Donut Factory: Donut Quest

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Do not eat a lot of sugar or donuts before boarding a plane, it just does not sit right

My quest for fried dough is always on going and I spied such a place called the Donut Factory in the Bogota Airport. I saw it on my way in and people on my flight were carrying boxes of these donuts. I given I did not see any donut outlets in Santa Marta the stock up is warranted. 

The Donut Factory as far as internet searching could tell me, is just a Colombia Chain. But the lines here were bigger than the ones at the Dunkin Donuts so I knew I had to try. The donuts that they are known for or the most popular are the filled donuts. I selected three donuts, apple, dulce de leche or arequipe and a nutella one. They are all yeasted donuts and are particularly small; I guess I am used to American sized food. But everything was glazed so eating these you end up a sticky mess. The scariest one by far was the apple filled donut. The filling was an electric green. It reminds me of something from the Creepy Crawlers kit (90s child reference). The nuclear mucus green fill however, did taste delightfully of apple. The nutella was nothing special, it is what you would expect from a donut filled with nutella and the arequipe was creamed and light. 

Nutella

Apple filled, neon green

Arequipe

Donut Quest: Taiwan Dispatch

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Why does food taste better when shaped as animals?

The Donut Quest has been going and this time, it went abroad. Donuts are not all made equally and thankfully, Dunkin Donuts does not reign all over…yet. One of the chain donut shops in Taiwan that is popular is Mr. Donut. Originally from Japan, I remember back in the late 90s when the first Mr. Donut opened up in Taiwan and remembered the line that snaked out the door. Now there are a number of Mr. Donuts in Taiwan and will mostly likely find on the any mall in Taipei.

Since there is no Thanksgiving in Taiwan, they got started early on the Christmas spirit and they had some Christmas themed donuts, such as their donut holes. 

You have to give it to them for presentation; these things looked like a box of chocolates. The little donut holes are all colorfully decorated and various coatings. One thing to mention is that though they do yeasted and cake donuts, they also do mocha donuts which give them a chewiness and difference in flavor or I at least think it is different. Each of these donut holes were colorfully decorated and had that odd pastel coloring too them and like all things from Asia, they looked cute and I am surprised it had no Sanrio characters donning it. Donuts after the jump!

Doughnut Plant Fall Flavors and Trois Pommes

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: there is no way I can ever limit myself to just getting one doughnut

Oatmeal Donut

The Doughnut Plant is always a place that is a must stop for me regardless if I am under time constraints. Meeting up with people in 10 minutes? I got enough time to grab a doughnut…or two. The opening of their Chelsea location, I noticed that the lines at the original Lower East location have noticeably died down and a lot more tolerable. This is good that I do not have to wait so long for doughnuts, bad because I buy more doughnuts. Yes, such a horrible Catch-22, something that totally relates to the Joseph Heller novel. 

Pumpkin

I like that they have their standbys like the tres leche and jelly doughnuts but they bake seasonally and being fall, had of course a pumpkin doughnut. I picked up a raspberry and the green tea doughnut as well and the oatmeal doughnut that debuted with the opening of their Chelsea location but I have not had the chance to try it until now. 

Raspberry

I got all cake doughnuts because I just like cake doughnuts but they also offer the pumpkin yeasted as well. The pumpkin was good with hits of candied seeds on top, i would have liked a bit more pumpkin-y flavor to it though but good pumpkin fix overall. The raspberry was moist and had a weirdly electric magenta color too it that somehow matched the tartness of the raspberries. The matcha doughnut thankfully tasted better than it looked, it was a dark green, like Ninja Turtle green but the earthy grassiness of matcha came through and for those of you that like green tea, and do not want sugar bombs, this is your doughnut. The oatmeal doughnut that is now on their regular lineup was definitely not what I expected, in a good way. Oatmeal made pastries in the past usually taste gritty and paste-like and thankfully, this was not the case. The oatmeal doughnut had the warm taste of nutty, oat flavors of an oatmeal raisin cookie and had the perfect crumb, lightness and density. 

Matcha

The previous week, I went out to Trois Pommes, all the way out in Park Slope and sampled their weekend doughnuts. Trois Pommes is a neighborhood bakery just making wonderful cookies and pastries and on the weekends, they have their jelly filled doughnuts. They come in either a regular sized or mini, so I did the smart thing, I got both of them. The doughnuts are dense and chewy and have a sticky glaze on the outside. First bite is an explosion of sweet and tart raspberry jam that lazily oozes out. The mini doughnuts are like candy and addictive because you can just pop them in your mouth in one whole bite. I definitely like the mini ones, but maybe because mini things have the illusion of tasting better.

Jam filled Donuts from Trois Pommes

Doughnut Plant
379 Grand Street
New York
http://www.doughnutplant.com/

Trois Pommes
260 5th Ave # A
NY 11215-1927
http://www.troispommespatisserie.com/

Donut Quest: Ray's Candy Store and Bouchon

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Never had doughnuts served to me by a lady in power suit, thanks Bouchon for giving me that experience

Ray's Candy Store- Don't know if they really have candy

The Donut quest has been lacking for a bit, and took a bit of a hiatus due to over consumption of other sweet confections. However, this weekend I had the opportunity to go and chow down on some more donuts. On this leg of the donut quest, I went to Ray’s Candy Store in the East Village and then to Bouchon Bakery at Columbus Circle. These two places are complete polar opposites from each other. The only thing that they have in common is that they both have some kind of doughnut on the menu and they have coffee and the coffee at Rays is less than desirable. 

Ray’s Candy Store has been around for years (according to via internet, 1974) and reminds me of the non-alcoholic and I am hoping less debauchery ridden Mars Bar (RIP). It is in short a dive: there is no sign for the place, indications of food being served in this hole is the early 90s retro sign for soft serve with the words "NYC ICY" and “BELGIAN FRIES” hand painted on the wooden awing. Stepping inside, there is just a counter, a soda machine, ice cream freezer with tubs of unnatural colored ice cream and saran wrapped pastries abandoned in a wicker basket. This is the kind of place that I have a nostalgic like for. Opened in 1974 and closed multiple times either by rent issues or health code violations, Ray’s Candy Store is no doubt an East Village staple here especially for those that have experienced a boozy grease craving after much libations. Though you can get the Obama burger and there fries, I was there for their beignets which is a fancy Frenchie word for doughnuts and for ½ dozen for 3 bucks, it is a downright bargain. Food after the jump!

Donut Quest Part II: My Search for Nostalgia?

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Dude asking for a Metro Card swipe will take a donut instead, apparently a donut=metro card swipe

In my quest to find the best and unfortunately the worst (not actively trying to find the worst) donuts in New York City, I came upon two in the Outer Boroughs, Alpha Donuts in Queens and Peter Pan Bakery in Brooklyn. I know there are other doughnut places in Brooklyn especially such as Mike’s Donuts and the newly opened Dough, but these two fall into the New York counter doughnuts and I had to check them out.

Take 2 in the future?

First up was Alpha Donuts all the way up in Queens. I am a bit of a nostalgic person and I tend to romanticize places, especially places dealings with food. Sometimes the image in my head is in sync with reality, but unfortunately Alpha Donuts was not. Alpha Donuts is located right outside the no. 7 train stop and the counter was filled. Everything about it was picturesque: the huge coffee machine going, people at the counter reading the newspaper and eating breakfast. To give it an even more New York vibe, two guys were talking about the upcoming season and Andy Petite retiring (this is truly sad, one of the great Yankee Pitchers). I wanted to start talking with that stereotypical Queens accent and dropping “o” and calling it “New Yawk”.