Serving red food, and oysters, and anything cylindrical, are some of the arguably tawdry traditions of Valentine’s Day, which is being celebrated this Tuesday.
Whether red snapper actually counts as something red, especially when its deep-fried, is unclear, but it’s nonetheless on the holiday menu at Mariel in Boston, accompanied by green papaya slaw.
At Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewing in San Antonio, Texas, the new duck confit lumpia are certainly cylindrical, but they’re on the menu for the whole season, not just the ostensibly romantic holiday.
Drinking is also a common Valentine’s Day custom, and at La Popular, a restaurant concept from Mexico City that has come to the United States, revelers can enjoy a blue cocktail with lemon grass smoke.
In Brooklyn, N.Y., at Three Maples, owner Michael Felix is seeing just how popular the flavors of the Mexican street corn elote by offering it as a dip, and across the East River in Manhattan, at Taru, pastry chef Natsume Aoi is dressing up a Japanese sponge cake with peanut butter and jelly.
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