A few blocks from where the Cronut was born, a new pastry mash-up by a French chef is making its debut. Gregory Doyen developed a cakelike confection inspired by brownies and cookies that’s round, about three inches in diameter, fairly dense and with a central opening where a ganache or fruit filling goes. Mr. Doyen is calling it MOD, for multilayered original dessert. It’s offered as a single serving ($7.50 each) and in fours ($29), and can be shared and personalized. In a show of extreme confidence, it’s the only product sold in the bright white shop of the same name he owns with Edward Geyman, his business partner. A native of the Burgundy region in France who studied pastry-making and has been a pastry consultant in many countries around the globe, Mr. Doyen, 38, arrived in the United States a year ago and began working on this project. “I didn’t just want to reproduce French pastry,” he said. The flavor and filling combinations are endless. For now he has eight colorful examples, including peanut butter and jelly, matcha with white chocolate, walnut with dark chocolate, red velvet with dark chocolate and raspberry, and pecan caramel with milk chocolate chips and sea salt. He has a featured flavor of the month, which for now is s’mores with a marshmallow topping that he torches before serving. He said he’s working on a mini size.
MOD, 199 Prince Street (MacDougal Street), 212-964-0973, moddessert.com.
What’s Your Sign? Take a Glass.
We’re nearing the end of Sagittarius and about to welcome Capricorn. In the run-up to the New Year a set of glasses bearing signs of the Zodiac seems appropriate. These, newly designed by Charlap Hyman & Herrero, for Sprezz, a Brooklyn-based tableware company, include all 12. They’d be delightful as birthday gifts. The handblown glasses are labeled lowball but at 14.8 ounces, they’re generous enough for a tall Scotch and soda.
Astrological Glasses, $25 each, sprezznyc.com.
A Japanese Approach to Bûches de Noël
The French bakers at Pistache, a Brooklyn-based caterer that sells online, have been inspired by Japan for their new bûches de Noël. They’re delicate roulades of light, Japanese-style sponge cake filled with mousseline pastry cream, glazed and decorated with macarons. The flavors are chocolate, lemon, coffee and pistachio, and they serve eight to 10. Place orders by 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 20 for pickup in Brooklyn on Friday, Dec. 22, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 23, 9 a.m. to noon at the Pfizer Building, 630 Flushing Avenue (Tompkins Avenue), Williamsburg. Delivery in Brooklyn and Manhattan is available for a fee. Order online, or phone 917-597-8387 (ask for Yvan).
Pistasche bûche de Noël, $70, pistachenyc.com.
An Ever-Expanding Italian Market
The gelateria Pamina opened in August and was a hint of what was to come. There were adjacent storefronts poised to be combined for a market, cafe and restaurant, all of which would be called Travelers Poets and Friends. The market and cafe have opened; there is an area up front for fresh pasta, shelves with produce, dairy and Italian groceries opposite, a coffee and wine bar serving cicchetti (small plates, Venetian-style) with a counter and some tables and a busy kitchen turning out rustic breads, pastries and pizza. In late January a full service restaurant is to open as well. And all of it is meatless (though there’s fish). It’s the work of Emanuele Nigro’s One More Hospitality — with the partners Riccardo Orofino, Mickey Bosco, and Waél Deek — which also owns Alice and Osteria57
Travelers Poets and Friends, 461 Avenue of the Americas (11th Street), 212-420-0057.
Food and the Islamic World at LACMA
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA, has just opened a unique culinary exhibit, “Dining With the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting.” It examines food, its preparation and service and the artifacts involved in the Islamic world. Covering late Antiquity and early Islamic courts through the Ottoman era, the exhibit covers the Middle East, Egypt and Central Asia, and some Chinese, Spanish and Italian porcelains, with 250 pieces on display. Ceramic and metal ware, manuscripts, boxes for scents and spices, and even apparel are included, as it explores subjects like etiquette, finding potable water, coffee, outdoor feasting, eating for health, and music and entertainment. For those with an interest in the subject but no plans for a stop in Los Angeles (or in Detroit, where it will next be shown), there is an elaborate companion catalog, $85, available from thelacmastore.org.
“Dining With the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, until Aug. 4, 2024, lacma.org.
Bright Sauces and Portuguese Tinned Fish
Most of the tinned seafood, or conservas, coming out of Spain, Portugal and elsewhere, amounts simply to fish in a can. But recently, these convenient pantry additions for hors d’oeuvre, easy lunch or part of dinner (Feast of the Seven Fishes anyone?) have become more elaborate. A new Portuguese line, ABC+ from a small independent cannery and imported by Caputo’s, a tinned fish specialist in Salt Lake City that ships nationally, is a prime example. Among its 18 or so varieties you’ll find horse mackerel in ravigote sauce, trout fillets in caper sauce, mackerel fillets aglio e olio, small sardines in spicy brava sauce, calamari in curry, john dory in mint sauce, and wild shrimp in spicy olive oil and garlic. Most are 4.2 ounces serving one or two and are priced at $17.99 and $19.99, with a few more expensive varieties. In addition to Caputo’s, they’re sold in New York at Formaggio Essex.
ABC+ conservas, caputos.com.
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