Carlos Salazar

The halo halo dessert delivers on the name: Unexpected savory elements such as purple yam ice cream and sweet red beans get paired with silky flan, coconut agar gel, black plantains, and the crunch of puffed wild rice and Fruity Pebbles atop iced lemongrass milk. Yum yum!

No. 6 – Since Rook reopened in February, the fully open kitchen in the airy yet cozy new spot has been putting out some truly impressive bites.

Rook’s relaunch, Vida’s grand-opening date, and Chris Baggott’s upcoming ventures.

If you’re coming for dinner, don’t even think about passing up the opportunity to partake in the pickle-brined fried chicken.

What do the top chefs in town have that you don’t? These handy tools.

Including the bulgogi rice bowl from Rook.

As consulting chef, Carlos Salazar assembled a menu of modified Southern dishes that are surprisingly complex for the bar-centric format.

Carlos Salazar’s umami-rich mushroom dumplings, pork-belly steamed buns, and meat-on-meat pig-face hash have raised the culinary bar while channeling the true spirit of Asia’s great street-food snacks.

What this snug hideaway lacked in signage (just look for the “T” on the front door), it made up for in gritty-chic charm.

Rook’s Carlos Salazar concocts a beguiling bowl of ramen in an aromatic miso-enriched pork broth laden with anything from a marinated soft-boiled egg to homemade kimchi pickles.

He had no interest in cooking until high school, when he taught himself to whip up scrambled eggs.

Almost as soon as he installed himself in the kitchen in late August, Carlos Salazar was coining new dinner dishes that, while adding sophistication and breadth to Rook’s already funky menu, furthered Ed Rudisell’s goal of making Asian street-food standards worthy of a night on the town.