Photo by Marcus Nilsson
“I’ve always associated boiled peanuts with road trips,” says Vivek Surti, the chef at Tailor in Nashville, No. 7 on 2019’s Hot Ten list. “I ate cajun-spiced ones from gas stations in the South and my grandma’s version for the five-hour ride from the airport to her home in Gujarat. It’s a snack that exists in America and in India. Here I toss them in chile and coriander, which is very Indian, but it reminds me of those Cajun peanuts.” While fresh, shell-on peanuts are available only at harvest time and are hard to find, unroasted, shell-on peanuts work just as well and can be found in supermarkets and online.