Spicy, sour and fatty dishes made of meat (usually lamb) and bulghur are common.

Health officials recommend balancing fatty dishes with boiled vegetables without sauce.

What is normally a heavy, fatty dish is turned into something fresh, light and intriguing.

More and more, young people want fatty dishes, and these kinds of tastes are making foreign cuisines fashionable.

As far as I'm concerned, nothing beats a good stew at this time of year, and it does not have to be a fatty dish rich in calories, either.

And Mr. Moonen said he uses wakame seaweed salad as a garnish for any number of fish entrees at Oceana, "particularly tuna, salmon and other fatty dishes."

In the kitchen, Stephanie struggled with the turkey, bloated and slithering in its fatty dish.

Breakfast and dinner buffets can be low fat, low salt, fresh, regional and seasonal, but rich sauces and fatty dishes are also options.

"On a mountain peak, a liver pate tastes better than a lobster mousse," he said, adding that "polar explorers can eat a fattier dish like duck than desert drivers."

THE prevailing image of Mexican cooking in New York is hard to shake: heavy, fatty dishes laden with thick layers of cheese and swimming in refried beans.