With warmer weather arriving, food and drinks are getting “swicy” – that’s sweet and spicy to the uninitiated. The adventurous blend has been trending for some time with the rise of hot honey and, now, as an added kick to already bold white wines.

“A lot of people see this type of thing as the emergence of the post-millennial palate – people whose first glass of wine was a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc,” said Jonathon Alsop, founder of the Boston Wine School, in a roundtable for GBH’s “Under the Radar with Callie Crossley.” “Now we have whole generations that this is their entrée to it. And so we see something like this – making Sauvignon Blanc even more vivid, making Sauvignon Blanc even more intense by adding jalapeño.”

International trends also are hitting the mainstream in the United States with food like pintxos – tinier-than-tapas bites with big flavors from the Basque region of Spain. There’s also Dubai chocolate, a creation from a British-Egyptian chocolatier who was satisfying a pregnancy craving, explains Amy Traverso, senior food editor at Yankee Magazine.

“It came to her to create a chocolate bar that had a pistachio cream filling with kataifi, which is shredded filo dough,” Traverso said on Under the Radar. “The incredible thing about kataifi is it actually stays crunchy, even when it’s been sitting in this pistachio cream. It is fantastic. It’s everywhere.”

Dubai chocolate is often seen in traditional formats like bars, bon bons or even stuffed dates. But locally, Traverso said she’s seen Dubai chocolate cookies, doughnuts, hot cocoas and coffee blends. Another twist on a classic trending this summer, she said, is iced Americanos made with coconut water.

“So you’ve got a couple shots of espresso. Instead of pouring that over ice water, you’re pouring it over iced coconut water,” Traverso said. “Coconut plays really well with the nutty notes in coffee. It can smooth out the bitterness a little bit. And it has a little natural sweetness, so you don’t need to add sugar to it if you’re trying to keep your sugar levels low.”

Could all these innovations and trends being adopted locally help struggling restaurants? The incoming Michelin guide may bring more attention to fine dining in the city, which could boost much needed foot traffic and dining-in customers. And although well-known local favorites like Grill 23 & Bar may be at the forefront of Michelin predictions, Alsop said he’s looking at different neighborhoods across the city for underdogs hoping to score a Michelin star.

“The surprise is going to come out of Chinatown, the surprise is going to come out of Asian cuisine,” Alsop said. “Boston has an amazing Chinatown, which a lot of people are really unaware of.”

All that and more in this week’s food and wine roundtable!

Guests

  • Amy Traverso, senior food editor at Yankee Magazine, co-host of GBH’s “Weekends with Yankee,” author of “The Apple Lover’s Cookbook.”
  • Jonathon Alsop, founder and executive director of the Boston Wine School, author of “The Wine Lover’s Devotional.”