You won’t need an app to find this Poké Ball Doughnut. (Photo courtesy of Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken)
Dish of the Week: Poké Ball Doughnut
Where: Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken
There’s not much more to say about Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken’s Poké Ball Doughnut other than that it looks like a Poké Ball. But has a food item ever captured an overnight social phenomenon so well? Raw fish Hawaiian Poké bowls last month, Pokémon doughnuts this month.
The gourmet doughnut is designed to look like the augmented reality vessel that smartphone users around the city are using to capture Zubats at Gallery Place, Rattatas in the Reagan Building, and Charmanders sitting on the keyboards on their office desks or their kitchen counters. Toss a ball with a swipe on your touchscreen to catch ’em all.
The doughnut with a vanilla cake base has raspberry and vanilla glaze for the red and white design of the ball, a buttercream center filling the hole were the ball lights up when you nab a creature inside, outlined with black piping.
The special confections will be available Friday through Sunday and cost 10 Pidgey transfers to the Professor — I mean, $2.65 each.
Hopefully you don’t find a Caterpie bug crawling in yours. Gross!
Small Bites
Belgian Week
Belgian Restaurant Week gets underway Saturday at colorful Storey Park (1005 1st Street NE) in NoMa with a Mussel Throw Down. Chefs from Brasserie Beck, Mussel Bar & Grille, The Sovereign, B Too, Belga Café, and Haute Saison Catering will compete to see who has the best pot of moules. A $21 admission at the gate gets tickets for two food/drink tickets for the mollusks, frites, waffles, and beer, with more tickets available for an additional purchase. The first 150 guests will get a Stella Artois chalice with their name engraved on it. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m..
Throughout the week, the participating Belgian restaurants will also offer prix fixe lunch and dinner menus, and combine forces for a 7-chef, 7-course, 7-beer-and-cocktail pairings dinner hosted at B Too on Tuesday. The week-long celebration will culminate on Friday—Belgian National Day—with all-you-can-eat mussels at Brasserie Beck and Mussel Bar & Grill in Bethesda and Arlington, and a late night party at Belga Café.
National Ice Cream Day
Union Market (1309 5th Street NE) is making all your dreams come true on Sunday, July 17 at the 6th annual DC Scoop Ice Cream Social, which coincidentally is taking place on National Ice Cream Day (what did we do before there was a food holiday every day?). Check out ice cream from local purveyors including Pops by Haley, Rita’s, and Milk Cult from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Kids get to gorge at their own ice cream eating contest starting at 3 p.m..
Beyond Pot Brownies
The Yes Please More Please aphrodisiac experience combines a love of sex with a love of pot this weekend. The Buttered & Baked: Cooking with Cannabis Class will hone in on two ways of extracting THC, assisted by the magic of coconut oil and butter.
Sunday Chicken and Fish Fry
On Sundays throughout the summer, Brookland’s Finest (3126 12th Street NE) is featuring a Sunday fish and fried chicken dinner. The restaurant’s adobo marinated fried chicken is served with a beer-battered local fish selected by District Fishwife and paired with two seasonal sides. Snakehead and blue catfish have been featured recently with the market price—depending on the fish going into the fryer—of the dinner coming in at around $30. The meal, served family style, can serve 2-3 diners.
Denizens Turns Terrible Two
Silver Spring’s brewery turns two years old this summer and they are throwing themselves a birthday party on Saturday night to celebrate. Denizens Brewing Co. (1115 East West Hwy, Silver Spring) will host a band and have giveaways at the party, with summer brews on the agenda from 5 p.m. until late. It’s open to the public and no tickets are required.
Brunching Like It’s 1789
La Boum is turning the knob on their Bacchanalian brunch to the French setting this weekend to celebrate Bastille Day. The party, having outgrown its original L’Enfant Cafe location, is now hosted at Capitale (1301 K Street NW). “La Boum” translates into “house party” and the instructions for the pre-paid, reservation-only affairs include: try to assemble a mixed group table, don’t bring a date as they’ll find one for you, and prepare to party like you’re a kid whose parents are out of town and you stole the keys to the liquor cabinet. Dressing up like 18th century aristocracy is optional.
Drift Jailbreak Dinner
On Tuesday, July 19, Drift on 7th (1819 7th Street NW) teams up with Maryland’s Jailhouse Brewing Company for a four-course beer dinner. See what creative offerings chef Ferhat Yalçin will cook to go along with Blimey Key Lime Pale Ale and Feed the Monkey Orange Hefeweizen.
