San Antonio celebrates maiz in May with local restaurant dishes

• It's a chance for people to reflect on corn's varied role in contemporary and historic foods.

Context: San Antonio is designated a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.

Some of the offerings include:

• Mais con yelo from Sari-Sari is a Filipino dessert made with layers of shaved ice, creamed corn and sweetened milk.
• Arepas from Bilia Eatery are made of ground maiz dough.
• Corn brûlée from The Fruteria is a twist on the custard dish made with local sweet corn.
• Pastel de elote from Santa Diabla is a cake with corn kernels served with cajeta ice cream, cotton candy and Mexican eggnog cream.
• The Big Red & barbacoa taco flight from Stixs & Stone uses homemade Big Red corn tortillas and strawberry and Big Red jam.
• Corn in a cup from Elotitos Corn Bar is made with fresh corn.

Bonus: Freetail Brewery has a new beer for the month called "Flor del Maiz," brewed with fresh masa made from nixtamalized purple, red and blue corn.

What they're saying: Corn "can be found in traditional foods such as tortillas and tamales. However, thanks to the talents of our city's diverse culinary industry, we now see corn incorporated into more creative dishes," Stephen Paprocki, chef ambassador for the city's UNESCO gastronomy designation, said in a statement.