Met Bethesda Serves Hot Chocolate 4 Ways
Met Bethesda, 7101 Democracy Blvd., Bethesda in the Westfield Montgomery mall beside ArcLight Cinemas, will begin serving its “Hot Chocolate Experience” featuring Taza chocolate just in time for the holiday season.
Priced at $10, the Hot Chocolate Experience includes four, four-ounce glasses of hot chocolate, each with its own distinct flavor including classic hot chocolate with Taza vanilla chocolate and whipped cream topped with mini toasted marshmallows; Mexican hot chocolate with Taza cinnamon chocolate, whipped cream and a cinnamon stick topped with grated Taza Guajillo chili chocolate; salted almond hot chocolate with Taza salted almond chocolate and whipped cream garnished with an almond biscotti; and peppermint hot chocolate with Taza cacao puro chocolate, peppermint and whipped cream garnished with a candy cane.
Single 14-ounce hot chocolates are also available for $7. Also, each of the four hot chocolate offerings can be upgraded to an adult version with additions such as Bailey’s White Chocolate, XO Patron, amaretto and white crème de menthe for an additional $2.
Met Bethesda’s Hot Chocolate Experience will be offered beginning Black Friday, Nov. 27, through spring.
Buffalo & Bergan selling fresh tonics & mixers for the holidays
Buffalo & Bergan at Union Market, 1309 Fifth St. NE, is selling owner Gina Chersevani’s freshly-made tonics, cocktail and soda base elixirs. Each 16-ounce bottle can be mixed to make 16-28 stirred cocktails or 10-12 non-alcoholic sodas.
This year, Chersevani added some new flavors, such as Old Fashioned syrup for whisky drinkers. Cranberries have their own specialty line for 2015 including cranberry-Tahitian vanilla, cranberry-orange-rosemary and cranberry-pomegranate-spice. Seasonal concoctions include fig, cranberry-sage, peppermint, orange-sassafras and sleigh ride shrub made with bayberry, cranberry and balsam. Mainstays such as chocolate, bourbon-vanilla and Nutella are available, as well. Some less holiday flavors include birch beer, grapefruit-rosemary and or sweet beet. There are also tonics, such as lemon-lavender, grapefruit-persimmon and celery to shake up any vodka lovers drink.
Each bottle comes with recipe card instructions for either punch, stirred cocktails, non-alcoholic sodas or non-alcoholic cream sodas. Large orders of 25 or more bottles of one-of-a-kind flavors are available for office gift giving, but must be ordered by Dec. 12.
Bottles are priced from $8-$12.
Central offers winter black truffle dishes
The winter black truffle marked opened in France Friday, and this week Central, 1001 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, will have the “black diamonds” on the menu this coming week.
The truffles are handpicked from the marches of Carpentras and Richerenches in Provence, then hand delivered to Central for the chef’s choosing.
In haute-bistro style, the decadent tubers will be served shaved by-the-gram over favorite signature dishes. Chef David Deshaies has identified a wide range of dishes on Central’s dinner menu that have an earthy complexity to pair with the pungent richness of the truffle. The truffles are priced in 3-gram and 5-gram portions at market price, and diners may choose how many grams of the delicacy they’d like to enjoy.
Diners can have the black truffle shaved over dishes such as Central’ beef or lobster burger, braised short ribs “Bourgignon,” escargot fricassee, braised lamb shank and flageolet, skate and braised lentils, scallop and chestnut veloute, duck confit and braised cabbage, spaghetti bolognaise, steak frite, pearl pasta risotto, beef tartare, warm spinach salad, frisee salad, chopped salad, roasted beets and goat cheese, lobster bisque or onion soup.
El Centro features dishes from Oaxaca
El Centro D.F., 1819 14th St. NW 1218 Wisconsin Ave. NW, debuted a new “Destination: Oaxaca” menu inspired by owner Richard Sandoval’s recent trip to Oaxaca, Mexico. Twice a year, Sandoval and his corporate chefs travel to a different region of Mexico to research the area’s culinary heritage and celebrated foods.
The new additions on El Centro’s menu, marked with a special “*” symbol, are available until Jan. 31. The special dishes include grasshopper guacamole, freshly made guacamole with crispy grasshoppers, cherry tomatoes and Cotija cheese; pipian pork belly tacos with charred pork belly, pipian sauce and pickled vegetables; crispy potatoes and chorizo, a potato confit with sour cream, chorizo and roasted garlic; smoked pork tenderloin with pumpkin mole, roasted pumpkin, pumpkin seeds, mole poblano and Cotija cheese; shrimp tamal, a sweet corn tamal with shrimp and served with a garlic sauce, dehydrated mole and Cotija cheese; tamal wrapped in aromatic leaf with Oaxaca cheese, light broth and Cotija cheese; and braised short ribs in mezcal mole with pinto beans, mezcal mole sauce and smoked lime salt. Prices range from $8-$12.
Special cocktails, priced at $12 each, include the El Chapo, El Silencio mezcal, lime, agave nectar, kiwi and ginger; and the Moni“K”a, El Silencio mezcal, Ancho Reyes, Southern Comfort, pineapple, serrano and lime.
Editor-in-Chief Mark Heckathorn is a journalist, movie buff and foodie. He oversees DC on Heels editorial operations as well as strategic planning and staff development. Reach him with story ideas or suggestions at dcoheditor (at) gmail (dot) com.