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Strawberry Shortcake Shaved Ice
At Ernest in San Francisco, chef and owner Brandon Rice offers this dish that evokes the strawberry shortcake and Good Humor bars of his youth. He uses a kakigōri shaved ice machine imported from Japan and uses it to shave a mound of ice into a frozen bowl. He adds a layer of strawberry syrup, then tops that with a crumble made by baking crumbled yellow cake with butter, brown sugar, strawberry liqueur and salt. That topped with strawberry jam, followed by sweetened crème fraîche that’s combined with gelatin and squirted out of a nitrous-oxide cannister. Then he adds another layer of shaved ice and strawberry syrup followed by more ice, syrup, jam, crème fraîche and cake crumble, topping it all with Li Hing Mui plum powder.
Price: $14
“Carrot”
At Jungsik, a fine-dining Korean restaurant in New York City, executive pastry chef Yoonjung Oh combines carrot cake with cream cheese mousse and pecan praline, shapes that to look like a carrot and encases it in white chocolate. Then she paints it with dark chocolate, cocoa powder and black cocoa powder to resemble an actual carrot, garnishes it with carrot tops and serves it in a planter that’s filled with carrot cake meant to resemble dirt. Guests are then invited to remove one of the “carrots” from the dirt and place it on their plate with black tea ice cream over more crumbled carrot cake.
Price: It’s the final course of the restaurant’s tasting menu, but also available à la carte at the bar for $25
Lettre á Coco
This carbonated drink at LPM Restaurant & Bar in Miami, developed by bar manager Barna Jeremias, is on the new cocktail menu that’s inspired by surrealist artist Jean Cockteau, who was friends with fashion designer Coco Chanel. It is based on the aromatics of Chanel No. 5 perfume. Jeremias combines an ounce of Ketel One Vodka with 1/3 ounce of Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto liqueur and 1.5 ounces of a Champagne and jasmine cordial made by combining a bottle of flat Champagne with six bags of jasmine tea, simmering it for two minutes, removing the bags and then adding 150 grams of sugar, 5.5 grams of citric acid and 3 grams of malic acid.
That’s all pre-batched in advance and then carbonated in a CO2 tank for at least 12 hours.
At service it’s dispensed into a large coupe with an ice sphere and finished with a rosewater spray.
Price: $19
Short-Rib-Ravioli
At Markley & Blythe in Mason City, Iowa, executive chef Jonny Worley braises beef short ribs sourced from a local farm in beef stock, balsamic vinegar, bay leaves and other traditional herbs such as thyme and parsley. Then the beef is mixed with a mirepoix and blended into a smooth filling that he pipes into ravioli, which he serves with beef stock reduction, green peppercorn cream sauce, Parmesan cheese and chives.
Worley said that short ribs aren’t used very much in Mason City, but seeing it on other menus across the country inspired him to give it a try. He said the approachable, meat-forward appetizer is likely to stay on the menu for quite some time.
Price: $15
Blue Crab Rangoon
At Ruse in St. Michaels, Md., chef Michael Correll uses two local and seasonal items — ramps and Chesapeake Bay blue crab — for this otherwise pretty traditional Chinese-American dish. He combines ricotta cheese and cream cheese with fresh ramp tops and pickled ramp bottoms along with lump blue crab meat and some fish sauce and wraps the mixture in wonton skins.
He makes a sweet-and-sour sauce with orange juice, sugar, red wine vinegar, garlic, ginger, jalapeño pepper, Szechuan peppercorn, coriander seed, cilantro, lime juice, dark soy sauce, fish sauce, water and cornstarch finished with Calabrian chile paste.
He fries the wontons and serves five of them per order with the sauce.
Price: $17
