On a recent night in the East Village of Manhattan, the Avenue A sidewalk brimmed with chattering bargoers as Tupac’s “California Love” blared from an indeterminable source. A marquee loomed above, and through a veil of vape and cigarette exhaust, its two words beckoned: “DATE SHAKE.”
My companions and I piled into Superiority Burger at the promise of cooling, caramel creaminess. But it was later than any of us realized, and they were no longer serving the beloved treat.
My craving for dates thus remains unsatisfied, so to our trove of recipes I look. I love when dates are blended into shakes, certainly, but also when they’re whirled into cilantro and mango chutneys, rolled into sticky buns, chopped into savory rice dishes and, most simply — but maybe most deliciously — stuffed.
In Melissa Clark’s recipe for roasted fennel and farro salad (above), dates add a bit of heft, alongside briny olives and feta, to upgrade the dish from side to light dinner. Sohla El-Waylly tops blackened florets of broccoli with a sizzled garnish of torn dates and roughly chopped nuts for a striking array of textures and flavors. Eaten with some rice or even some simply prepared tofu, it makes for an enviable desk lunch.
A cornerstone of many Middle Eastern and North African cuisines, dates imbue savory and sweet dishes alike with their rich, molasses-y flavor, — and they’re a staple on fast-breaking tables during Ramadan (which starts next week). Nasim Alikhani, the owner of Sofreh, a restaurant in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, layers a mixture of diced dates and caramelized onions with rice and lentils for her version of the fragrant Persian dish adas polo.
It’s luxurious in taste and appearance, but not in effort or cost, as it is made almost entirely of pantry staples. “A dollop of yogurt and, occasionally, a fried egg, are all it needs to make a complete meal,” writes Melissa, who adapted the recipe from Nasim.
So that’s dates for lunch and dates for dinner. But let’s not stop there. I’d gladly pop a few of Genevieve Ko’s granola bites, bonded by chewy dates, for breakfast or an after-gym snack. And for dessert, the options are endless. Like a moth to the glow of a date shake sign, I’m drawn to Amy Chaplin’s date-sweetened vegan brownies and Sarah DiGregorio’s sticky toffee pudding, which you can make in either an oven or a slow cooker.
Listening: I started collecting records this year, and Denise Lu’s case against streaming music, which she made last year for The New York Times Magazine, resonates: “Having my own library means I can distinctly remember the context of every find, and that makes my intimacy with the songs I care about … feel especially rich.” This week, I’ve spinning The Trammps’ 1976 album “Disco Inferno.”
Watching: Ahead of the Oscars on Sunday, I’m bingeing videos from The Times’s “Anatomy of a Scene” series for all 10 best picture nominees.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
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