Persimmons Fancy-up the Classic Funnel Cake - NBC Southern California

What to KnowPacific Park at Santa Monica Pier
Jan. 7-13
$9

Gaze deeply into the heart of any funnel cake recipe and you'll find... flour.

And eggs.

And baking powder and milk and a few other essential staples of the baker's shelf, plus, of course, oil for the all-important deep-frying step.

It's a rare day when a funnel cake isn't simply topped with powdered sugar, but it happens. A drizzle of chocolate? Not unheard of, you betcha. Some caramel? Sure, that works.

But finding a funnel cake that has been met a not-so-standard favorite from the fruit drawer is not so common.

And if that fruit is also part of a larger Restaurant Week? It can kind of feel like an Event, with a capital E, if you're into funnel cakes and... persimmons.

It's an unlikely match-up, but it is one that will soon reign, at Pacific Park at Santa Monica Pier, for one snackable January week. That week is happening Jan. 7 through 13, a Monday to a Sunday, and it just happens to be Santa Monica Restaurant Week, which is putting its 2019 focus on persimmon-centered dishes.

That means that a number of eateries around town will spotlight the deep orange-red, super-juicy produce favorite, in a variety of interesting dishes.

Certainly one of the most snaggable, if "snaggable" is defined as buying it out on the pier, then eating it as you stroll, is the Persimmon Funnel Cake.

It's $9, making it a try-it-out-treat that comes in for under a tenner.

As for the persimmon component in this dessert-meets-fruit fantasy? It's compote, another unlikely but intriguing topper for a funnel cake.

If these deep-fried indulgences are your once-every-so-often cheats, and persimmons are your go-to good-for-you goodies, pair 'em up, from Jan. 7 through 13, at Santa Monica Pier.