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HeritageThe National Museum of the Philippines Iloilo capped off its 2026 ‘Magbasá Kita: A Reading Program for Young Learners’ with an immersive storytelling session at the museum’s Book Nook on September 23, 2026. The activity introduced the localHeritage21st Sunchang Jangryu Festival to Welcome the World With K-Food and Cultural ExperiencesHeritage21st Sunchang Jangryu Festival to Welcome the World With K-Food and Cultural ExperiencesStreet foodMan dead, 3 in custody after shooting outside Piada Italian Street Food in Mayfield HeightsStreet foodBrick-and-Mortar Restaurants Need to Stop Blaming Street VendorsFarm and marketYour guide to Harvest Fair 2026 at Wisconsin State Fair ParkFarm and marketOct. 3 Harvest of Harmony Parade available to view in livestream broadcast during paradeFarm and marketSouthington Apple Harvest Festival kicks off tonightWorldBon Appétit editor-in-chief explores food’s role in culture, media at MSUFarm and marketDetroit Harvest Fest adds movies, more food trucks in year 6HeritageThe National Museum of the Philippines Iloilo capped off its 2026 ‘Magbasá Kita: A Reading Program for Young Learners’ with an immersive storytelling session at the museum’s Book Nook on September 23, 2026. The activity introduced the localHeritage21st Sunchang Jangryu Festival to Welcome the World With K-Food and Cultural ExperiencesHeritage21st Sunchang Jangryu Festival to Welcome the World With K-Food and Cultural ExperiencesStreet foodMan dead, 3 in custody after shooting outside Piada Italian Street Food in Mayfield HeightsStreet foodBrick-and-Mortar Restaurants Need to Stop Blaming Street VendorsFarm and marketYour guide to Harvest Fair 2026 at Wisconsin State Fair ParkFarm and marketOct. 3 Harvest of Harmony Parade available to view in livestream broadcast during paradeFarm and marketSouthington Apple Harvest Festival kicks off tonightWorldBon Appétit editor-in-chief explores food’s role in culture, media at MSUFarm and marketDetroit Harvest Fest adds movies, more food trucks in year 6
Thali

Live, Saturday, 3 October 2026

On the table today

What the world is cooking right now: the festivals and fasts under way, the traditions of the weekday, what is in season, and one dish to get to know.

Being cooked for today

The whole food calendar
19 Sept to 4 Oct 2026

Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest in Munich starts in mid September and ends on the first Sunday of October or on 3 October. It began as a royal wedding party in 1810. Only the six Munich breweries may pour beer in the tents, and it is served by the litre. The food is Bavarian and filling. Half a roast chicken is the best seller, followed by roast pork knuckle, white sausages with sweet mustard, grilled fish on a stick and pretzels the size of a plate. Obatzda, a spiced cheese spread, goes with the bread.

PretzelPlate-sized and salted.WeisswurstWhite veal sausage with sweet mustard.ObatzdaSpiced cheese spread for bread and pretzels.
Every Saturday

Shabbat stew

Jewish law forbids cooking on the Sabbath, but food may stay on a fire lit beforehand. Out of that rule came a family of stews that cook slowly from Friday afternoon to Saturday lunch. The Ashkenazi one is cholent, with beef, beans, barley and potatoes. Moroccan Jews make dafina or skhina, with chickpeas, wheat, meat and whole eggs that turn brown. Iraqi Jews bake t'bit, chicken stuffed with rice.

CholentOvernight stew of beef, beans and barley.
Every Saturday

Saturday feijoada

Feijoada is a slow stew of black beans with salted, smoked and fresh pork and beef. It is heavy, so in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo it is by custom a lunch for Saturday, and in São Paulo for Wednesday as well, when there is time to rest afterwards. It comes with white rice, shredded greens, toasted cassava flour, pork crackling and slices of orange. A caipirinha is the usual start.

FeijoadaBlack beans and pork, the Saturday lunch.FarofaToasted cassava flour scattered over the beans.CaipirinhaThe drink before the meal.
Every Saturday

Saturday soup

Saturday in Jamaica is soup day. After the morning market a large pot goes on, and it serves as lunch and dinner. The soup is thick enough to be a meal: beef, chicken foot, goat or red peas, with pumpkin, yam, green banana, carrots and long flour dumplings called spinners, seasoned with thyme, scallion and Scotch bonnet. It leaves the cook free for the rest of the day and clears the way for the big Sunday dinner.

Mannish waterGoat soup, one of the Saturday pots.
Every Saturday

Saturday night baked beans

In colonial New England the Puritan Sabbath ran from sunset on Saturday, and no work was done on it. A pot of beans with salt pork and molasses was put in the oven on Saturday morning, eaten hot that night with steamed brown bread, and eaten again cold or warm on Sunday. The custom gave Boston its nickname of Beantown. Bean suppers are still held in church halls across Maine and its neighbours on Saturday evenings.

Brown breadSteamed rye and cornmeal bread served with the beans.Hot dogFrankfurters joined the plate in the twentieth century.

Dish of the day

Earlier days
Saturday, 3 October 2026MooncakeMooncake is a round pastry from China, most often filled with lotus seed or red bean paste and sometimes salted egg yolk. It is traditionally shared during the Mid-Autumn Festival, a harvest celebration. Mooncakes are given as gifts and come in many regional styles, each with its own crust and filling.Read about Mooncake

Coming up in the next 30 days

Tomorrow, 4 Oct 2026Cinnamon Roll DaySweden gives a day to its favourite bun, eaten with coffee. In 7 days, 10 to 18 Oct 2026Nine Emperor Gods FestivalNine days of strict vegetarian eating among Chinese communities of Southeast Asia. In 8 days, 11 to 20 Oct 2026NavratriNine nights of the goddess: fasting food without grain, then halwa, puri and chana for young girls. In 9 days, 12 Oct 2026Thanksgiving (Canada)Roast turkey and pumpkin pie on the second Monday of October, at the end of the Canadian harvest. In 13 days, 16 to 21 Oct 2026Durga PujaBengal eats khichuri bhog at the pandal by day and street food by night. In 15 days, 18 Oct 2026Double Ninth FestivalOn the ninth day of the ninth month people climb a hill, drink chrysanthemum wine and eat layered cake. In 22 days, 25 Oct 2026World Pasta DayA day for pasta in every shape, kept since 1995. In 26 days, 29 Oct 2026Karva ChauthMarried women in north India fast from before sunrise until they see the moon. In 28 days, 31 Oct 2026HalloweenSweets for children at the door, and in Ireland a fruit loaf with a ring hidden inside. In 29 days, 1 to 2 Nov 2026Day of the DeadMexican families set out the favourite food of their dead, with sweet bread and sugar skulls. In 29 days, 1 to 2 Nov 2026All Saints' and All Souls' DaysSweets named for bones and beans of the dead in Europe, and a purple maize drink in Ecuador.

In season this month

October, north of the equator. See the south.

The full season list

Persimmon

Loved in Japan, Korea and China, eaten crisp or soft, and dried for winter.

Pomegranate

Central to Persian cooking, in fesenjan and on the Yalda table, and scattered over chiles en nogada.

LobioGeorgian stewed or mashed beans with herbs, walnuts and spicesChiles en nogadaPoblano chiles stuffed with fruit and meat, topped with walnut sauce and pomegranate

Fig

A Mediterranean late-summer fruit, eaten with ham or cheese, baked in tarts, or dried.

RakıTurkish spirit distilled from grapes and aniseed, served with water and mezePicaronesPeruvian doughnuts made from squash and sweet potato, served with chancaca syrup

Quince

Too hard to eat raw. Cooked into membrillo in Spain, jams, and stews in Iran and Morocco.

Chicha moradaA sweet purple drink made from Peruvian purple corn, fruits and spices

Grape

Harvested for the table and for wine. Twelve are eaten at midnight on New Year in Spain.

WineAlcoholic drink made by fermenting grape juice in many styles and colorsPort wineSweet, fortified wine from Portugal’s Douro Valley, aged in barrels or bottlesVinho VerdeYoung, slightly sparkling wine from northern Portugal, mostly white and fresh

Apple

The autumn fruit of temperate lands, for pies, strudel, cider, and dipping in honey at Rosh Hashanah.

Choucroute garnieAlsatian sauerkraut cooked with sausages, pork, and potatoesApple pieA baked pie with apple filling and pastry crust, served hot or coldApple strudelThin pastry rolled around spiced apple filling and baked until golden

The weekly plate

Every Monday: seven dishes you may not know, what the world is cooking this week, and one way of eating.