This week’s 5 head-spinning moments: Menu oddities

Good news, bone marrow lovers: Soon you may be able to enjoy a smear with your eye-opening cup of coffee. What some foodies have anointed the next hot ingredient may be just the cure for the peculiar hunger pangs associated with another fringe mix-in that showed signs of going mainstream: cannabis, with or without the THC.

Those are just two of the menu-related developments that fostered a buzz this week with nary a toke. Here’s a rundown of the mind blowers.

Resourceful cocktail lovers in one of the areas beset by Armageddon-caliber weather this week found a silver lining within the dark clouds that had residents dodging golf ball-sized hail. A husband-and-wife team showed local restaurants that the orbs falling from the sky were more in line with prevailing trends than any configuration of man-made ice cubes. What could be more natural, small-batch or hyperlocal? And, of course, they were free.

Local media reports fail to say if any restaurants in Lincoln, Neb., jumped on the idea from James Beard Award nominee Ted Genoways and wife Mary Anne Andrei, who scooped up some of the hailstones from a golf course. Genoways, who’s writing a book on tequila, contented himself with a few naturally iced margaritas.

KFC hasn’t shied away from unusual products. Consider the Double Down, the heart-stopping sandwich that used fried chicken breasts in place of bread to hold innards of bacon, cheese and sauce.

The chain breaks new ground with the item it’s introducing in Hong Kong: Edible nail polish.

What’s it taste like? Chicken, of course.

The makeup comes in two flavors: original, and hot and spicy. The objective was to give customers something other than chicken grease and breading to lick off their fingers.

The price has not been disclosed. Nor has any mention been made of selling the cosmetic in the United States.

Ted’s Montana Grill, the casual chain launched by media mogul Ted Turner and restaurant veteran George McKerrow, issued a statement applauding the federal government for designating buffalo as the National Mammal of the United States. Naturalists also welcomed the news, noting that it would help preserve an animal almost eliminated from its natural habitat by hunters. Some voiced hopes the beast would now command the sort of reverence and sense of protection the nation shows for bald eagles.

But Ted’s statement might have turned a few heads, because it championed eating more buffalo. A buffalo burger is the chain’s signature, and the concept was founded with the “mission of bringing bison back to America’s dining table,” the statement read. The only way of preserving it is by re-establishing buffalo as a major food source, the statement suggested.

They’re known as pot-preneurs—restaurateurs and other businesspeople looking to capitalize on the legalization of recreational marijuana use. Don’t think they’ve limited their focus to the five states that have already legalized weed. This week brought news of $1 million being earmarked for a cafe near Dallas that will feature everything cannabis-related but the actual ingredient that gets people high, THC.

The signatures of AmeriCanna Café will include hemp-infused coffee, cold-pressed juices and foods, according to the announcement from North American Cannabis Holdings (hemp is a close cousin to marijuana). “As state and federal law permits, management plans to add THC-infused beverages and foods to the menu,” the company said.

It already has a foothold in the business. The company said it acquired a franchised City Blends juice outlet in the Dallas area.

Food fanatics in New York City apparently spend hours in speculation about what will be the next Cronut, the doughnut-croissant hybrid that’s been the hottest craze since the Beatles. Chef Dominique Ansell hatched it, but the sweet treat is now available (though under aliases) at such mainstream outlets as Dunkin’ Donuts and Red Robin.

Now comes word from Gotham of a new smash: the bone marrow doughnut, a collaboration between one of the city’s cutting-edge doughnut labs and a butcher next door. Hudson & Charles, the meat store, provides the marrow, which is roasted. Doughnut Project adds the roasted marrow into a chocolate pastry cream, whips it and uses it as the filling for a doughnut.

The bone marrow-chocolate specialty, which is only sporadically available, is priced at $5.25, or 25 cents less than a Cronut.