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Dish of the Week: Apple cider donuts
One of the best things about fall is the food. The cooler weather marks the return of local apples and all the delectable things that can be made from them, including apple butter, apple pie, apple cider, and, most importantly, apple donuts. Few things taste better on a crisp fall day than a hot cider donut, dusted in cinnamon sugar, and washed down with a cup of fresh apple cider.
Cider donuts are a kind of cake donut made with boiled-down apple cider and usually sold at "you pick" apple orchards. Made right, the donuts are light and tender, with a carmel-y sweetness and faint apple flavor. They don't taste as much like fresh apples as spices and cider, but they are undeniably delicious.
Unfortunately, cider donuts are hard to come by in the city. For a taste of fried apple goodness, you'll have to drive out to an orchard. A handful of Virginia orchards sell homemade cider donuts, including Stribling Orchard in Markham, Marker Miller Orchard in Winchester, and Carter Mountain Orchard in Charlottesville. If you don't want to pick your own apples, stop by The Apple House, a restaurant and country store near Shenandoah National Park, for some applewood-smoked pulled pork and fantastic apple butter donuts.
Small Bites
No meat? Don’t miss out.
Just because you don’t eat meat doesn’t mean you can’t partake in the fun that is the tasting menu at Vermillion. Executive Chef Anthony Chittum has created a vegetarian tasting menu to accompany the restaurant’s meat-errific one, meaning the chef is now showing off his chops for both omnivores and veggies alike. Like the normal tasting menu, it’s $45 for four courses and an additional $15 for wine pairings, and the selection changes daily based on what’s freshest from the restaurant’s farm suppliers. Early versions of the menu included a roasted cauliflower soup with tofu and marcona almonds, and as the restaurant eases into fall, look for cold-weather ingredients to pop up in dishes like winter squash soup with local apples, amaretti cookies & pumpkin seed oil, and sweet and sour black cabbage and squash caponata.
In Soviet Russia, cabbage roll eats you
Ethnic church festivals abound this fall. If you missed the Middle Eastern and Greek Festivals, check out the Russian Bazaar at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St John the Baptist this weekend. Feast on borscht, cabbage rolls, and pierogies, enjoy live folk music, and take a tour of the church's absolutely stunning iconography. Free.
Rejoice in the inner light
Celebrate Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, at Indique Heights on Sunday. From noon to 7:30 p.m., the rooftop terrace will be filled with Indian food stalls, handicrafts, jewelery, and paintings. Indique will offer a selection of chaats, dosas, curries, kebabs, and sweets. Admission is $20 and includes food and beverages.
Everything really is better with chocolate
Rosa Mexicano's annual chocolate festival kicked off this Wednesday. The restaurant will feature specials during October that pair chocolate with everything from duck to oysters. Offerings include Bistec Asado, clove and Mexican cinnamon dry-aged beef with roasted vegetables and chocolate tamarind sauce, and cocoa-cured smoked duck leg with roasted apples and pecans. On October 10, there will be a cooking demonstration and luncheon at the Penn Quarter location for $35, and a four-course tasting dinner with wine pairings on October 14 for $55. Reservations can be made online.
Are you a fun guy?
Join the Mycological Association of Washington at Brookside Gardens Saturday morning from noon to 5 p.m. for their Mushroom Fair. There will be cooking demonstrations and mushroom identification, but unfortunately no mushrooms for sale. However, you can check out their mushroom tasting on October 6 at the Chevy Chase Library.
Rebecca Cooper contributed to this post.
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What! No love for cider donuts from Miller Farms in Clinton? Closer to DC than any of those VA places.
Finally a tasting menu for vegetarians- are we *gasp* getting our due recognition?
it's a start!
For die-hard mycologists (and who isn't?) you can compliment the Mushroom Fair/Tasting with a tour of mushrooms along the Potomac on Sunday, free: http://www.potomac.org/site/events/index.php?date=2009-10-04
So after clicking through flickr, I've come to find out that the pictured donuts are a) not apple cider and b) are from some place in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts?!
Get a rope
Oh calm down. Local cider donuts are ephemeral creatures that usually disappear before they can be photographed. Kind of like yeti, but they smell a lot better.
The photo on flickr is titled "Cider Donuts!" So it would seem to be that it is indeed a picture of cider donuts.
I made the mistake of ordering the Cider House Donuts and ended up getting an abortion. Thanks a lot, Ted Loza!
wow. i actually choked on my oatmeal a little bit after reading this comment. lolz.