I find most foods are best as soon as they are made, but some things seem to get better when the flavors have more time to meld. The only two I can think of right now are chili and hummus. What other dishes am I forgetting, or haven’t tried that you think get better with a little time?
Honestly, almost everything. I like most food better as left overs. Especially if it’s hot/spicy. It tends to get spicier overnight. Also marinara based foods do really well, like lasagna, manicotti, spaghetti, et cetera.
My favorite has to be our way of doing taco meat. A bunch of diced tomatoes (normally canned, sometimes fresh), and diced chili peppers, like jalapeños, poblanos, hatch chilis, habaneros, et cetera, spices and ground beef. Lightly fry the corn tortillas and eat. But I always make enough to have the next day, because after it’s sat overnight, it’s so much better.
Flavors will always deepen after a few days but textures may worsen. Some things, like traditional fish and chips batter, will degrade in cold temperatures due to condensation… other things may survive cooling but be difficult to reheat without destroying the texture… and then most things that can be reheated still won’t reheat gracefully in a microwave.
Stew/Chili is often held up as “better the next day” but if you’re willing to use the oven or stove top to reheat things there’s a lot of other food that reheats well. There are also a few things that you can transform during reheating, fried rice is a classic example here but pan fried pasta can also be excellent as well.
Probably should have mentioned I use the air fryer to reheat most things. I have a microwave, but it doesn’t get a lot of use anymore. I don’t actually have a proper range/oven anymore.
Airfryers are pretty awesome for reheating especially to preserve crispness!