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Eater
6 days ago
- General
- Eater
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Isn't Good If It Isn't Bright Green
is a senior reporter at covering restaurant trends, home cooking advice, and all the food you can't escape on your TikTok FYP. Previously, she worked for Bon Appétit and VICE's Munchies. A hill I will die on is that mint chocolate chip ice cream doesn't hit right when it's not green. And by green, I don't mean the sickly tinge of ice cream infused with mint leaves au naturel, whose relationship to color is like La Croix's relationship to flavor (a whisper at best). I desire the saturated green we'd otherwise associate with toothpaste or — maybe more appetizing — Martha Stewart's jadeite collection. Mint chocolate chip should be bright, vibrant, and somewhat fantastical. Remember being young and trying a food that you knew intellectually could not exist in nature, and were therefore fascinated by? The first time you relished a blue raspberry Jolly Rancher or sipped a Baja Blast? This was how you understood ingenuity and what allowed the story of Willy Wonka to take hold. Ice cream has the power to unlock that childlike pleasure. In the modern age of highbrow ice cream, I find myself more and more often returning to the ice cream I wanted as a kid, not a hoity-toity reinterpretation of the same memory. Bad news for me, however: Earlier this week, a group of American ice cream makers voluntarily pledged to eliminate certified artificial colors from their ice creams by the end of 2027. The members agreeing to these terms are responsible for the vast majority of ice cream sold in the United States. This means goodbye Blue 1, which gives Friendly's mint chocolate chip its signature hue (in addition to the annatto and turmeric), as well as Red 3, Green 3, Blue 2, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, and the much-maligned Red 40. Ice cream trucks will never be the same. Real mint chipheads know that this cultural shift has been building for a while; it's gotten harder to find properly vivid, artificially green mint ice cream as consumer tastes prioritize 'natural' options. Of course, there is new motivation for the crackdown on dyes: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made eliminating synthetic dyes and other food additives a priority in his new role as Secretary of Health and Human Services. In response, major food producers like Kraft Heinz and Nestlé are now working to remove artificial dyes from their products within the next few years. There is some hope for those of us who want ice cream that looks a little fake, however. The Food & Drug Administration is slowly approving new colors derived from natural sources for use in food, including, most recently, gardenia (genipin) blue. Sign up for Eater's newsletter The freshest news from the food world every day Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Eater
15-07-2025
- Business
- Eater
Do We Really Need a Protein Uncrustable?
is a senior reporter at covering restaurant trends, home cooking advice, and all the food you can't escape on your TikTok FYP. Previously, she worked for Bon Appétit and VICE's Munchies. Name a sandwich innovation more legitimately worthwhile than the Uncrustable — it's certainly not the invention of Kranch nor MayoMust. For this reason, Uncrustables are undefeated, on track to hit over $1 billion in sales in the current fiscal year. In 2021, J.M. Smucker Co. invested $1.1 billion to increase distribution to meet the unstoppable demand for Uncrustables alone. Humans, of course, are known for our hubris, doomed to be struck down by the Gods. This, perhaps, is why a new brand seeks to disrupt Uncrustables' ubiquity in the 'sealed crustless sandwich' space. Jams is a professional athlete-backed Uncrustables dupe that's now in the process of hitting Walmart stores across the country, as CNBC Sport reported earlier this week. The packaged 'protein PB&J'comes in either strawberry or blueberry. As founder Connor Blakely told CNBC, the biggest selling point of Jams is its lack of seed oils, dyes, artificial colors and flavors, and high fructose corn syrup, in addition to having the 'most protein per ounce of any peanut butter and jelly that's currently on the market.' I do have to wonder: Do we really need a protein Uncrustable? Especially when peanut butter and jelly Uncrustables already have protein by virtue of having peanut butter? Sure, a Jams sandwich has 10 grams of protein to the six in an Uncrustable, but a Jams sandwich weighs in at 74 grams and an Uncrustable is only 58 grams. That's 13 percent protein to 10 percent protein — not a startlingly huge difference. Then again, it's true that I'm not an athlete. NFL teams, for whom macros likely matter much more than they do for me, go through at least 80,000 Uncrustables per year, as The Athletic uncovered last year. What bothers me more than the protein marketing is the way this 'health-conscious' branding, employed by so many new food brands now, draws on our collective anxiety around food. While some of this anxiety is well-earned, it's also been exploited by brands whose positioning can often read like fearmongering. New oil companies deride the inflammatory potential of their competitors; probiotic sodas promise to solve problems we might never have had, had we not suddenly become inundated with 'gut health' content on TikTok. This has contributed to the rise of the Make America Healthy Again movement, with both its accurate guidance, like eating more vegetables, and its more potentially worrying elements, like the rise of raw milk and the recent backlash against food dye. I was alive during the Atkins era and therefore know that none of this — the demonization of specific ingredients, the overemphasis on others — is anything new. But it's all starting to feel a little orthorexic, don't we think? Despite Jams's branding, Uncrustables already don't have any artificial dyes, as CNBC notes, nor do they contain high fructose corn syrup; it removed the latter in favor of real sugar in 2017. That's the appeal of this kind of marketing, though: It taps into our anxieties, whether they're justified or not. Sign up for Eater's newsletter The freshest news from the food world every day Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Eater
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
What's In That Dessert? Vegetables
is a senior reporter at covering restaurant trends, home cooking advice, and all the food you can't escape on your TikTok FYP. Previously, she worked for Bon Appétit and VICE's Munchies. As a child, pastry chef Susan Bae hated doenjang jjigae, the Korean stew made with fermented soybean paste, and an assortment of veggies. These days, she says, 'I think I love it.' For that reason, Bae now has the dish on the menu at Washington, D.C.'s Moon Rabbit, albeit as a dessert. Bae's sweetened rendition of doenjang jjigae is a tofu cheesecake with a base of zucchini cake. Charred-miso creme anglaise, confit squash, and a jam made with chef-favorite Nardello peppers complete the dish. It's a dessert with all the savory flavors of doenjang jjigae — and all the vegetables too. For Moon Rabbit, which describes itself as 'reimagined Vietnamese cuisine,' Bae wanted to incorporate the savory elements, herbs, and vegetables of Southeast Asian cuisine into her desserts as well. In every dish, she wanted a balance of 'sweet, salty, and a bit of this random 'what is that?' flavor.' The chocolate mousse at Moon Rabbit includes mushroom ice cream. Rachel Paraoan What is that flavor? At some restaurants, it's vegetables where you least expect them: in dessert. While Bae's desserts are especially adventurous, root vegetables, of course, have often found themself in sweets; at Atoma in Seattle, there might be parsnips in the famous baked Alaska. Some inclusions, like cucumber and tomato, are technically fruit even if they're functionally treated like vegetables: Cucumber appears in a granita that's served alongside the chamomile custard at Firstborn in Los Angeles, and in sorbet at Rory's Place in Ojai, California (the latter has also employed spring peas in ice cream). Salt & Straw recently put tomato-Gruyere ice cream on the menu. With these desserts, chefs are challenging diners' expectations and, in doing so, perhaps lifting us from a growing sense of menu ennui. That zucchini-and-pepper dessert isn't an outlier on Moon Rabbit's pastry program. 'I'm a pastry chef, but I actually love, appreciate, and prefer savory food,' Bae says. There's a sponge cake with all the flavors of green curry, 'minus the allium,' Bae says. Dill graces the durian mousse with passionfruit granita. Seaweed and sea beans round out the pandan panna cotta. And the chocolate mousse comes with wild-mushroom streusel and chanterelle ice cream, with green Sichuan peppercorn oil to enhance the savory mushroom flavor. Compared to Moon Rabbit's elaborate menu, the one at Los Angeles's new Baby Bistro is minimal. There's a bread course, four savory dishes, and just one dessert. The base of the dessert is a pine nut cookie, classic enough. It's then topped with cucumber cremeux, followed by sweet-and-sour poached rhubarb, fennel fronds, and a spritz of thyme-infused white wine vinegar. That list of ingredients could just as easily be a salad. The pine nut cookie with cucumber cremeux is the only dessert at Baby Bistro. Kort Havens Executive chef and owner Miles Thompson once considered cucumbers his favorite food and wanted to show off their versatility. Plus, he says, the dessert better fits into the restaurant's focus on vegetables. 'A buttermilk cake with cream cheese frosting doesn't really vibe with our ethos,' he said. According to Thompson, the dish was the 'most well-received item on the entire menu' when Baby Bistro was just a pop-up. It might seem like a bold choice to offer something so unconventional as the restaurant's only dessert. If the goal, especially in this economy, is to maximize the average spend per table and to get regular diners, why not go for a known favorite — the tiramisus and panna cottas that we see everywhere? For some chefs, the whole point is to give people what they don't expect but might enjoy anyway. Diners tend to be 'taken aback' by her desserts, Bae admits, though ultimately pleased by them. 'Part of the experience that I like to provide is to look at these savory ingredients that are unconventional in dessert [and prove that] we can make it taste really good in sweeter form as well,' she adds. Still, the restaurant reserves these cerebral desserts for dinner; the lunch options are more conventional, like pandan sponge cake with plum and lychee. Smithereens is known for its celery ice cream float. Tom Wilson Similarly, since it opened in late 2024, New York City's New England-inspired Smithereens has become known for two oddball sweets: a dessert of candied seaweed with black licorice, and a celery ice cream float. The latter employs celery two ways: first, it appears in a celery root ice cream, in which sit Luxardo cherries marinated in red wine vinegar and shio koji and drizzled with coffee oil. Then, celery is used in the bright soda that surrounds the ice cream. The pairing is both earthy and refreshing. 'I'm a fan of desserts being as weird as possible, as long as they taste good,' says chef and owner Nick Tamburo. With training at Momofuku and Blanca — at the latter, he briefly did only pastry — Tamburo handles both sweet and savory at Smithereens in New York. He sees dessert, unlike a main dish, as 'not a huge commitment.' Therefore, he says, it offers the opportunity to do something 'creative and a little wacky.' If the stereotypical New England seafood spot is sunny Taylor Swift 1989 pop, Smithereens's take on the region exudes goth-y darkwave — askew from the mainstream. Part of Tamburo's vision is 'to make the food we're excited about and to not feel beholden to guest expectations,' he says. There's comfort, of course, in the classic chocolate cake. But then, there's excitement to be found in learning whether or not a celery or seaweed dessert works for you. 'I think New York specifically, but really the whole country, is a little complacent these days when it comes to food,' Tamburo says. The resurgence of 'French revival and sort of mid-century restaurants is fun,' he adds. 'But I think we have enough of that.' Sign up for Eater's newsletter The freshest news from the food world every day Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Miami Herald
01-07-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
McDonald's debuts new dessert, but it won't stick around. When can you get it?
McDonald's is putting a spin on its classic hand pies. The new blueberry and creme pie arrived on menus Monday, June 30, at participating McDonald's restaurants nationwide, the fast-food giant said. The berry-forward dessert features a pastry filled with blueberries and vanilla creme filling layered side by side, according to a product description. The seasonal pie will stick around for a limited time, though McDonald's didn't say for how long. Pricing information also wasn't immediately available. It's the latest iteration of McDonald's classic apple pie, the first dessert to join the menu in 1968, reported in 2018. More than 40 variants have been released since then, including the switch from fried to baked pies in the early '90s, and a revolving door of seasonal flavors. There's even a special holiday pie, made with a 'smooth custard nestled in a flaky, buttery crust' and topped with colorful sprinkles, McClatchy News reported. 'Outside the U.S., popular flavors include taro (China), sweet corn (Thailand), and berries and currant (UK),' according to The blueberry and creme pie marks the newest addition to McDonald's dessert menu, which recently added a limited time Hershey's s'mores McFlurry. Other treats include: McFlurry with Oreo cookiesHot fudge sundae Chocolate chip cookie Find your nearest McDonald's here.
Eater
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
Best Dishes New York Editors Ate This Week: June 16
Skip to main content Current eater city: New York With Eater editors dining out sometimes several times a day, we come across lots of standout dishes, and we don't want to keep any secrets. Check back for the best things we ate this week. I've never met a shrimp wonton that I didn't at least like (knock on wood), but a recent visit to the Manhattan outpost of Maxi's Noodle introduced me to a shrimp wonton that I really loved. The main draw is that these wontons are big. They're generously plump and require a few bites, whereas many wontons just take one. The wrappers are silky and thin, letting the chunks of shrimp stand out. Their meaty texture was a fun contrast to the bouncy, chewy duck egg noodles. On this visit, I got the noodle soup with wontons, dumplings, and dace fish balls, but the wontons were my favorite so next time, I might even pare it down to just those — and I'll definitely be buying a bag of frozen ones to bring home too. 68 Mott Street, between Canal and Bayard streets, Chinatown — Bettina Makalintal, senior reporter at It was great to be back at Fedora, the longtime spot that's once again reborn, this time as a standout wine bar. This round, it comes from the owners of St. Jardim — Dete and Christa Alexander, and wine director, Basile Al Mileik. Former Le Rock chef Monty Forrest shapes the menu with items like pierogies with peas, spaghetti with clams, Merguez sausage with peppers, and an old-school luxurious sweetbreads dish ($28). The offal is slightly creamy with a crispy breaded exterior. Served with mushrooms, they're draped in a silky sherry sauce. I liked the smaller portion so we didn't fill up on a rich dish and could try other things. 239 W. Fourth Street, between West 10th and Charles streets, West Village – Melissa McCart , lead editor, Northeast In a neighborhood with many pricey restaurants, this cozy and affordable spot, Water & Wheat, is a welcome find. A pasta machine turns out a variety of shapes, including whole wheat chittara and gluten-free penne, that can be topped with a range of sauces, from brisket Bolognese to carbonara. I love mafalde because it can still have a chewy, al dente quality, even though it's freshly made. Asparagus, broccolini, and olives add more texture to this dish ($22), while lemon and Parmesan give it a wonderful zest. Salads are super fresh, and most things on the menu, including salmon and Brussels sprouts, are finished in a wood burning oven that add char. I'm looking forward to going back and trying the pizza flatbreads. 1379 Third Avenue, between 78th and 79th streets, Upper East Side — Beth Landman, contributor, Eater NY
