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Wagyu Brisket Taco on Frybread
At Kachina Cantina in Denver’s Lower Downtown neighborhood, guests have a choice of having their tacos on corn or flour tortillas, or, for an extra 50 cents, on frybread, which unlike tortillas absorbs the juices of all the taco fillings. For this particular taco, executive chef Cesar Tamariz and his team brine Colorado wagyu brisket in a mix of dry chiles and other spices for 24 hours. Then it’s rubbed in a dry mix of chiles, bay leaf, fennel, star anise, garlic, onion and brown sugar, wrapped in foil and slowly cooked for another 24 hours. It’s served on frybread with watermelon radish slaw and a squeeze of lime.
Price: $5
Grilled Jerk Cauliflower
At Kokomo, a Caribbean restaurant in the Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood of Williamsburg, executive chef Jeremie Tomczak brushes quartered cauliflower with oil and coats it in a jerk spice mix of salt, thyme, nutmeg, ground pimiento and black pepper. Then he wraps it in aluminum foil with a little water and liquid smoke. He roasts that until the vegetable is cooked halfway and then finishes it on the grill and then plates it with the restaurants house jerk sauce and an aïoli made of the herb chadon bene — also known as culantro — chopped garlic, mayonnaise, lime juice, salt and habanero pepper.
Price: $12
#Sweetpotatooneword cocktail
Although it is common practice to spell “sweet potato” as two words, it is spelled as one word in scientific literature to reflect the fact that it is botanically different from a potato, according to the NC SweetPotato Commission.
Ashley Christensen’s team at Poole’s Downtown Diner in Raleigh, N.C., took that to heart when naming this cocktail, which is made by combining 2 ounces of brown butter-washed Old Overholt Rye with half an ounce of sweet potato shrub — made by simmering sweet potato chunks and rosemary in brown sugar simple syrup, adding Champagne vinegar and apple cider vinegar, reducing slightly and straining — and ¼ ounce of lemon juice, shaking them together, pouring that over ice, topping it with soda water and garnishing it with a rosemary sprig.
Price: $13
Buffalo Tartare
At the Parlour Room, which opened in Midtown Manhattan in late November, executive chef Justin Ottervanger and chef de cuisine Daniel Sokolov developed this dish, named after the fried chicken wings from Buffalo, N.Y., not the animal, since this dish is made with beef tenderloin.
The meat is diced and combined with a Buffalo-style hot sauce, Point Reyes blue cheese and thinly cut celery and pickles. It’s served with fried chicken skin.
Price: $18
Rotisserie chicken with cultured butter and local salt
Chef Tomas Olvera turns a classic dish into something local and seasonal at Laurel Brasserie & Bar, which just opened in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah.
He starts with an air-chilled organic bird from Mary’s Free-Range Chicken which he brines for 12 hours using salt mined from Redmond, Utah, along with sugar, bay leaves and black peppercorns.
He roasts the chicken, basting it with a cultured butter that he makes by blending Greek yogurt and heavy cream and fermenting them together for 24 hours (the buttermilk is then strained off and used to make pancakes) and whipping it with house-made labneh. That’s held at in an oven at 141 degrees Fahrenheit at 20% humidity during service. It’s plated with chicken jus, local mesclun greens and radishes dressed in a vinaigrette made with Old Fashioned Parmesan Cheese from Cold Creek Farms in Kamas, Utah, blended with rice wine vinegar, canola oil and chopped shallots.
Price: $24
