Doughnut Crawl

At Dough, our last doughnut stop, we completely lost all semblance of self-control and somehow came home with ALL of these beauties.  Nom.

On Thursday I read this article in the NY Times and came up with a brilliant idea: a doughnut crawl. I sent it to Jess and Todd just thinking that it was a funny idea. But there was considerable excitement and a plan solidified like so:

View Doughnut Crawl in a larger map
1) Doughnut Plant
2) Wonder City Coffee & Doughnuts at the Brindle Room
3) Dough
4) Fette Sau
5) Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop
6) Gulluoglu Baklava Cafe

We knew the last two might be a stretch.  As it turned out we did pretty well and even managed to sneak in some bonus stops.

Our first stop, Doughnut Plant, was a popular place to be on a rainy Sunday afternoon, although the line moved quickly and there were plenty of doughnuts available when we made it up to the tiny counter.

Under the board on the left is the doughnut display that emptied as quickly as the staff could fill it.

We had tried some of the Donut Plant's fare before since at Oren's Daily Roast in Grand Central Terminal, so we managed to restrain ourselves and stuck to one doughnut a piece.

From the left going clockwise: a pistachio cake doughnut, a blackberry jelly with vanilla bean glaze yeast doughnut, and a blackberry jelly with peanut butter glaze yeast doughnut. 

As you can tell we were so excited about the doughnuts that we started eating them before we remembered to take any pictures.  The blackberry jam with vanilla bean frosting was my favorite.  The doughnut itself was light, fluffy, tasty.  The jelly was actually reminiscent of good blackberry jam and the vanilla bean glaze was the perfect light and flavorful compliment.  The peanut butter and jam doughnut was similarly well balanced, with a surprisingly un-heavy peanut glaze with peanut chunks that didn't overwhelm the jelly or the doughnut itself.  The pistachio doughnut was good too, with lovely green flecks all the way through and a complimentary almond flavored dough.  In addition to the doughnuts we got chais and coffee. The coffee was good, but the chai was great. Todd said it was as close as he's ever had to Chaiwalla's chai.

For our next stop we nipped up to the lower east side and found a parking space around the corner from the Brindle Room (a.k.a. Wonder City).  After a bit of dithering we decided to have our second batch of doughnuts sitting down somewhere other than the car so we got a table and rounded out things with drinks, greens, and granola.

Cheers!

The delicious cocktails, an elderflower sparking and a Tokyo springtime, came in these nifty glasses that looked a little like stemless champagne glasses.  The drinks themselves were refreshing and fruity without being overly sweet.

These were the main event.  From the back: chocolate hazelnut with toasted almond, caramel, powdered sugar, and chocolate with toasted coconut.

These petite and delicious doughnuts were made from mashed potatoes, which I probably wouldn't have been able to figure out if I hadn't read it in the NY Times article.  They texture is much as they describe in the article.  They are surprisingly delicate and satisfyingly crunchy.

Doughnuts, plus tasty house-made granola, plus savory sauteed greens.

When we sat down and cheeseburgers started to appear at the table next to us, my stomach went "oohh and grilled cheese and tomato would be lovely" but my brain vetoed that and went with granola. 

Instead of waddling straight back to the car we decided to make a couple of bonus stops including a pet food store and Downtown Yarns, and as we were looking at the map it turned out that a Bahn Mi place Todd has been wanting to go to was right across the way.

The pet food store had just what we were looking for and hopefully that will make my dad and Griffin happier.  The yarn store was a bust because they had the copy of Fall 2010 edition of Vogue Knitting that I've been looking for but sadly despite having a label stating to ask for additional copies they did not actually have any additional copies and wouldn't sell me the house copy. 

Mmmmm.... Bahn Mi.....

The Bahn Mi, despite taking forever to prepare, was very good.  The meat was tasty, the bread was nice and crusty, and the veggies provided the perfect compliment to both.

After our bonus Bahn Mi we embarked on the Brooklyn leg of our adventure and made it to Dough shortly before it closed. 

Ta-da!  We made it!

Confusingly Dough is at location that used to be a chicken place called Roosters so when I looked it up on the map all I got was dated information and a dated street view that was totally wrong.  But Dough really is at 305 Franklin Avenue.

Even the logo in their boxes looks good enough to eat...

Inside we were gripped by paralyzing indecision.

Which turned into this:

Oh the choices.  So we decided not to choose.  Gentle reader, you'll be relieved to know that we escaped the shop leaving a couple of flavors for next time. 

We decided not to try to make it to Peter Pan's Donut and Pastry shop and instead decided to switch from carbs to protein for our last stop.  Sofia's explorations into Brooklyn have turned up some excellent taste experiences, including this amazing barbecue place:

In warm weather, or at least dry weather, the picnic benches are the perfect place to eat.

Fette Sau or the Happy Pig has an interesting variety of rich delicious meats that are all cooked to perfection with sides that stand right up to them.

Where to start first?

After a little bit of drooling and dithering we came home with brisket, pork shoulder, bacon, sausage, German potato salad, broccoli salad, baked beans, sauerkraut, pickles and potato rolls.  We brilliantly decided to head home with our haul from the last two stops where we were able to enjoy them at a leisurely pace.  The bacon was, hands down, the best of the dishes and the spicy broccoli salad was the most unexpectedly tasty.  The brisket had yummy charred edges and the perfect line of pink just around the outside.  The sauerkraut was delicious and crisp and the baked beans were wonderfully flavorful while being cooked just enough and still maintaining individual bean integrity.

Overall this was an excellent adventure for a rainy Sunday afternoon.