Look, man, we grew up in a big city that shall remain nameless, but that had about a bazillion donut options. Then we moved here, where it used to be you could get donuts at Dunkin Donuts (we refuse to heed its lack of the word “donut” in its name) and this place Kip’s down by the original Paisano, and that was kind of it (we’re sure there was some stuff in there, but we don’t count grocery store donuts, no-siree-bob). Now, though, we’ve seen the advent of Whoo’s Donuts Pizza and Brew and Craft Donuts & Coffee, and we realized things got better in the local donut department. We still love a blue corn lavender donut from Whoo’s, not to mention their apple cider donut; Craft we’ve liked less, though its rabid fanbase has certainly told us how stupid we are for not loving ‘em. But make way, donut dudes and dudettes and nonbinary donut-lovers, because we’ve got a new favorite spot, and its deliciousness is only outdone by its dangerousness (which is also rooted in its deliciousness).
Let’s talk about Donut Vision (said like former mayoral candidate Tarin Nix in all her “let’s talk about it,” commercials).
First of all, the adorable little donut truck at 781 W Alameda has been slangin’ them donuts for a minute now, since early summer, but like most things that pop up, we tend to wait a little bit before we go over there so they can work out the kinks. Of course, we’ve also not waited when it comes to a notable chef whom we believe knows their biz, but, full disclosure, we’ve not really loved donuts enough to be impatient in our quest to eat them. Anyway, we finally had a chance to send our partner La Forkette to pick up some donuts while we reclined on an old fainting couch, and we pretty much have only good things to say.
The truck was founded by Cambodian-American immigrant Dya Kung, and the name of the game is, interestingly, Asian fusion. No, that doesn’t apply to the entirety of everything Donut Vision serves, but when La Forkette was using initiative to select a variety of donuts for a nice little tasting party, she leaned into it. This meant picking up creations like the coconut-taro donut, the miso-chocolate, the pear-caramel and the pandan (which, as was recently covered in an SFR review of new-ish eatery Leo’s, is a delicious if not-yet-ubiquitous flavor you’ll find on a Santa Fe menu or two). Oh, La Forkette also picked up a maple donut with bacon, but that’s a bridge too far for your old pal, The Fork.
The Fork
Our first bite came from the coconut-taro number, and it was a revelation. Firstly, Donut Vision makes their donuts with brioche, which is, like, super-cool and really helps avoid the heartburn pitfalls of an ill-fried ring of dough (or “do,” if you will). What can we say but it was brilliant. The immediate sweet crunch of the toasted coconut slowly relinquished our palate to the savory nuance of the taro frosting. If’n you didn’t know, taro is a root vegetable that the Google AI we can’t opt out of tells us is “technically a corm,” which is kind of more of a stem than a root. Second-of-ly, the soft brioche beneath the taro frosting added a third kind of texture that was familiar while feeling innovative in the donut milieu. We’re more of a cake donut fan than we are the yeast-y kind, but this newfound (to us, anyway) brioche thing is really quite something.
That “quite something” feeling persisted with the next donut we sampled: miso-chocolate. Everybody knows Reese’s cups are the perfect candy, and it’s because of the salty-sweet nature of those little cups. The sweet-savory combo of miso and chocolate shavings was a real excellent combo in donut-land, too. If we have an issue, and it’s, like, so small, it’s that we wished there was just a little more chocolate, because the miso kind of dominated the affair. Still, it was quite tasty and perfect ratios are hard. We still loved it, anyway.
Tragically, we didn’t get a bite of the pear-caramel, but it looked insane in the best way. And whereas the pandan donut was not our favorite of the bunch (if’n you didn’t know about pandan, it’s a sweet, grassy plant fairly common in Southeast Asian foods, and it’s an excellent dessert kinda plant), it still had a unique flavor and highlights our most favorite thing about Donut Vision: Kung is trying stuff. Like, they’re experimenting and doing donuts with brioche and making killer combos and clearly doing it out of love. So we’re gonna need everyone to head over there and get a donut, because damn! We love you, Donut Vision!
Just imagine they’re saying “donut” instead of “double” and you’ll be on our level.
Also
- So that new upscale bar/restaurant Gatsby’s finally opened in the Railyard, and early anecdotal evidence from people we know who attended the affair suggests that no one could really find that guy Gatsby, but that the service and offerings are both top-notch. In case you don’t also watch the food scene like some kind of food-scene-watching hawk, Gatsby’s comes to us from Amrik and Pawan Dhindsa, who previously owned India House. And though we still have feelings about a not-super-cheap spot named after that F. Scott Fitzgerald book about how rich people are pretty terrible—espeically given how many folks we know facing SNAP weirdness right now—we concede there is room in the world for all kinds of things, be they fancy restaurants, snails, rainbows, scholarship, shrimping boats, movies, stretchy pants, cocktails, monkeys who sit in hot springs and so forth. Have you been to Gatsby’s? Tell us what you thought at [email protected].
- We get alerts about certain local restaurants because we wanna keep up to date on them places, and one such place is Bo’s Authentic Thai, which is a food truck dedicated to—get this—Thai food. The alert in question? The return of roasted duck in a pineapple curry. If we’re being honest, we didn’t know it was there in the first place, nor did we know it had disappeared. Still, we really, really, really, really, really want to try that dish. Curry is killer (and if you don’t believe us, ask our bumper sticker that says that—just kidding, that’s not a bumper sticker that exists as far as we know, though someone should make it), and we’ve been known to enjoy some duck, so…fingers crossed. We’ll report back if we get that thing.
- Speaking of dishes that apparently left a menu, but now they’re back on that menu, the fine folks at Santa Fe steakhouse Rio Chama reached out to let us know they’re doing baby back ribs again. They come in six or 12, so you could even go and be like, “I’m ordering the full 12 because someone is meeting me,” and then you pretend like they didn’t show up and just eat them all yourself.
- Since the whole SNAP and gov’t shutdown kerfuffle(s) is (are) still wildly strange and unpredictable and full of a bunch of bullshit, restaurants are still offering help within their communities. Out in Madrid, the restaurant Refinery 14 is kicking off Monday community dinners from 4-6 pm on, you guessed it, Mondays. From the flier a reader sent, we’ve gleaned that folks can stop by and eat, no questions asked, and they can even pack up some food to go if they wish. The restaurant is also kicking off a pay-it-forward board, totally Haley-Joel Osment-free. If you don’t know what that board entails, it’s pretty simple: If you’re in a position to pay for someone’s stuff for later, do that. Easy. And sure, we wonder what was up with the 13 previous refineries, but we’re not out to cause trouble.
- In a social media post from earlier this week, Santa Fe’s Food Depot dropped some pretty impressive numbers from a food distro event held in Española. These include the food bank helping more than 1,000 households with the assistance of 80 volunteers and 13 pallets of food. Something like 2,900 pounds of that food came from folks who participated in the annual Cranksgiving bike ride/Thanksgiving food-raiser. So let us just say cheers to all!
- Lastly in local news this week, we are sorry to inform you that El Dorado-born ice creamery Hello Sweet Cream has closed its location within the CHOMP food hall. Did we already tell you this? We can’t remember, but we’re saying it again because we have LOVED that place and we can’t imagine going all the way out to Eldo for our nondairy coconut ice “cream.” In a social media post that we can no longer find, founder Ryan Vandergeisen cited how hard they tried to make it work, but it didn’t ultimately make sense for them. Too bad. If you live out in El Dorado and are stopping by Hello Sweet Cream and wanna bring us some, go for it. Just kidding, we don’t take gifts or bribes because journalism.
RE: Baby back ribs.
More Tidbits
- No matter how much you wish liking to eat at Taco Bell sometimes is a fun and quirky personality trait, it’s really more of a being alive thing, because Taco Bell has some good stuff and you’re not made of stone. We miss the 7-layer burrito every day, of course, but we’re also intrigued by the new Baja Blast Pie dessert. Now, food site Food Beast-dot-com reports that the new monstrosity is available at select locations only, so we can’t speak for Santa Fe, but we figure folks should at least know it’s out there.
- Speaking on monstrosities, food industry site Food Dive-dot-com reports that Kraft Mac & Cheese (already the grossest in the land) now has an apple pie version of its Mac & Cheese. Good lord, why?!? Apparently it’s a Thanksgiving product, but we believe there are some things that should not exist—like Frakensteins and apple pie macaroni.
- Little heads up that there has been a botulism outbreak caused by baby formula from company ByHeart. We don’t know how many Fork readers buy baby formula, but you never know how info like this might help someone. There’s more on the situation from Delish-dot-com.
In Summation
We’ve been thinking a lot about chile lately, mostly because we’ve aged to the point where we can no longer eat it willy-nilly. We must seriously need it in order to justify the rest of the day feeling like some sort of gut havoc-a-thon, and that’s just, like, really sad, man. We love New Mexico more than most, we think, and one of the reasons—and we’re not joking here—is that we can be so proud of the chile situation. Food is universal, obviously, and to be able to say we’re the very best at this one kind of food (food smothered in so much chile) is actually quite notable. Everywhere has its regional cuisines, but ours is special and specific and the green chile cheeseburger remains the most perfect dish ever created in our opinion. As such, we’re coming to the group to ask if any others have developed challenges when it comes to eating chile, and what you do about that? Is there some over the counter thing we can take before we get us that chile? Are we doomed to just feel less-than-great anytime we hit our favorite New Mexican spots? We don’t know if we want to live in the world where chile becomes a treat rather than a daily inevitability, but things are looking grim. Send help. Send it fast.
Full of donuts,
The Fork
