The 50 Best's extended list quietly rewrote South Africa's standing, and Lima is bracing for the big night.
The extended 50 Best list dropped last week with less fanfare than the top 50 gets, which is a shame, because the real movement was buried in the middle of it. Two Cape Town restaurants jumped seventeen places apiece, which is the kind of thing that gets talked about at the bar long after the press release stops mattering. Meanwhile Lima is dusting off the Teatro Municipal for November 4, and everyone in the business is already arguing about who gets snubbed.
The Moroccan-Spanish chef behind Zurich's Michelin-starred KLE turns her restaurant technique toward the home kitchen, with more than a hundred recipes built around layering umami, acid and texture rather than substituting meat for fake meat. It's just out this month from Phaidon, and it's the rare vegan cookbook written by someone who holds both a green and a red Michelin star, which is its own kind of argument.
See the book and two recipes →
Choi's debut cookbook is built around the Korean idea of son-mat, the taste that comes from a grandmother's hands, less about exact measurements and more about feel and instinct in the kitchen. It's out this week, October 27, and lands right as Korean home cooking keeps pulling further into the mainstream beyond the usual banchan and barbecue.
See the book and two recipes →
A whole book devoted to the boxed meals sold at Japanese train stations, from the lacquered regional classics to the plastic-wrapped convenience store versions, with the stories of the towns behind them. It's a narrow, specific subject done properly, out this month, and a nice antidote to the glut of general Japanese cookbooks.
See the book and two recipes →
Daddy Yankee and Lima chef Jaime Pesaque are opening a 60-seat fast-casual spot on Spring Street built around anticuchos, the grilled skewers that are a staple of Lima street food, with chaufa rice, ceviche and pisco sours rounding out the menu. It opens Wednesday, October 28. British investors originally pitched Daddy Yankee a Mexican concept and he pushed back for Peruvian, which is its own small story about where he thinks the city's taste is headed.
Walk in after opening day, it is fast casual, no reservation needed
A new brasserie and lobby cafe inside the PUBLIC Hotel, opened by the former head of the Gjelina restaurant group and that chain's onetime opening chef. It opened October 26, and the pitch is coffee in the morning sliding into martinis at night, which is a useful kind of place to have on a list.
Go for a late breakfast this week before the crowds find it
A new Filipino bistro on Noble Street from a team already working in the neighborhood. It is one of several Greenpoint and Brooklyn openings landing right now as the fall wave of new restaurants keeps rolling in.
Keep an eye on the block, opening date to be confirmed
Before the public opening, Daddy Yankee threw a preview party at the SoHo space with J Balvin and Myke Towers among the guests, which is a lot of reggaeton royalty for a skewer shop. The buzz is as much about who showed up as what is on the grill, and the restaurant's pink paint job, pulled from the color of Andean pollera skirts, is already all over Instagram ahead of the Wednesday opening.
Follow the restaurant's Instagram for opening day lines
The East Village spot that serves fresh pasta out of a paper cone, meant to be eaten while walking, keeps resurfacing across TikTok food tours months after it first went viral. It is still pulling new reviews and walkthroughs on TikTok this month, the kind of place where the video of someone eating rigatoni down St. Marks is the whole point.
Go on a weekday afternoon, the line moves fast
Customizable grilled skewers, including a chicken thigh glazed with miso and aji mirasol and a pork belly version with sweet and sour rocoto and pineapple chutney. It is the first week it exists. Order the mix of skewers plus a pisco sour and you have seen the whole menu in one sitting.
Walk in starting Wednesday, October 28
Earlier: Wednesday, October 28Monday, October 26Sunday, October 25Saturday, October 24Friday, October 23
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