Must-Try: the delectable and not-too-sweet fig kataiv at Mideastro Yorkville

The delicious possibilities of melding two adjacent cuisines—Mediterranean and Middle Eastern—are rarely as apparent as they are in the fig kataiv at two-year-old Mideastro Yorkville. Executive chef Benny Cohen sandwiches a fluffy layer of spiced mascarpone and aromatic fresh poached figs between crisp and wiry kataifi discs. The clarified butter-brushed phyllo pastry is baked in a cast iron skillet for seven minutes, and is then showered with pistachio brittle and cinnamon-laced fig syrup, cloves and nutmeg. It’s a modern interpretation of the kanafeh—the traditional Levantine dessert of soft, syrup-soaked goat cheese—and tastes like the exotic love child of a warm cheesecake and a fig newton. $11.

Mideastro Yorkville, 27 Yorkville Ave., 416-477-2427, mideastroyorkville.com