The Fried Dough Ho

You know I get pretty excited when I find a new fried dough adventure. Usually it is something I actually eat, but more and more often it is an artistic expression of my favored food which makes me giddy. And it was a link to Pennsylvania artist Susan Biebuyck which brought a big smile to my face.

Apparently mostly known mostly for painting pears and some Plein Air, Biebuyck’s entire oeuvre of sweetened goodies which, in their Wayne Thiebaud-style, drew me in. She has a playful way of expressing the culinary delight and I invite you to take a look at her individual doughnut portraits – it seems you can buy individual doughnuts for $125 each or cluster a dozen on a wall for $1,000. I wish I had wall space.

One of the stalwart breakfast restaurants in the city is Brenda’s Soul Food, known for producing “French Soul Food.” Mostly, in my mind, they specialize in down south, Cajun-inspired cuisine. Only open for breakfast and lunch, I have enjoyed many savory dishes like cheese-laden shrimp-and-grits, andouille omelets, and spicy gumbo. Their house-made biscuits are huge, flaky, and served with a housemade jam in seasonal flavors.

Just like any New Orleans inspired restaurant, Brenda’s offers beignets. But these are not your classic Café du Monde beignets. Brenda’s makes larger, 3″ across pillows of fried dough. While they offer the classic, sugar-dusted plain beignets, what gathers the lines outside Brenda’s are three stuffed beignets — two sweet ones filled with Ghiradelli chocolate and Granny Smith apples with cinnamon honey butter and a spicy, savory version stuffed with seasoned crawfish spiked with cayenne, cheddar cheese, and scallions.

It is possible to order a sampler of all four flavors, but know that the one savory beignet is dusted with cayenne while all three are topped with powdered sugar so there is a little intermixing of sweet with hot. On my last visit, I ordered the savory crawfish beignets and was sadly disappointed. The dough is heavy and thick and gummy. The interior filling is delightful and I would be more than happy to eat a bowl of the redolently rich and heady seafood is so gooey and good, but to get to it, you have to eat through so much chewy, partly raw dough.

A good friend was visiting from New York when I suggested Brenda’s and especially touted the beignets. Instead of the entire sampling, we opted for just the crawfish platter which went back to the kitchen mostly uneaten. We cut them open to reveal the interior and enjoyed scooping out the delectable filling, but the dough was so heavy and chewy. Surprisingly, even sending some back uneaten did not illicit a response from server or the kitchen on how inedible they were. So sad for so much potential considering that everything else they serve is so exceptional. I love Brenda’s for an enticing breakfast for brunch. I’m just sorry what should be a signature dish is so mediocre.

Bob’s Donut and Pastry Shop is one of those establishments that is a stalwart landmark in San Francisco. It the place that my darling Lisa acquired my giant Birthday Doughnut. Not only do that have giant doughnuts as novelties, Bob’s provides the best quality, hand-made, classically-prepared doughnuts in the city. These are not gourmet doughnuts with unusual flavors like Voodoo or Gourdoughs. You won’t find anything with bacon or childrens cereal as a topping.

The interior is incredibly old fashioned; just a plain counter with a handful of two-seater chairs lining the wall. There is an old sign on the back wall worth looking at which reads “Cheaper by the Dozen – Plain, Powered, Maple, Glazed, Raised, Crullers, Crunch, Brownies. Take Home a Dozen. 2 for 15¢” I would have thought earlier, but they have been in existence since the 1960s. And the bulk of their business is not the morning crowd, but the late-night club-hoppers.

This is a stalwart favorite for a reason. The quality of their doughnuts is exceptional. Slightly misshapen indicates they are hand formed. The cake offerings are dense and rich with a moist crumb. The crullers are light and eggy and ethereally enticing. And then there is the apple fritter. Outside of Randy’s Doughnuts in Los Angeles, this is the best apple fritter I have experienced. It is a tad thicker than I prefer, but it has all the requisite dark crunchy bites that make a fritter fabulous.

Like Mrs Johnsons in Austin, if you go late at night, you can get these doughnuts fresh and warm. Many doughnut shops are preparing doughnuts throughout the evening for sale in the morning, but there are few establishments that enable you to acquire these warm, decadent morsels as they are being made. Kudos for Bob’s for staying open, for longevity, and for excellence.

Hunt’s Quality Doughnuts

Originally uploaded by the nicole harvey

Compliments of the delightful Miss Nicole, I offer this little ditty today. Apparently there was some construction — or, I should say, deconstruction — in the Mission District of San Francisco which revealed this old sign. It is hard to date it, based on fonts. My artistic temperament implies something earlier than the 1950s. The thin lines of the fonts and the odd Chinese lanterns interjected between the painted doughnuts reek of the late 1920s or mid 1930s.

And the doughnuts are thin. By the 1950s, doughnuts were thicker. I know this from movies that I have watched. There seem to be a lot of Depression-era movies with doughnut scenes and in the 1930s, the doughnuts were thinner.

Regardless, I thank Nicole for sending this to me so that I could share it with you. I’m tickled pink!

I feel a little ashamed. I visited Voodoo Doughnuts back in February, during a trip up through the Pacific Northwest and it has taken me an awfully long time to getting around to documenting that visit. I was pretty excited to visit this brick-clad temple of fried dough as their Maple Bacon Bar is one of the most acclaimed in the doughnut world. I loved visiting Voodoo; the interior has ouija boards and a giant, hilarious sculpture. It is irreverent in all its offerings; giant glazed doughnuts with tongues sticking out at you, demonic pentagrams painted in icing, and frosting colors that are never found in nature.

The sexually-suggestive names ascribed to these painted wonders are equally humorous; Triple Chocolate Penetration is a chocolate cake doughnut, topped with chocolate frosting and Coco-Puffs cereal, Old Dirty Bastard is raised doughnut with chocolate frosting topped with Oreo cookies and peanut butter, Cock-N-Balls is a raised doughnut shaped — well, you can figure it out — like it belongs on a porno shoot. These are novelty doughnuts taken to extreme and very little offered at Voodoo is not irreverent.

I went to Voodoo twice during my trip. The first time was just for myself and my friend, Ralph, who had offered his couch to me during my trip. We tasted the famous Bacon Bar and when obtained fresh (i.e., the bacon is still crispy), it is quite exceptional. I also ordered a Voodoo Doll, raised yeast freakishly-shaped jelly-filled that is oddly decorated complete with a pretzel stake impaled through its heart. We tasted the Mango Tango, a raised yeast doughnut filled with mango jelly and topped with vanilla frosting. Of all, this had the most intriguing flavor; tangy and bright, it was an unexpected flavor for a doughnut.  And I ordered the Apple Fritter, that which I benchmark all doughnut shops. It was here that Voodoo sort of faltered as it was just too thick and cakey without that requisite consistent crunch and rich apple flavor that the Ho requires.

A week after my first Voodoo visit, I returned, this time to purchase more than a dozen offerings to bring home to my San Francisco buddies. What came with me (or was eaten en route home), included the Triple Chocolate Penetration, Grape Ape, and Tangfastic. The Grape Ape and Tangfastic are topped with flavored powdered sugars which are a bit over-the-top for my tastes. There is a point where the garnish overwhelms the actual fried dough. They are all indeed very memorable but are they all great doughnuts? Not necessarily. Like my trip to Gourdoughs in Austin, I can appreciate the novelty factor of certain flavors and garnishes. But there is a point where some flavors are just too much. I think those doughnuts with the children’s cereal, powdered Tang, bubble gum, or M&Ms are fun, but the flavors are too sickly sweet. The maple bacon, however, is a true joy and the quality of the basic cakes are exceptional. And, they offer Vegan options which is fabulous.