A Newcomer in the Mushrooming Field of ‘Animal-Free’ Meats

Meati, a self-described “animal-free” food company that makes its products almost entirely from mushrooms, has entered the crowded market for meat alternatives. They don’t use portobello caps and the like, but mycelium, the fungal threads in mushroom roots. With smidgens of oat fiber and chick pea flour, plus vegetable and fruit extracts for color, the Boulder, Colo., company has created white meat cutlets — with and without breading — that easily pass for boneless chicken breast. I’m no fan of faux anything, but the “chicken” is suitable for making Parm, dressed in sauce or diced for chicken salad. The “steak” rendition, a disk that’s ready to sear and comes pre-seasoned, is an adequate mimic but could benefit from the addition of some fat. The protein content is around 15 grams per serving, the fiber around eight. The products are used at several Momofuku restaurants: in New York at Noodle Bar as a crispy cutlet with hot honey and chili crunch, at Ssam Bar in pieces with gochujang glaze, and in Los Angeles at Majordomo in a larb salad.

Meati, about $9 for “chicken,” $11 for “steak,” sold in Sprouts stores nationwide and in New York at Pop Up Grocer, 205 Bleecker Street (Avenue of the Americas), popupgrocer.com, meati.com.

A Cubist Chocolate Easter Bunny

In Iceland, a striking Easter treat is Mr. Carrots, a golden, Cubist chocolate bunny, as stern and proud as an Oscar. It’s made by Omnom, a Reykjavík chocolatier, and is being sold in the United States for the first time. It stands 7.7 inches tall and is made from the company’s signature caramelized milk chocolate seasoned with sea salt and licorice, a popular flavor in Nordic countries. There are just about 1,000 available here.

A new colomba, the traditional Italian dove-shaped Easter cake and a cousin to panettone, has landed in the United States; it has a lot to offer. The moist, caky confection from Acetaia Giusti, a long-established balsamic vinegar producer in Modena, is not only studded with raisins soaked in balsamico, and lightly marbled with veins of sweet balsamic vinegar mixed with grape must, it’s also covered in a network of dark chocolate. It’s made for Giusti by Tommaso Muzzi in Umbria, a company known for more than 100 years for its panettone. There’s a lot of colomba to go around — at least 12 servings.

Colomba, $44.90, giusti.it, also sold at Eataly.

Another ‘Peat Monster’ for Smoky Scotch Lovers

There is a new limited edition of the Peat Monster, a blended Scotch that lives up to its name and was created by Compass Box, a Scotch whisky company founded by an American, John Glaser, some 20 years ago. The whisky was originally created in collaboration with Jonathan Goldstein, an owner of Park Avenue Liquor Shop in Manhattan, whose clients love their drams to be as smoky as possible. This edition is cask strength with a 56.7 percent A.B.V. It’s tawny in color and the smell of pothole repair is forceful, yet mellows with sweet spices on the palate. Its American connections are reinforced with aging mostly in American oak casks, and with a label showing New York City landmarks, designed by the artist Marc Burckhardt.

Compass Box Peat Monster Cask Strength: Origin Story Limited Edition Blended Malt Scotch Whisky, $139.99 for 750 milliliters, Park Avenue Liquor Shop, 270 Madison Avenue (39th Street), 212-685-2442, parkaveliquor.com, compassboxwhisky.com.

One Cappuccino With … Buffalo Milk?

Giuseppe Bruno, an owner of Sistina and Caravaggio restaurants on the Upper East Side, has a dilemma. He has discovered an alluring new way to make a cappuccino using buffalo milk, which usually goes into fresh cheeses, for a much denser, richer layer of foam on top. “Buffalo milk is more perishable and much more expensive than cow’s milk,” Mr. Bruno said. He suggests thinking of it as dessert, floats a shimmer of gold leaf on the surface and charges $20 a cup. Though most Italians do not believe in drinking cappuccino after noon, he’s given in. After all, many of his American customers order cappuccino at lunch and dinner.

Sistina, 24 East 81st Street (Madison Avenue), 212-861-7660, sistinany.com; Caravaggio, 23 East 74th Street (Madison Avenue), 212-288-1004, caravaggioristorante.com.

A Japanese Bread Knife That Gives You Options

Most bread knives offer lengthy, uniform stretches of serrated steel. An exception is a Japanese import by Suncraft now being sold by Milk Street, Christopher Kimball’s multimedia culinary company in Boston. The blade is a mere 5.5 inches long and has three cutting edges: small serrations, large serrations and at the end a smooth tip, providing options for slicing crusty and soft baked goods, sandwiches and even tender fruits with ease. The slightly curved pale wood handle is comfortable, and the knife comes with a plastic sheath.

Suncraft Small Serrated Everything Knife, $39.95, store.177milkstreet.com.