninsula and parts of Sumatra and Borneo.
It is a popular breakfast item or an afternoon snack which can be found at numerous stores, bars, and markets. Because of its simplicity and flavor, karipap quickly became popular outside Malaysia, especially in Thailand and Singapore. Today there are numerous versions of karipap, so instead of potato and chicken curry, it can be filled with various other ingredients such as tuna, sardines, and beef rendang.
MOST ICONIC Karipap
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Maakouda are traditional potato fritters that are popular throughout the Maghreb, especially in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The fritters are usually prepared plain, but they can also be stuffed with meat, tuna, or cheese, although not that often.
They're made with potatoes, parsley, garlic, flour, salt, and pepper. The potatoes are boiled, mashed, and mixed with other ingredients into small disks which are then deep-fried in hot oil until golden brown. Maakouda is traditionally served as an appetizer, a side dish, or an ingredient in a long sandwich roll that's usually sold as street food and served with harissa, coriander, and lemon juice.
MAIN INGREDIENTS
The most popular food of the Southern cuisine, fried chicken is the theme of many arguments where everyone involved seems to have a favorite, be it what their mothers used to make, a cult roadside eatery, or a bygone restaurant. However, it is universally agreed that the meat must be moist, succulent, and tender, coated with a crunchy, golden-brown crust.
It all started during the colonization period, when Scottish immigrants settled in the South, bringing their fried chicken recipes along. The African slaves then introduced new seasonings and spices, and the dish quickly gained popularity. Typical seasonings include salt, pepper, and hot chiles, and the pieces of meat should be edible by hand so that the consumer can bite both the crust and the meat at the same time.
MOST ICONIC Fried Chicken
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The breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet tonkatsu is a Japanese dish with a very recent history. It first appeared at the end of the 19th century as a type of yoshoku — the Western-influenced Japanese dishes — but with time, tonkatsu has become increasingly Japanized, widely available to the masses and thus more popular.
Tonkatsu is a dish in itself or, if married with other ingredients, it can turn into many of its almost endless variations; made like a sandwich, paired with ramen or rice, poured over with a thick miso sauce as done in Nagoya, or served with curry to make katsu karē.
MAIN INGREDIENTS
These large prawns are typically dipped in egg wash, coated in panko breadcrumbs, then deep-fried. They are one of the most popular yōshoku dishes; western-inspired Japanese meals which originated during the Meiji Restoration between the 1860s and the early 1900s.
Ebi furai falls into the kawari-age category of breaded, deep-fried foods, and it is also regarded as a meibutsu, which is a Japanese term for famous foods associated with particular regions, as these fried prawns are one of Nagoya's signature dishes.
MOST ICONIC Ebi furai
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Katsudon is a type of donburi, meaning it's a rice dish served in a bowl topped with simmered ingredients. In this case, the topping is another Japanese favorite — tonkatsu — a deep-fried and crumbed pork cutlet, but here it is simmered together with vegetables in a seasoned sauce bound with eggs.
The earliest reference to the dish dates back to 1921 and since then numerous varieties have been developed by adding or replacing the ingredients from the original recipe. The best-known versions include katsudon made with Worcestershire sauce, miso, and soy sauce, but there are also ones that replace pork with beef or chicken.
MOST ICONIC Katsudon
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TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. For the “Top 100 Deep-fried Dishes in the World” list until March 20, 2025, 22,190 ratings were recorded, of which 17,493 were recognized by the system as legitimate. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.