The flavor of cacio e pepe, the pasta dish traditionally made with pecorino Romano cheese and black pepper, is appearing in all sorts of places, including on flatbreads, in dips, and, as we see in this New on the Menu column, stuffed in dumplings at PastaRamen, a new restaurant in Montclair, N.J., that, true to its name, combines Italian and Japanese culinary traditions.
Japanese food, specifically the chicken broth at a ramen shop that the culinary team of Tao Group Hospitality visited in Tokyo, is the inspiration for a chicken dish available at the new Sake No Hana in New York City.
Also in New York, Madame George, a large new cocktail lounge in Midtown, is serving a $20 cocktail in a paper coffee cup, while across the river in Queens, Riccardo Darhda of Figlia is poaching and grilling octopus and serving it over beans.
In Las Vegas, Michael Mina has reopened StripSteak and is up to some creative tricks with his chef Kyle Johnson, who is making taco shells by layering spring roll wrappers with nori seaweed.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]