2025 New York City Kitchen Notebook
An in-depth look at some of our favorite dishes and cocktails from our time on the ground in New York City.
Twisted Figures
Bartender Michael Aredes of Noche Traviesa loves to drink a Twisted Tea, or ‘Twea’ for short. The refreshing, canned, iced tea-based beverage has become “this really fun bartender's joke,” says Aredes. So, after chatting with his friend, Bar Manager Richie Millwater of Clemente Bar, Aredes set out to make a cocktail inspired by the drink for his pop-up this past summer. “But how do I do that? How do I turn something that isn't high brow into something that is really delicious and thoughtful, but still ridiculous and stupid?” He started by looking for flavors and ingredients that complemented the drink’s barley tea base, eventually landing on black Mission figs. Aredes cooks the figs sous vide with cloves, vanilla beans, sugar, salt, and banana peels—”I knew the lightest banana flavor would tie it all together and give it more oomph”—until it becomes a syrup. After it’s strained, the syrup is mixed with a toasted barley tea, to balance out the overwhelming sweetness, and shaken along with añejo tequila, Grand Marnier, and lemon juice. The cocktail is also finished with a salt rim made with sugar, cinnamon, and chicatana ants, which “represent a part of my culture,” says Aredes. The ants, a summertime snack collected and roasted in Oaxaca after the first rainfall, provide a warm “roasted popcorn flavor” and make Aredes’ Twisted Figures, just like a Twea, really “good for a hot summer day.”
Sprouted Mung Beans
“I grew up in a small family of farmers in a small village,” says Executive Chef-Partner Vijay Kumar of Semma. “Coming from a humble family, we didn't have anything like pastry or candy after school. My mom would make us a snack using the grains from our farm.” The childhood treat, a plate of simply dressed sprouted grains, was a staple in young Kumar’s diet. Now, he has reintroduced the nostalgic dish to the menu at Semma, celebrating the ingredients and flavors of his upbringing in India. He starts with mung beans, which are washed, soaked for up to 12 hours, wrapped in a damp cheesecloth, and kept at room temperature until sprouted. For a boost of heat and acidity, Kumar whips up a light but impactful dressing of garlic, cilantro, lemon juice, Thai chile, and oil. Inspired by his mother’s recipe, Kumar also tosses the mung beans in a mustard seed-red chile tadka (“you have to smash the chiles for the right smoky flavor”) along with cilantro, onions, cucumbers, fresh coconut, and chiles. The verdant, lush presentation of the dish is also an homage to Kumar’s village. “There’s a ceremony at the harvest festival in Southern Tamil Nadu called Mulaipari. The women carry grains on their heads and walk around the goddess’ statue as a tribute to thank them for a good harvest. Every time I eat this [dish], it takes me right back home.”
Malted YuenYeung
While working as an intern at a non-profit in Hong Kong, Pastry Chef Janice Sung and her friends found sanctuary from the humid summer heat at casual, affordable cha chaan tengs, Hong Kong’s answer to the diner. There, satisfying yuenyeungs—iconic drinks made of Ceylon black tea, coffee, condensed or evaporated milk, and sugar—are poured over ice and sold for two dollars. “I wanted to recreate that refreshing memory, but put a spin on it,” says Sung. “Make it delicate, with a nod to the British influence on Hong Kong cuisine.” Served like a trifle in a vintage tea cup, Sung’s malted yuenyeung dessert, from the now-shuttered Figure Eight, starts with a tres leches-inspired sponge cake soaked in condensed milk, heavy cream, and malted milk powder that is layered on top of a whipped coffee ganache. The malted flavor is “very common in Hong Kong because of its British colonial history,” she says, and “I liked that it added a warmer, nutty aspect” to the “very creamy dessert.” The tea flavor of the traditional yuenyeung is expressed through a top layer of milk tea ganache, featuring a “floral and fruity” tea rather than the traditional Ceylon. Lastly, for a salty and crunchy finish, Sung garnishes the dessert with an addictive crumble composed of butter, sugar, malted milk powder, milk powder, flour, cornstarch, and a generous pinch of fleur de sel.
against the grain
When developing the opening menu for Eleven Madison Park’s Clemente Bar, Bar Manager Richie Millwater wanted to carry on the vegan restaurant’s mission of sustainability. So, when he noticed an abundance of plantain scraps in the kitchen, he decided to utilize the byproduct by turning it into miso. “I was making a lot of cocktails with miso,” says Millwater. “But this time, I wanted to build a cocktail around the miso.” He begins by dehydrating leftover bruised plantains and their skins, along with a few oxidized bananas, and blitzing them into a fine powder. Next, as “an homage to [his] brewing days,” Millwater made a stop at Brooklyn’s Bitter & Esters to pick up milled German barley malt. The barley malt, plantain-banana powder, and a hint of cherry stout malt are then combined with salt, water, and a red barley koji and fermented for three months. The miso is mixed with demerara sugar, letting the flavors meld overnight, to create a syrup. Doubling down on the barley flavors of the miso, Millwater settled on Scotch and barley shōchū. Looking to add some “subtle bitterness,” he incorporates Caperitif liqueur and, to play off the oxidation of the fruit, adds a touch of Amontillado Sherry. After a final hit of crème de banane, the cocktail is batched and clarified for a tropical, savory sip.
Hummingbird Torta
For Pastry Chef Rebecca Isbell, nothing says home like a hummingbird cake. Growing up in Texas, the Southern banana-pineapple cake with cream cheese frosting was a beloved dessert and, over the years, has become a source of constant inspiration for the chef. “It’s a flavor profile I've utilized throughout my career,” says Isbell. For an iteration at the now-closed Principe, she drew from her time working at a resort in the Caribbean. “We needed to make yogurt on the fly, and it was delicious.” So, instead of the traditional cream cheese frosting, Isbell presses her own yogurt, which is blended with blackened bananas, sugar, and salt, before getting whipped together with cream. The leftover whey is reduced with sugar and pineapple juice and eventually cooked down to create a luscious pineapple-whey caramel. The cake—relying on overripe bananas, vanilla paste, crushed pineapple, and both melted butter and browned butter—is topped with a poached pineapple slice and a brown sugar-cinnamon crumble before it's baked. “It’s like a perfect marriage between a sticky toffee pudding and pineapple upside-down cake.” For service, the gooey torta is draped in the pineapple-whey caramel and served with a scoop of brown sugar-cinnamon gelato and a dollop of the whipped banana yogurt. “I love the unassuming nature of it. But, when you eat it, there’s a lot of complexity in flavor.”
Patatim
Chef Mark Nobello first got the idea to adapt patatim, a traditional Filipino dish of braised pork hock, back when he was working at Atoboy. “We were using pork hock, [and] I found out that there was a Korean dish similar to [patatim]. I wanted to reinvent it.” Now, for the tasting menu at Tadhanà, Nobello takes those nostalgic Filipino flavors and filters them through a French and Korean lens. His patatim terrine starts with pig hock, cheeks, ears, and feet, all of which are braised in a mixture of dark and sweet soy sauce, Korean soy sauce, garlic, ginger, onions, cinnamon, dark brown sugar, and a hefty amount of star anise. After it’s cooked down, Nobello picks the meat and presses it overnight, allowing the natural collagen to congeal. It’s “very gelatinous and flavorful, and not a lot of people in New York make head cheese or terrines anymore. So, I wanted to showcase it.” The blocked off terrine is seared and served over a bed of banana hearts in a sauce made from the reserved braising liquid. Since the dish “can be heavy and rich, I wanted to do it like ssäm,” says Nobello. Topped with pickled mustard seeds, the dish is finished with an assortment of vegetables and herbs, like perilla, shiso, radishes, and fermented mustard greens. We are “showing our modern take on what Filipino food can be,” says Nobello, “what patatim can be here in New York.”
