There are many clues that Stand Up Kabob, a Persian restaurant literally welded onto the side of a used car dealership on the outskirts of Davis, is no ordinary kebab shop. 

The coffee ceremony at Kind Bean Cafe and Ethiopian Cuisine unfolds like a sacrament, each tool imbued with significance like objects on an altar. The beans, roasted and ground throughout the day, steep in a jebena, an ebony-colored earthenware vessel developed more than 800 years ago.

Maltese pastizzi comes in two classical forms, delineated by how the finely fissile pastry — laminated with both butter and lard — folds around its savory filling. Shell-shaped pastizzi, clamped tight like clams at low tide, conceal peas cooked to their melting point and spiced with a subtle curry that’s more English (Malta’s most recent colonizers) than Indian.

With Good Things to Eat, Delcy and Elinor Steffy explore the cuisines of their heritage, including African American, Armenian, German, Hungarian and Jewish roots. 

Every morning, Caravan Uzbek Cuisine co-owner Farkhod Soatov wakes up early to make plov. The rice and meat dish, with roots in Persian pilaf, has changed little since the days of the Silk Road. 

Firebird Russian Restaurant recently reopened as Noroc with a fresh new look.

The Boulevard Park corner cafe serves Brazilian baked goods such as cheese bread and fried dumplings, as well as an assortment of sandwiches and beverages.

The neighborhood lunch spot serves comfort sandwiches, Sunday brunch, desserts and a bodega-style assortment of beer and wine. 

The market-kitchen hybrid offers Afro-Caribbean favorites like jerk chicken, curry goat and oxtail.

After more than 20 years selling Korean specialty items, the owners of Smile Food Market opened Smile Market 2, which serves fresh dishes like spicy seafood noodles and sweet-and-sour pork.