Peanut

The sauce is fat, salt and sugar. Lime is the only leg of the table missing.

Fat spreads capsaicin evenly; without it the heat arrives in spikes.

Two fats, one roasted and one lactonic. The milk thins the paste to a sauce.

Salt and roast against sugar and cream. The bar has no savoury without it.

Two roasted legumes; the sauce and the block share the same pyrazines.

Groundnut fat and dry starch is the West African structural pairing, not a garnish.

Roasted fat coats the mouth so the acid arrives blunted; also the only crunch that lasts.

Roast fat and crunch against dry pulp. The texture pairing more than the flavour one.

Groundnut fat is what makes dry pounded starch swallowable. Structural, not optional.

Raw green over roasted fat, thrown on at the last second so it stays sharp.

Mild protein under a sauce doing all the talking. Thigh, not breast.

Ground nut turns a thin porridge into a sauce with body.

West African staple pairing: ground nut sauce over stiff sorghum porridge.

Crushed on top. It is the only crunch in an otherwise entirely soft bowl.

Fermented salt into roasted fat — both sides are running the same Maillard notes.

Funk plus roast. The peanut is heavy enough to swallow how loud the sauce is.

Two toasted seeds; the oil carries the aroma the ground nut loses on standing.

Sour fruit is what stops a peanut sauce reading as sweet gravy.

Shared pyrazines from both roasts, and salt is what welds them together.

Ester fruit on roasted fat; the fruit sugar reads as the sweetener you skipped.

Two legumes, one crunchy. Texture contrast doing all the heavy lifting.

Roasted nut and roasted-rice vinegar share pyrazines; the crunch is a bonus.

Roast fat coats the tongue first, so the chilli has to work through it.

Roast nut and toasted chilli share pyrazines. One is fat, one is crunch.

Roast nut fat and sweet soy: the standard dipping split across two bowls.

Cook the nut in its own oil and the roast note doubles instead of fading.

Roast nut and smoke sugar share pyrazines. Sate sauce is built on the overlap.

Roast fat on top of berry fat; the crunch does more work than the flavour.

West African move: ground nut thickens the pot and softens bitterness.

Ground nut turns the greens into a stew that needs no stock. The fat is the sauce.

Crushed and scattered over the cold-dressed root, fat and crunch soften the fishiness considerably.

The older thickener, from before the wheat arrived. Roast, grind, loosen with stock.

Ground nut thickens the sauce and takes the top off the heat without sweetening it.

Roasted fat is the only brake in the dish; the chilli needs it.

Roasted fat under anise; the pyrazines give the blend somewhere to sit.

Roasted nut pyrazines and pork crust are chemically the same conversation.

Vatapá logic: ground nut and dried shrimp thicken past either alone.

West Africa thickens the stew with ground nut and sours it with tomato.

Numbing over fat — the tingle needs oil to spread or it stays on the lips.

Water, salt and crunch against oil. It works for the same reason Waldorf does.

Roasted, salty, bitter and brown on both sides. The overlap is almost total.

Roasted nut against roasted seed, with enough sugar between them to stop it turning dusty.

Crushed and scattered over the wilted leaves, a Vietnamese finish more than a Chinese one.

Two roasted savoury pastes; miso does the salt so the nut can do the fat.

Ground peanut thickens the pot the way West African cooking treats the same bean, an ocean away.

Both are pure salt-and-roast hunger. Pounded together it stops reading as nut.