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At elNico, a Mexican restaurant at the Penny hotel in the Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood of Williamsburg, executive chef Fernanda Serrano drew inspiration from her mother’s cochinita pibil, a pork dish from the Yucatán.
“I wanted to create something that pays homage to one of the dishes I enjoyed the most as a kid, but instead of using pork, I decided to use my mom’s favorite, octopus,” she said.
She puts half an onion in boiling water and simmers octopus until tender. Then she cleans it, and marinates it in a sauce of orange juice, achiote, garlic, white onion, allspice, cloves, lime, and Mexican oregano, and then fries it to order.
It’s plated served with xnipec, a sauce of pickled habanero peppers, pineapple, and red onion, as well as a spicy version of Lebanese garlic sauce toum (emulsified with grapeseed and habanero oil), and potato chips which Serrano added to sandwiches when she was growing up, although for this dish she seasons it with lime salt.
Price: $42
The new brunch menu at Smith & Mills Rockefeller Center in New York City offers this drink, which is loosely based on the Corpse Reviver #2 — hence the name, which means “the second” in Spanish. It’s also sort of a Margarita, but with a different balance of ingredients that makes it less sweet and lets the botanicals in the vermouth and the aroma of the grapefruit stand out, according to beverage director Robert Krueger.
The drink combines ¾ ounce each of Lalo Blanco Tequila, Crème de Pamplemousse grapefruit liqueur, Dolin Blanc vermouth, and lemon juice, plus a dash of house-made hibiscus cordial that are all shaken together and strained into a glass rimmed with rosemary salt, which is made by dehydrating rosemary leaves in the microwave, pulverizing them, and mixing them with kosher salt.
So compared to the cocktail for which it’s named, tequila replaces gin, grapefruit liqueur replaces triple sec, vermouth replaces Lillet Blanc, and rosemary and hibiscus replace the absinth rinse.
"I've used hibiscus in a lot of cocktails over the years,” Krueger said. “It's got tartness and tannin, fruitiness and brilliant color. In The El Segundo, it's offset with citrusy herbaceousness of rosemary, which also provides a contrasting color. Lalo Blanco tequila is one of the new generation of additive free, non-celebrity endorsed tequilas that are gaining a lot of popularity. Dolin Blanc is supremely elegant, bittersweet, floral, and bright."
Price: $20
This new dessert at Camphor in Los Angeles’ Arts District has quickly gained popularity among its customers. Developed by co-executive chefs Max Boonthanakit and Lijo George, it starts with poaching green kiwis in a syrup infused with cardamom and lime. Then the poaching liquid is turned into a gelée.
The poached green kiwis are then mixed with fresh golden kiwis and topped with the gelée and torn mint leaves. It’s accompanied by a kiwi-mint sorbet, which is topped with lime zest and covered with an ice disk made of kiwi and green apple. It’s painted with coconut cream and charcoal so it resembles a slice of kiwi.
Price: $21
See an interview with the chefs here.
At John’s Food & Wine in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, chefs Adam McFarland and Thomas Rogers toss pulled slow-roasted pork shoulder in fish sauce and a vinaigrette spiked with Thai bird chiles and serve it on a toasted sesame seed roll with dill, cilantro and a slaw of cabbage, red onion, and carrot coleslaw.
Price: $15
At Bestia Mare in Franklin, Tenn., chef and owner Frank Pullara sauteés garlic and chile flakes in olive oil to toast the garlic and then adds Manila or little neck clams along with a bay leaf and an arbol chile, deglazes with white wine and simmers it for a couple of minutes. Then he adds fish broth and simmers the clams for another couple of minutes until they open. Next he adds just-cooked linguine along with parsley, butter, salt, and pepper, simmers it all for a couple of minutes and then serves it in a bowl with shaved pecorino cheese, parsley, and olive oil.
Price: $14
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