In case you're not a weekly visitor to chain doughnut shops...

I just wanted you to know that around Valentine's Day (and my birthday, by proxy) the Boston Creme Doughnuts at Dunkin' Donuts became heart-shaped.  Now, sadly, they're back to round.  I checked Wednesday morning.

#eatingforjournalisticpurposes
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From the Vaults: Doughnut Teaser

I keep eating doughnuts.  Here are a few.




Doughnuts by Pies 'n' Thighs, via Gimme Coffee





Doughnuts by Dough, via Gimme Coffee

Now that Gimme has switched over to doughnuts from "Dough" in Bushwick, I have to say I like the change.  Pictured above are a blood orange doughnut (anybody else reading Tyra Banks' Modelland? If so, you'll know why I am nuts over blood orange anything), a mixed-berry doughnut, and a chocolate chip and sea salt scone.  I found them superior in flavor to the dense and sometimes greasy Pies 'n' Thighs doughnuts.  I'll still eat PnT's flavors, especially lemon poppyseed, but I'm more often in the mood for a "Dough" frosted glazed.

p.s. Pies 'n' Thighs doughnuts are good if you're looking for the "window to weight gain" pictured below:



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Photo Essay: Peace, Love, and Little Donuts.

The building.


In line.


Before too long, we were entering.


The menu.


The machine.


The shop.


Ready-to-eat.


Depending on how soon you're going to eat them, they package them differently.  We bought some to eat right away and some to take home for the rest of our crew.  The "now" doughnuts were the best doughnuts.  These were ginger sugar and...lemon, I think?


My first Little Donut. Subtle ginger.  Warm and soft.





Donuts "To Go."  Cinnamon, Ginger, Raspberry, Chocolate.  Easily eaten.

Strip District
2018 Smallman Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

p.s. The Pittsburgh Slow Food lady was really disappointed that I was going to blog about these because, "Their doughnuts come from a mix!"  Yes, but I ate them (and they were good).  There are probably better doughnuts out there, but this was a fun experience.  And this is not a slow foods blog (though I hope it is, sometimes, slow foods friendly).

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Hold up a sec!

Wow, I really got behind in my blog posts this holiday season, didn't I? Do you mind waiting a minute while I tell you about a doughnut from a few weeks ago?

I totally forgot to mention to you that I tried my first Tim Horton's doughnut. A T.H. opened in the neighborhood in which I work, and my coworkers (Jeremy, Dave, and Ethan) kindly picked up one of the last (!) plain doughnuts available on the afternoon they stopped by. I guess the next batch hadn't come out of the oven yet.

It was good -- simple, sweet, and not at all stale. If they get their stock back up, I'll try more.

FOUND: Doughnuts

I'm not sure from where these doughnuts hailed, but I'd like to say a sincere, "Thank you," to our mysterious office benefactor. They were yeasty, light, and fine -- and conveniently already cut into bite-sized chunks. I chose the chunk with the heaviest sprinkling of sugar, natch.

I must have done something good.

Let me just say that Mr. Dan does not frequent "big box" doughnut establishments. So it must have been a sacrifice for him to enter a Dunkin' D. last weekend after soccer practice to buy me a breakfast of doughnuts (it was even his idea; I did not prompt).

I was (and remain) honored and touched by Dan's thoughtful braving of corporate doughnutdom, though we did not actually eat what he presented until the next day -- this due to my own tragic cookie overdose that morning (of which Dan had been unaware) that left me unable to consider eating anything sweet for several hours.

The special edition Heath Bar doughnut pictured above looked like it was going to be a star. However, perhaps because it was day-old, there was no crunch to the toffee pieces, and the whole thing just tasted like a yellow doughnut with too much sugary frosting on top.

I say it could have been a tad stale, but frankly all three DD doughnuts (the other two being blueberry cake and chocolate cake with light glaze) were perfectly soft and pliable on day two, despite having been stored in a non-airtight paper bag on our kitchen table. This may not bode well, as I suspect artificial ingredients are what allow a doughnut to weather time so freakishly well.

Elusive Entenmann's

Entenmann's Frosted Devil's Food Donuts are not your average grocery store boxed doughnut. I couldn't care less about the yellow-on-the-inside chocolate doughnut, but these are special. They're devil's food inside, as the name suggests. The chocolate "frosting" has a great texture, and both the interior and exterior are rich and chocolate-y.

These are hard to find in my neighborhood, though the yellow chocolate doughnuts and the variety boxes are everywhere. If you're looking for devil's food, pay close attention to the picture on the side of the box. You don't want to see a that yellow peeking through on the graphic of the bitten doughnut.

The chocolate-on-chocolate's elusiveness probably makes them taste that much better. They're really a special treat, as I only run across them a couple of times a year.

Best of all, in terms of practical considerations, a box of 8 will last a week without going stale, so you don't have to stuff them all down at once. Or share them.

Who's that girl eating bacon while weeping?

I don't want to admit it, but I guess I officially eat pork again. I've been in denial. I don't eat pork. I just taste it. And only in little pieces, mostly cured or dried. But for about a year now I've just been tasting a little prosciutto here, a little bacon there...and then a little more sopressata here, a little more salami there... *sigh*

In many ways, I really wish I could be a vegetarian, guys. I do. There are so many things wrong with the meat industry, so many cruelties practiced on animals. But then, on the other hand, I just wish I could merrily eat meat without guilt. Alas. I have not the willpower for either choice.

I am not (obviously) and have not ever been a vegetarian. Never made it. I stopped eating beef and pork in high school after reading The More with Less Cookbook, which describes how inefficiently our world consumes its grains through animals, as well as how much more easily we could feed the poor if we all ate less meat and tougher cuts of meat. I decided to eat as much "less meat" as I personally could, but I couldn't manage to cut out poultry or seafood ( I love dairy so much that veganism was clearly out of the everlovin' question).

I do try to eat meat in a manner as ethical and sustainable as I can afford, but I know that's cold comfort to the passionate vegans and vegetarians out there.

Anyway, clearly I would be dealing with some issues when Paul brought me a ham-inclusive Korean breakfast sandwich one afternoon last week. He said, "Would you eat some pork?" And in truth, I would. And I do. Plus, I love trying new things -- especially if they're from cultures other than my own. That's part of the reason I started eating pork again (still working up to beef). I would like to be a respectful world traveler, able to eat with the natives without too much fuss.

Back to the breakfast sandwich. I'm glad I didn't miss out on it. The moderately-sized beauty had a nice, light, chewy bun or roll surrounding a kind of ham salad with ham, mayo, peas, cheese, and perhaps some onion. I couldn't identify all of the ingredients. It was tasty. And seasoned perfectly -- no extra salt or pepper needed. The mayonnaise was tangy and a little sweet. It beat the pants off of "egg on a roll," a classic NYC breakfast I still don't understand (or want).





Later, Paul brought by half of a mashed potato doughnut from the same bakery (info below). It had peas and carrots mixed into the potato and was better seasoned than any knish I have ever tasted. Paul called it a "New World Samosa." There was just a bit of sugary doughnut sweetness in my last bite. I liked this one a lot, too. Even better, no meat = no liberal guilt to end my tasting. Sweet.

Now that I know where these came from, I hope more Korean breakfasts are in my future -- even if my choice of pastries involves the guilt-inducing specter of ham. But I do want to note that, while I won't hyperventilate if the sandwiches have a little meat in them, I'm going right back to my, "as little meat, as responsibly chosen as possible" diet in my day-to-day life. I may have issues, but at least I'm aware of them, right? Right?



from Koryodang Bakery
31 West 32nd Street
between Broadway and 5th Avenue.
p.s. Paul says they have delicious green tea cake here, too!

Frankly, it's the yeast of my worries.

Speaking of doughnuts, Paul sent me the link to this video (edited and introduced to the internet by Everything is Terrible). I am confused by carpenters wearing doughnut hardhats, but I do support the trend of millinery couture with food attached. However, I can only assume that the proselytizing pastries cooked up in the Wonder Oven are never consumed. I don't think it would be very Christian to eat sentient baked goods with eyeballs and religious beliefs.

As a side note, I don't like to see such obviously enforced swaying-to-music in kiddie videos. But it's alarmingly common.

I Do, Honey Dew

(photo by Dan)

I may have mentioned my fondness for Boston Creme/Cream doughnuts. I used to be all about the blueberry cake, and they're still in the game, but I'm in a cream-in-the-middle phase of life. How about you?

In the interest of tourism and keeping in touch with my inner doughnut, I knew that someday I needed to test a Boston Cream while actually in Boston. And now, an excursion out to the Cape this weekend has made this dream come true. Plus, be still my eating heart, I got to try a new brand of doughnut. I mean, I like Dunkin', but it isn't exactly the last word in cake-with-holes. There are so many other doughnuts out there I haven't tried.

Honey Dew Donuts, my supplier this past Friday morning, is a company with its roots firmly in Massachusetts, so that made this particular Boston Creme doughnut (pictured above, before being eaten at Boston's South Street Station) doubly significant. It was tasty, featuring a cream that was neither too sweet nor too skimpy. The chocolate on top was appropriately rich. Still, given that I was actually sitting in Boston eating a doughnut made in and named after that very city, I expected something more.

I also tried one of Honey Dew's Blueberry Nugget variety. It was cakey, but almost light or fluffy, with good blueberry representation (though not whole berries or anything crazy impressive). Quite tasty.

Both doughnuts did outperform similar flavors I've eaten from DD. The prices were also cheaper at Honey Dew. If you're interested in my current rankings as an equation, they could be expressed this way:

HD Blueberry Nugget > HD Boston Cream > DD Boston Kreme > DD Blueberry Cake

And now for the bottom line. When in Mass. (or another HD locations) -- do, do Dew!

Another thing goes my way.

Though I am still fighting a general malaise that I don't want to turn into a cold, this beauty helped perk me up. I haven't been able to think of a better start to this particular workday than being greeted by a pile of cinnamon sugar apple cider donuts from the Union Square farmers' market. Thanks, D!

The Silence of the Rats

Blueberry cake doughnuts have gotten me through some rough days. Let's just say yesterday was a good day for one.

Ryan's Birthday Brunch

(photo by Dan.)

Having a rolling potluck brunch for Ryan's birthday was a great idea. I wished I'd thought of it for my birthday. Though there were no cheese grits, nor hash brown casserole, I very much enjoyed Melanie's mini quiches -- especially once D.J. suggested a dash of tabasco and a sprinkle of parmesan to go on top.



(photo by Dan.)

Doughnut Plant doughnuts are always winners, but the stars of the day for me (besides Ryan, of course) were Tim's homemade doughnuts. Sadly, I came away without a photograph, but he even used a cookie cutter to fry one in the shape of a rocket ship for the birthday boy.

Go nuts, donuts.

If you're in Chinatown in NYC, I recommend the donuts from Doughnut Plant on Grand. I've had a chocolate ("Blackout?") donut with a pudding filling, a coconut cream, an apple cinnamon, a pumpkin, one with whipped cream and crunchies on top, and more. They're tender and fresh-tasting, not to mention wildly superior to the sometimes-stale offerings at Dunkin' Donuts (though I'll still go to DD when in a Boston Creme or Blueberry Cake mood)

My favorite soccer player brought these back to Brooklyn after a game one recent Saturday. That was a happy Saturday.

You remind me of the babe.

What babe?

The babe with the power.



What power?




The power of voodoo.



Who do?



You do.



Do what?



Remind me of the babe.




Okay. Enough lyrical silliness.

Several people told me to check out Voodoo Doughnut while in Portland (even Matthew, though he did not seem to recommend the Tang-encrusted donut). The Voodoo Doughnut location I found (looks like there are two now) is located at 22 SW 3rd Avenue and is, according to the website, open a whole 24 hours. It is a tiny, hole-in-the-wall dive of a donut shop that is really-and-truly-would-I-lie-to-you-about-donuts worth a trip.

Pictured: Butterfinger topping on a devil's food cake donut, an "Old Dirty Bastard" oreo and peanut butter on devil's food, a "Maltnomah" glazed with malted milk balls and very fudgey frosting, and the classic glazed "Voodoo Doughnut" with jelly blood filling and pretzel stake through the heart. All gimmicks aside, the donuts are so delicious that they'd be worth eating without any toppings/fillings - especially the glazed - but since the toppings/fillings are impressively inventive it's worth trying a few. Alas, the bacon-topped maple donut was not available when I was there. And, perhaps less sadly, the Nyquil Glazed and Pepto-Bismol donuts have apparently been put on hold indefinitely.

Also, my Voodoo Donut (in the shape of a gingerbread person made of a jelly-filled glazed donut) was gorgeous and fully-frosted. Then it spent the evening in a bag within a bag at Ground Kontrol (and got just a tad smooshed in a photo booth pile-up) and the rest of the night in Andre's fridge (because I became full eating the Maltnomah donut), which is why a lot of the frosting has come off in these pictures. It was still fabulous the next morning, if somewhat less photogenic.