It’s been 10 years since Dominique Ansel created the Cronut sensation. Earlier this year, another croissant-style novelty appeared, this time at Mercado Little Spain, José Andrés’s food market in Hudson Yards. Xuxo is a traditional crunchy fried pastry from the Catalonian city of Girona, said the market’s head chef, Nicolás López. Mr. Andrés was taken with it at La Boqueria, the famous Barcelona market. For summer, at Mercado Little Spain, it has become xuxo helado, a churro-croissant cone sporting a generous topknot of soft-serve ($7). It can also be had with a cream, chocolate or strawberry filling ($5). As for the ice cream flavors, there are many, including strawberry, mango, Colacao (chocolate) and El Solero (mango swirl). But churros and ice cream are not a new pairing: Fany Gerson makes churro ice cream sandwiches that are sold on Goldbelly.
Mercado Little Spain, 10 Hudson Yards (30th Street), 646-495-1242, littlespain.com.
The Luxe Burger Lives On in Spirit at Les Trois Chevaux
It might have been Daniel Boulud who ushered in the era of the luxe burger at DB Bistro with ground beef as the gift wrap for braised short ribs and foie gras in a brioche bun. The burger has mostly parted ways with foie gras in recent years, but not for Angie Mar, the chef and owner of Les Trois Chevaux, in the West Village, who has deconstructed it on her new lunch menu (Thursdays and Fridays). Her steak haché, made from a mix of Angus and imported Japanese Miyazaki beef, has a melt of Comté cheese and sports a jaunty beret of seared foie gras. It sits on a round of brioche in a shallow pool of rich, beefy tarragon sauce, $62.
Les Trois Chevaux, 283 West 12th Street, (West Fourth Street), angie-mar.com.
Restaurant Recommendations From the Pros
You might be armed with a personal restaurant whisperer, an expert you trust, when you travel to, say, Bangkok or Seattle. Now, World of Mouth, a new free app available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play, provides restaurant recommendations from more than 500 chefs, restaurateurs, journalists and other food insiders for cities worldwide. Saku Tuominen, the chief executive of World of Mouth and a former Helsinki entrepreneur in media and restaurants, created the guide with several backers as a way to provide professional and personal advice without ratings, just brief descriptions and no advertising. When you check out restaurants in Copenhagen, you’ll know whether the tips come from René Redzepi, or Rasmus Kofoed of the restaurant Geranium. “I wanted to create something that is global, totally transparent and more trustworthy than the existing guides,” Mr. Tuominen said. The panel of experts is not paid, and cannot include places with which they are involved. (Contributors do not reveal when they last visited a restaurant.) World of Mouth already has more than 75,000 users, about 30 percent of which are in the United States. The company is also developing a premium level with a fee, and considering offering a reservation system.
Word of Mouth, worldofmouth.app.
A Buzz-Free Shandy for Summer
Radler, the German version of a shandy — the summer beer and lemonade refresher — is the latest addition to the lineup by Athletic Brewing, the Milford, Conn., company that makes only brews with less than 0.5 A.B.V. For their lemon radler, called Ripe Pursuit, they took their inspiration from David Chang, an investor in the company, who loves this style of beer. The radler is pale, freshly citric with a hint of yeast, and wants to be well-chilled. Mr. Chang recommends it alongside mapo tofu or Momofuku noodles with chili crunch, but it has much broader talent.
Athletic Brewing Ripe Pursuit, $14.99 for 6 12-ounce cans, athleticbrewing.com.
Recipes from a Japanese American Kitchen
The marriage of Japanese and Jewish cuisine is just an added bonus for the wife-and-husband team of Sawako Okochi and Aaron Israel of the Brooklyn restaurant Shalom Japan, where they serve dishes like matzo ball ramen. Now, their recipes are detailed in a new cookbook, “Love Japan: Recipes From Our Japanese American Kitchen,” written with Gabriella Gershenson, an editor at Wirecutter. The book tilts mostly toward Japanese home cooking in its lists of pantry and equipment items and most of the recipes, providing a worthwhile primer for the novice at using dashi and so forth. As for the culinary collaboration, adding kombu and ginger to a simmering pot of chicken soup is a fine idea, as is inserting shiso leaves in a BLT. The tofu Caesar dip is a keeper. Some Japanese recipes at home in an American kitchen include braised black sea bass with ginger and scallions, broiled mackerel with grated daikon and ponzu, and miso-honey chicken designed for the broiler but suited for a grill.
“Love Japan: Recipes From Our Japanese American Kitchen” by Sawako Okochi and Aaron Israel and Gabriella Gershenson (Ten Speed Press, $30).
Everything You Need to Know About Olive Oil
A chance to explore the nuances of olive oils, how they’re made and how to evaluate them has been organized by Les Dames d’Escoffier New York, a nonprofit organization supporting women in food, beverages and hospitality. A panel discussion among experts will begin the two-hour session, followed by guided blind tasting of several olive oils, samples of which will be sent to participants who register by Saturday.
Les Dames d’Escoffier New York, “Olive Oil, A Deep Dive With the Pros,” May 30 from 4 to 6 p.m. via Zoom, $45 for members, $55 for nonmembers (prices include the tasting kit), eventbrite.com.
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