The cochineal is an insect that lives on the cactus plant that produces the fruit known as prickly pear. Another cactus plant, agave, is used to make mezcal. At Lucha Rosa, the rooftop bar at the Moxy Hotel, prickly pear liqueur and mezcal are combined with several other ingredients to make a complex and nuanced cocktail that is obliquely named for the dye made from the cochineal.
If that sounds like a lot, well, that’s part of the fun. For a simpler dish, consider the onion rings at Takibi in Portland, Ore., made from local sweet onions that are cooked tempura-style.
Simplicity and great ingredients are also on display in the wagyu beef tartare at Vestry, a Shaun Hergatt restaurant in New York City, which is also a low-waste menu item because the beef is trim from the restaurant’s wagyu entrée.
Fried chicken biscuits get the multicultural treatment at Prohibition in Charleston, S.C., where they’re dressed in Korean barbecue sauce.
And at Terra in Santa Fe, N.M., a tostada is brought upscale by being topped with octopus and scallops.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]
