The risotto with sausage and eggplant was more rice casserole than risotto; the seafood linguine was uninspired.

Burned slowly to a black syrup in a seasoned iron pot, it becomes a food coloring and slightly bitter flavoring agent for everything from dark, rich Jamaican black cake to rice casseroles.

The small menu includes five appetizers, a dozen barbecue dishes, eight varieties of the steamed rice casserole known as bibimbap, and a handful of spicy stews and casseroles.

More familiar Korean specialties also showed well, like bibimbop ($11.50), the rice casserole stuffed with vegetables, bits of beef and an egg.

The Muslims' cuisine is more closely tied to the north, with meat curries scented with garam masala and rice casseroles, incorporating local foods like coconut, tamarind, fish and bananas.

Mujaddara: Lentil and rice casserole, garnished with roasted onions.

Maria Gonzalez brought rice casseroles, homemade tamales, and chile rellenos.

White truffle oil subtly suffuses a lighter-than-air biryani, or rice casserole, speckled with perfectly poached shiitake mushrooms.

I love Mexican food - flour tortillas, cheese and chicken quesadillas, rice casseroles.