In these dining days, even the most uneducated line cook is trying to pair ingredients into new, often strange, unions. There are very few restaurants that you should trust blindly with combinations that sound too weird to be good. In case you were wondering, here they are:

Duck, Chocolate and Orange: James
This is the combination that got all the press when James premiered its Italian-inflected menu in January 2007. Hand-cut pappardelle. Orange zest. Duck ragu. Chocolate in the ragu, plus more shaved tableside on a microplane. The bitter and acidity cocoa balances the richness of the braised duck meat, while the orange provides a gentle spark of brightness. The notes of flavor are fleeting and work as a unified whole rather than being an unpleasant power struggle. It doesn’t hurt that the pasta is perfectly al dente every time too.

Violet and Ice Cream: Ansill
David Ansill won’t divulge the recipe for the violet ice cream he serves up for dessert at his namesake small plater. It’s a fiercely guarded secret of his French wife, Catherine Gilbert, who develops most of the desserts here. Chances are, after your first spoonful of the vividly blue ice cream garnished with candied violets, you won’t care how it’s made; you’ll just be grateful someone made it. The taste of fresh cold cream forms a nice backdrop to the haunting, subtle notes of flower and grass. It’s okay; go ahead and lick the bowl.

Tabasco and Powdered Sugar: Les Bon Temps
John Mims, executive chef and owner of this converted Midtown Village mansion, and his chef de cuisine Brett Naylor take pride in lightening the classic recipes of Louisiana. Gumbo, etouffee, shrimp and grits; you name it, they update it. Classic New Orleans beignets are given a savory spin with an eggplant stuffing and a splash of Tabasco sauce. But Mims and Naylor still shower the fritters in confectioner’s sugar, just like they do on the streetcarts of New Orleans. The hot-and-sweet combination is weird at first bite, then evolves in intriguing, then delicious.

Kumquat, Chocolate, Yogurt and Pistachio: Zahav
Michael Solomonov and Steve Cook’s Israeli dream offers two takes on konafi, or shredded phyllo dough, desserts. The classic old-school version is treated with rose water, while the new-school one balances lebaneh (super-tangy Middle Eastern yogurt-cheese) ice cream over bitter chocolate chips, kumquats and a nest of the shredded pyhllo. Solomonov scatters vibrantly green pistachios over the whole dessert. Here, the sum is clearly greater than the whole of its parts and each forkful sings a sweet-and-sour song balanced by the savory qualities of the chocolate and salty pistachios.