Genesis House, the Manhattan flagship for the Korean auto company that opened its Genesis House Restaurant curated by Onjium last year, now has a serene tea pavilion in its building where Korean teas — green, red, black, blue, white, and herbal — are served and available for purchase. Now a tea master, Ashley Lim, conducts traditional tea ceremonies for up to six guests on Saturdays and Sundays at 1 p.m. Described as less formal than a Japanese or Chinese routine, it involves learning darye etiquette, as the Korean tea ceremony is called, and tasting three teas, with snacks. The sessions take place every weekend.
Tea Experience at Genesis House, $80 per person, Genesis House 40A 10th Avenue (13th Street), 855-444-0836, genesishouse.com.
A lavender cream Mille Crêpes Cake for spring
By stacking several layers of gossamer-thin crêpes, Lady M bakery has acquired a signature signature, the mille crêpes cake, a template for infinite variations. For spring it has introduced a fragrant, seductive lavender version. The crepes are layered with lavender cream with a break in the middle for a jammy blackberry filling; the outside is smeared with pale lavender-blackberry cream. The nine-inch cake is available for shipping nationwide.
Lavender Mille Crepes, $108, ladym.com.
A new chef for Mast Market
Rick Mast, who runs a chocolate company founded in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, along with his brother Michael, recently opened a market on the Upper West Side in November 2021 with a coffee bar and a finely-tuned inventory of food products, ingredients, and tableware from small producers. It now has its own chef, Franz Fruhmann, whose experience includes Blue Hill at Stone Barns, preparing salads such as a toss of heirloom potatoes and arugula; sandwiches; and soups to go, all $12 and under and usually made with farmer’s market produce sold at the store. There are baked goods such as muffins and cookies in the coffee bar. This market is a branch of the Mast Market that opened in 2021 in Mount Kisco, NY after the brothers closed their Brooklyn chocolate business, which partially succumbed to a controversy over their chocolate production, and moved to Westchester. Both markets and many shops sell their bars.
Mastmarket, 353 Columbus Avenue (77th Street), 212-874-6278, mastmarket.com.
John Donohue sketches the London restaurant scene
Pen and notepad in hand, the artist and writer John Donohue has dined and sketched his way through the New York and Paris restaurant scenes. Now it’s London’s turn. “A Taste of London” includes 101 restaurants, a diverse plot that reflects the city’s mosaic of cultures grouped by neighbourhood. Each light-hearted drawing is accompanied by brief comments from the artist and others. Included are standard bearers such as the Ivy, River Café, St. John and J. Sheekey; Gymkhana and the venerable Veeraswamy for Indian food; the Marksman and other pubs; Chiltern Firehouse, for celebrity watching; and the Connaught and the Savoy for hotel dining. You may discover the fish and chips cooked in suet at the Fryer’s Delight.
“A Taste of London: The Restaurants and Pubs Behind a Global Culinary Capital” by John Donohue, alltherestaurants.com, (Abrams Image, $27.50).
A Dashi reduction of Noma projects
The latest concoction from the alchemists working at Noma Projects is a viscous dashi reduction made from kombu, katsuobushi, sake and mushrooms, and intended to impart a touch of umami when drizzled on vegetables, seafood, eggs and rice . It is dark, somewhat brackish and not sweet. Less than a teaspoon on a fillet of seared sockeye salmon rounded out the taste of the fish nicely. Use it sparingly; at $37 for 100 milliliters (3.5 ounces), you would.
Dashi RDX, $37, nomaprojects.com.
New drinks from a cocktail revivalist
In 2012, Dale DeGroff, the bartender who was a key figure in New York’s late 1980s cocktail revival, introduced his own brand of bitters. Now the DeGroff line of spirits will grow by two. In partnership with distiller Ted Breaux and Oregon’s Clear Creek Distillery, Mr. DeGroff has introduced an eponymous aperitivo and amaro, both packaged with fancy, retro-style green-and-red striped labels. The products have been in the making for five years. The bittersweet aperitivo pairs well with a Negroni or spritz, while the more unusual “new world” amaro adds some surprising Caribbean spice to the typical amaro formula and is a nice accent to a manhattan. The aperitivo has an alcohol percentage of 25 percent, while the amaro is 35 percent. ROBERT SIMONSON
DeGroff Bitter Aperitivo, 700 ml, $30 at bottlerocket.com, $32 at sommcellarswine.com; DeGroff New World Amaro, 700ml, $40 at bottlerocket.com, $43 at sommcellarswine.com.
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