There is a growing number of restaurants that combine the herbaceous and hearty flavors of Middle Eastern cuisines with complementary elements of Mexican cuisine. Vera Cocina in Washington, D.C., is just such a place, and chef Jorge Baron uses Lebanese fattoush salad, spices it up and serves it over guacamole on a tostada.
Also in D.C., at Yara, Japanese-Peruvian chef Yuki Nakandakari reflects the Nikkei cuisine of Peru, which incorporates the culinary influences of the longstanding Japanese community in that country. He does that with a causa, a Peruvian dish centered around cold potatoes, that he layers with tuna tartare.
In Houston, at an Indian restaurant called Musaafer, chef Mayank Istwal, plays off of the local popularity of ceviche by dressing marinated lychees in a sort of Asian leche de tigre (the traditional ceviche marinade).
At Giselle Miami, executive chef Gustavo Zuluaga makes a high-end wagyu beef tartare that he further glitzes up with black truffles and serves it sort of like nigiri sushi.
And in Long Beach, Calif., at The Bamboo Club, the traditional tiki drink called The Fog Cutter is smoothed out with pisco instead of sherry and a hibiscus-infused botanical rum instead of gin.
