New York: Top 10 Oddball Dishes That Work

It all started in the Lower East Side back in 2003 -- before the skinny-jeaned hipster invasion -- when now-celeb chef Wylie Dufresne opened wd-50. Melding science and food, the molecular gastronomer has since inspired many to experiment. Of course, not everyone's into mad food science, but most chefs like to get a little edgy somewhere on the menu.

● Cookies @ Momofuku Bakery Milk Bar (East Village) - David Chang could get a vegetarian hooked on pork belly, so imagine what the man’s dessert spot can do with a cookie. Among the most drool-worthy: cornflake-marshmallow-chocolate chip, corn, blueberry cream, and compost cookie (so fabulously odd that the chocolate chip, pretzel, potato chip, coffee ground, and graham-cracker crumb-concoction is trademarked).
● Onion soup dumplings @ Stanton Social (Lower East Side - You’ll just have to focus on its deliciousness and put aside the fact that there’s enough cheese in this dish to give you a cholesterol problem.

● “Ragu with Odd Things” @ Commerce (West Village) - The name says it all. The “odd things” in this hearty, tomato-based dish refer to oxtail, trotters, and tripe.
● Fried apple pie @ Smith’s (Greenwich Village) - We’ve got fried pickles, fried olives, fried asparagus ... we’ve even got fried mayonnaise thanks to Wylie Dufresne. So why not apply pie? Plus, it comes with cinnamon whipped cream.
● Solids (edible cocktails) @ Tailor (Soho) - Who wouldn’t want to get a buzz from gin fizz marshmallows, white Russian breakfast cereal, and absinthe gummy bears?
● Foie gras & hibiscus beet borscht gelée with blood orange @ Corton (Tribeca) - The smooth foie gras torchon—encased in a thin layer of hibiscus and beet gelée and served, moon-shaped, with a salad of beet gelée and blood orange—is just one of the many lusciously innovative options at this prix-fixe-only spot.
● Spicy cayenne hot chocolate @ SalonTea (Upper East Side) - In addition to supposedly speeding up your metabolism and improving blood circulation, it aids in digestion; this sure beats the garlic, celery, and beet concoction from the local health store juice bar.
● Frozen desserts @ Fabio Piccolo Fiore (Midtown East) - Anyone who watches Iron Chef on a semi-regular basis knows that nothings gets the judges more excited than ice cream and sorbet experimentations. Taste for yourself what they’re ooing and ahhing about at Fabio where the rotating flavors include fig and honey, cucumber, rosemary, cactus berry, pineapple mint, tomato vanilla, and goat cheese.
● Hamburger spring rolls @ Delicatessen (Soho) - Burger + flaky dough + condiments…could there be a more ingenious combination?
● Eggs benedict @ wd-50 (Lower East Side) - Dufresne has long touted eggs benedict as one of his favorite dishes, so it’s little surprise that his innovative take on the classic stands out: two cubes of deep-fried hollandaise sauce with toasted English muffin crumbs and two columns of egg yolk, each covered with a crispy bacon chip.