This Dessert Fits In on St. Patrick’s Day

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A creamy matcha custard pie that’s about as verdant as you can get for St. Patrick’s Day is the work of Melissa and Emily Elsen, the owners of Four & Twenty Blackbirds in Brooklyn. The matcha, or powdered green tea, is from Ippodo in Murray Hill and is culinary grade so it’s less bitter. To make the tart, heat the oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together ⅔ cup granulated sugar, 1½ tablespoons flour, ¼ teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoons matcha powder. Stir in ½ cup melted unsalted butter, then beat in 3 eggs and 1 egg yolk one at a time. Beat a couple of minutes more, stir in 2 cups heavy cream and ½ teaspoon vanilla, and strain into a par-baked 10-inch pie shell. Bake about 50 minutes, rotating it 180 degrees after 35 minutes, until the pie is set around the edges but still wobbly in the center. Allow to cool, then decorate with whipped cream: Matcha Custard Pie, $40 at Four & Twenty Blackbirds, 439 Third Avenue (Eighth Street), 718-499-2917, birdsblack.com.

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Credit Bryan Thomas for The New York Times
To Indulge: Southeast Asia Sends a Dougnut This Way

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Pandan, a palm leaf that’s popular in Southeast Asian cooking, has started to enter the culinary vocabulary. Simpson Wong, the chef and owner of the Singaporean restaurant Chomp Chomp in the West Village, has teamed up with the nearby Doughnut Project to slather one of its puffy yeast doughnuts with pandan glaze and toasted coconut. It’s filled with green kaya, a coconut jam. Availability is limited: Kaya Doughnut, $4 at the Doughnut Project, 10 Morton Street (Bleecker Street), 212-691-5000, thedoughnutproject.com, and $6 with ice cream at Chomp Chomp, 7 Cornelia Street (West Fourth Street), 212-929-2888, chompchompnyc.com.

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Credit Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
To Sip: Keeping the Fire Burning

Unlike the highly refined, almost neutral tequilas that have become the norm, this entry from Maestro Dobel harks back to the old days, when mesquite wood was used for cooking the piñas, or the cores of the agave plants, and cloaked the spirit in sultry smoke. Humito, a racy new silver tequila with a wood grill aroma, has a flavor that smolders as you sip: Maestro Dobel Humito, $39.99 at Wells Discount Liquors, wellswine.com, maestrodobel.com.

To View: This Star Critic Takes a Turn in the Spotlight

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Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer for The Los Angeles Times, in the film “City of Gold.” Credit Sundance Selects
To be a restaurant critic in Los Angeles involves a great deal of driving. Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer-winning food writer for The Los Angeles Times, is at the wheel in scene after scene in the new feature film “City of Gold,” which profiles its well-padded, suspender-wearing subject and his often out-of-the-way ethnic mom-and-pop restaurant discoveries. Even as the film makes you crave a fish taco, it also touches on restaurant criticism in general and shines a flattering spotlight on some of the less palm-fringed corners of Los Angeles: “City of Gold,” directed by Laura Gabbert, opens Friday.

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Credit Bryan Thomas for The New York Times
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To Enjoy: Inspiration Emerges From a Burger

A new pot-sticker-style dumpling is stuffed with the earthy mix of black beans, quinoa and sweet potato. It was devised by Marian Cheng and Hannah Cheng, the partners in Mimi Cheng’s, an East Village dumpling house, and is based on the “guac burger” from Samantha Wasser and Chloe Coscarelli at By Chloe, a Greenwich Village vegan spot with lines out the door. Chipotle aioli comes alongside. It is sold at Mimi Cheng’s through the end of the month: Guac Burger Dumplings, $9.50 for six, $11.50 for eight at Mimi Cheng’s Dumplings, 179 Second Avenue (12th Street), mimichengs.com.

To Crave: A Lesson Will Leave You Hungry for More

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Credit Liz Barclay for The New York Times
Barbecue will be discussed and sampled at “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About BBQ,” a conversation with the food historian Francine Segan and Warren Norstein, a barbecue expert: “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About BBQ,” 7 to 8:30 p.m. March 15, $45, 92nd Street Y, 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue, 212-415-5500, 92Y.org.