This year, do Halloween in a more elegant way. Make a meal starring foods that are as black as they can possibly be to create a noir-hued menu designed to raise eyebrows — deliciously.
What’s interesting about these inky dark ingredients is that any accent color in a dish — the orangey pink of a baby octopus in a tangle of squid ink pasta, say, or the green tip of an asparagus spear amid the grains of a bowl of forbidden rice — will stand out dramatically against the black.
For recipes, read Wednesday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Food section.