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Spicy Brussels sprouts taco
At Lolita Cocina & Tequila Bar, which has two locations in Boston, one in Back Bay and the other in Fort Point, corporate chef Cory Seeker makes a creamy sauce by blending egg yolk, brown mustard, garlic, lime juice, and canola oil and then adding salt, pepper, ancho chile powder, and cumin powder along with roasted poblano peppers and feta cheese.
He makes a sweet and sour sauce by sweating onions in canola oil and then adding pineapple purée, Champagne vinegar, lime juice and zest, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, cumin, and chipotle and adobo, cooking it until it thickens and then puréeing it.
Cooks quartered Brussels sprouts in olive oil with a little salt until they’re well charred and soft.
He spreads a tortilla with the creamy poblano sauce, then adds the Brussels sprouts, drizzles them with the sweet and sour sauce, and then adds cotija cheese, cilantro, and pickled onions.
Price: $16
Palm Bisque
At Ubuntu, a West African inspired vegan restaurant that opened in West Hollywood, Calif., at the beginning of August, chef Shenarri Freeman makes a roux using flour and palm oil-based vegan butter and sweats mirepoix in it, seasoning it with salt, cayenne pepper, and paprika. She deglazes that with mushroom stock, adds bay leaves and fresh thyme and simmers it. Then she purées it all, returns it to the pot, adds plant-based heavy cream, brings it to a boil and reduces it. She garnishes it with deep fried strips of hearts of palm tossed in Old Bay seasoning along with fried garlic, chives, and parsley oil.
Price: $12
Garden Salad
For this cocktail at Layla, which opened recently in the Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood of Williamsburg, the restaurant’s co-founder, Stef D’Osorgna, was inspired by the fennel salad from Café Altro Paradiso in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood to make this drink.
He starts by adding fennel stalks to vodka and letting it infuse for 24 hours. Then he strains the vodka and fat washes it with olive oil by shaking the vodka with the oil, freezing it for 12 hours, scooping off the fat and then straining it.
He pours 2 ounces of that in a mixing glass along with 1.5 ounces of Emilio Lustau Vermut Blanco, a dash of saline solution, 3 drops of Chardonnay vinegar and 2 dashes of orange bitters.
He stirs that with ice, strains it into a chilled coupe and finishes it by expressing lemon peel over it and then adding two skewered Castelvetrano olives.
Price: $18
PB&J Pancakes
On the new menu at Bodega, a New York City-inspired restaurant in downtown Charleston, S.C., Uptown Hospitality Group’s executive chef, Alec Gropman, evokes childhood memories of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and morning pancakes with this dish, which has been a standout hit since it was introduced in late August. He makes a jam of fresh mixed berries simmered with sugar and lemon juice and zest.
Separately he combines peanut butter, powdered sugar and water until its creamy.
He makes three buttermilk pancakes and stacks them with the jam and peanut butter sauce, garnishing with strawberries, blueberries, whipped cream, and powdered sugar.
Price: $13
Lobster Stuffed Avocado
Ryan Fancher, chef of Hotel SLO in San Luis Obispo, Calif., created this dish that proved to be so popular that it has also been introduced at Spoonbar at sister property H2Hotel in Healdsburg, Calif. For the dish, chilled cooked lobster meat is combined with mayonnaise, tarragon, diced tomato, lemon zest, salt, and pepper.
Avocados are peeled and sliced in half, and a bit is also sliced from the bottom so they rest firmly on the plate. Then the lobster mixture is scooped in the middle so it overflows.
A large dollop of crème fraîche mixed with chives is plated and the stuffed avocado is placed on top of that and garnishesd with potato chips.
Price: $17
