The Elegant Way to Share a Pig’s Head
Midtown fine-dining joint Betony shifts entirely to prix-fixe and encourages you to eat the flowers
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So you’re minding your business, sipping a hibiscus cocktail dosed with absinthe, when Eamon Rockey comes over to ask you something. Crouching by the table, grinning like some trickster from a fable, Rockey has a way of asking you a question that makes it seem as if he’s telling you a secret.
This is what he wants to know: Do you remember back in third grade, when you put white carnations in red dye and they drew up the color and turned pink? Of course you do. Well that’s what Rockey did with the flower in your drink, except instead of using food dye, he used an infusion of fennel and star anise. Smell the flower now, and you get a clear licorice-like whiff. Eat the soft petals, and you’ll taste it, too. This flower has been drinking.