The Fried Dough Ho

The Seattle people are pretty fortunate. Not only do they have Top Pot Doughnuts, but another hand-crafted gourmet offering, Mighty-O Donuts. First off, the biggest difference is that while Top Pot is “hand-forged” and all that, they are a chain so their delicious is available all around the city. Mighty-O, on the other hand, is a singularity in this large metropolis and required a bit of a trek (thank goodness for GPS systems!) to get to during my brief visit. I was pretty excited when I arrived. It was relatively early and mid-week so the selection was ample and varied, although mostly of the cake variety.

I liked that the conveyor belt fryer is out for the public to see and also, they have a pretty fun website where the doughnuts twirl around. What I didn’t realize until I started penning this review is that they only use “organic ingredients. [Their] donuts [sic] contain no chemical preservatives, no hydrogenated oils, no colorings or artificial flavors, and no animal derived ingredients.” Does that make them vegan? I’m not exactly sure, to be truthful.

As usual, I ordered more than I could possibly eat, but I did get a good taste of each one. The Lots O Chocolate stole my heart early on; thick and opulent and overtly chocolate with a good quality, moist crumb. This was not a wimpy doughnut by any means. Made with the same base doughnut and a change of frosting was the Chocolate Raspberry and Don King (a chocolate doughnut topped with coconut). I really enjoyed the fresh, bright raspberry flavor which was demonstrated in the frosting that complemented the rich chocolate cake. The Don King — hilariously named — was equally well-prepared, fresh, and moist.

Of the more exotic flavors, I tried a Lemon Poppyseed and French Toast as well as a raised Cinnamon Sugar Twist. Oddly, that twist does not appear on the website but I imagine it is not much different than their Classic Raised Doughnut. While the raised was good, it was not quite as transcendent as their cake doughnuts which I found truly exceptional. The Lemon Poppyseed acquired a nice balance between a bright citrus note and the dusky poppy seeds. The French Toast is what confuses me. What makes French Toast flavorful is the fact that it is an egg batter on bread and I’m not sure how the folks at Mighty-O create a rich eggy flavor without the use an egg, but it was rich and did taste like French Toast!

My biggest regret during my Seattle visit was not being able to conduct a side-by-side taste test between Mighty-O and Top Pot. It would have been a tough call to pick between the two and I am quite thrilled to have experienced both within a few days of one another.

After a horrifically disappointing meal at nearby Heaven’s Dog, I have BFF Lisa to thank for whisking me away to Thermidor for dessert. I had recalled they had a specialty doughnut on the menu and with iPhone in hand, she had mapped out that it was close enough to a theater where I had tickets for the evening and just enough time to grab dessert before curtain time.

It is pastry chef Kyle Caporicci who has created the dessert which called to me; Coffee, Cigarettes and Doughnuts with carrot cake, white chocolate custard and coffee ice cream. The “cigarette” is a stylized, thin white chocolate tube filled with a creamy mousse and is apparently infused with tobacco leaves reputed to give a nicotine buzz. I can’t comment on whether or not it gave me a nicotine buzz, per se, but the presentation and flavors did excite me. I’m giving some leniency in this because the “doughnut” is not actually fried dough, but carrot cake. But being the Ho that I am, I was terribly impressed with the plating, concept and flavor combinations. The coffee ice cream is some of the best I have tasted (and surprisingly, it is not coffee colored the way one would expect it). The classic cream cheese frosting was lightly studded with sprinkles but the little cakes were set upon some ground

Working the bar was a chap named Morgan and we felt an instant affinity, partly for his gregarious nature and for his gorgeous culinary tattoos. I just asked for his particular favorite gin cocktail and all I remember was him saying he had freshly made some raspberry purée and we just instructed our assent to construct whatever he deemed fit. It was a beautiful site, watching Morgan throw himself into the cocktail making was like watching Nijinski approach Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring; raw and inspirational and entirely heartfelt. We loved this place already. I wished I had written down what else was in the cocktail but we did know there were egg whites which produced a creamy and rich libation.

And then a tall man in a white jacket — Chef Bruce, no less! — walked up with an order of Pommes Dauphine (warm potato croquettes) served with lobster butter. Yep, I got a real fried dough entry out of this visit along with a cool dessert and an amazing cocktail! The Chef was confused as to who had ordered the appetizer because he could see we were already well under way with a dessert. Laughing, I coaxed him over. In a rush to catch a play, we didn’t care what order our dishes had arrived and the only disadvantage seemed to be in the fact that the intensely tender morsels of fried potato dough was the fact that garnished with salt and served with the unctuously rich lobster butter, it came across as too salty after the sweet dessert and fruit-sweet cocktail. Chef Bruce told us he made the lobster sauce fresh from live lobster and the quality was exquisitely discernible. The fried dough offerings were light and perfectly fried.

There was no bigger regret that we had eaten elsewhere beforehand and that our time was so short. But between two amazing courses and better than superlative service, this is a restaurant I will return to very shortly.

My last doughnut stop in Austin was truly a special one. It was recommended to us by the lady selling us macarons at La Boite and is called Mrs. Johnson’s Bakery. What makes it special is a variety of things, mostly that fresh, warm doughnuts are available after 9:00 p.m. in the evening. And so we waited until after the sun had set for my epic journey towards Fried Dough Ho’dom.

Driving through the streets of Austin, there was a PBS radio station on the car radio playing tunes of the 1950s and I felt as though I were in the George Lucas movie, American Graffiti; this was as much about the journey as the destination. When we arrived, I could already smell the aroma of hot sugar in the air and I spied the sign which indicated that Mrs. Johnson’s had been around since 1948 and the building helped confirm that sense of nostalgia. In the front window was a long machine which rolled out the dough and cut the slab into its octagonal shapes. I watched the worker deftly pulling out the holes from the freshly-hewn rounds. All this joy and wonderment and I was not even inside yet.

What I was faced with surprised me; the full production of doughnut manufacturing going at full steam. It was so oddly gratifying and heartfelt. I was giddy and my enthusiasm was contagious. Enraptured at the scene, I watched closely as one worker organized the holes while another was laying out trays of freshly-cut rounds to be risen. And then another grabbed a giant bowl of dough and it dawned on me that my camera had the video record function. So I am pleased to share my first personal recording of doughnut preparation on Fried Dough Ho:

They knew I was a die-hard enthusiast. Ordering a small selection to take home and taste, the guy behind the counter put an extra doughnut in my box as well as one in my hand before I left. A freshly fried and glazed raised octagon of deliciousness, the warm doughnut in my hand was light and tender. Oh — and did I tell you it was WARM? Other than full-on restaurant offerings, I can’t think of when I have ever had a warm doughnut. I know that was the big selling point for Krispy Kreme for all those years, but in California, I never tried one fresh, only old and cold and mediocre.

What came home to try besides the warm glazed raised was a jelly-filled, chocolate cake, plain cake, and apple fritter. Someone else recommended the apple fritter and sadly, it just did not stand up to my benchmark fritter, Randy’s doughnuts in Los Angeles. Here the apples were indeed canned and fake and it was over spiced with too much cinnamon. The two cake doughnuts however, were exceptional. With a tight, moist crumb, the chocolate was slightly oily but not in a way that I found derogatory whatsoever. Instead, it made it richer and headier. The same dough used in the raised glazed was also that in the jelly doughnut and again, I was perfectly thrilled with this smaller-than-usual sized doughnut. Intensely light and fluffy, the raspberry filling was undoubtedly canned and mass-produced, but not overly sweet and perfectly acceptable.

I have had many mass-produced doughnuts, but these were a cut above. Fresh and warm aside, there was an inherent quality in the knowledge of the fact that these doughnuts were hand-made and not entirely machine-manufactured. And that hand-made quality is discernible, providing a level of excellence and satisfaction. There is much to be said for the vintage atmosphere of the building, the equipment, and the surroundings. Perhaps it was the music I was listening to or hearkening back to an era of simplified goodness, but Mrs Johnson’s certainly helps give the consumer that passionate level of contentment with its doughnuts.

I am admittedly ashamed that it has taken me so long to getting around to writing about the doughnut shops I visited during my trip to the Pacific Northwest several months ago. I was visiting Bellevue for an art show and made a concerted effort to get out and try Seattle’s famous mini-chain of Top Pot Doughnuts. It was a lovely day in Seattle and considering it was early February, the weather was in my favor. Walking around with an umbrella, I don’t remember if I ever needed to open it, despite an occasional sprinkle. I mention that because the picture I took of the Top Pot blue box is just speckled with a few drops of ubiquitous Seattle rain and I thought that rather appropriate for some reason.

I made the trek to Top Pot from Pike’s Market; under freeway overpass with the Space Needle in sight of the store. My pulse quickened; was it the feeling of the tourist when spying a famous architectural landmark or the knowledge that an artisanal doughnut was soon to be mine? I knew I had arrived at the right spot when I spied a gathering of police vehicles outside the doughnut shop. For somewhere in that pantheon of righteousness, police and doughnuts are forever bonded together. The chuckle came about at the selection of police vehicles; not your standard black-and-white Honda motorcycle or your General Motors four-door sedan. Nope, in progressive and forward thinking Seattle, the police force man streets on Segues and bicycles. I love it up here…

The store was glamorous. Truly. For a doughnut shop, on your left you see a 20-foot wall of books, stately guarding the expansive shop where die-hards like myself graze upon the cakey treats. With a moniker of being “hand-forged doughnuts,” I made my selection with the help of the lovely ladies behind the counter. Top Pot’s selection is mostly cake-driven (versus only a few raised). There were no more filled left when I arrived so I tried to obtain a wide variety of their selection; maple old fashioned, chocolate glazed raised, chocolate cake with raspberry glaze, cinnamon cake, and an apple fritter.

Of those I chose, the chocolate cake with raspberry glaze and the maple old fashioned were the most memorable and special. I was not remotely impressed with the apple fritter, finding is thick and leaden and too heavily glazed. I took a bite of that while I was walking away from the store and after a second bite, was not remotely compelled to finish it. The chocolate glazed was quite decent, but nothing exceptional. While the maple old fashioned is not necessarily a specialty doughnut, it was quite special. Rich without being cloying, the maple flavor was very authentic while so many maple flavors are just that: Flavors. It provided that hint of spiciness that comes from a good maple. The chocolate cake with raspberry was also a favorite of mine. The chocolate cake was also rich without being overly sweet and the raspberry glaze a delightful complement to the unctuous chocolate.

It is the specialty doughnuts that Top Pot offers that I will be seeking out when next I am Seattle. I am curious about their cruller as well as their filled. Although it seems as though their filled doughnuts come from their raised dough, which are not nearly as spectacular as their cake. The two cake doughnuts that I found the most enjoyable had a tight crumb, with earmarks of truly being hand-forged — slightly misshapen oversized in their demeanor. These are honest doughnuts. There are no gimmicks with cereal toppings or vulgar shapes. There is no need to shock the consumer with surreal colors or occult symbols. It is just a simply good doughnut, almost quiet and introspective in its elegance. Great for what it is, without trying to be more. Congratulations, Seattle. I commend you.

When I wrote about the Bombolini at I Preferiti di Boriana, available from the Ferry Plaza, I mistakenly believed they were the only bombolini available. I learned that Arlequin Café, the smaller to-go sister version of Absinthe, has a booth at the Ferry Plaza on Saturdays and offers a multitude of baked goods as well as their version of the Bombolini.

I got their early last Saturday as rumors had it they run out early. It was a shockingly cold day for mid-May and the fact that San Francisco was still experiencing freakishly winter-like later this late in spring is an important factor I’ll touch upon later. There were a few more flavors to choose from than I Preferiti and while I would normally dive right into the raspberry jam, I thought it more important to judge against the custard; most bakeries buy their jam while only a bakery of any worth prepares their own custards from scratch. I was also very intrigued with the Maple Bacon – how could I not be?

Instead of a granulated sugar dusting, these have a very light glaze. It was nice that it was not too heavy or sweet. The cake was dense and not as light as I would have predicted. They were also cold. As was the filling. Too cold, actually. This was my reference to the weather. I asked if they knew when the doughnuts had been fried and no one was quite sure. It is entirely possible that they were made, filled and then refrigerated. Or, at least, that the filling was refrigerated because the flavors were muted. The Bacon Maple was quite lovely, with bits of bacon redolent in the rich, but subdued maple cream.

I also asked if these were available at the store during the week. I have great hopes of trying them warm or fresh. It will require a little investigation and I hope that they are not made solely for the Ferry Plaza as the volume with which they have to be prepared makes it so they have to be done so too far beforehand to be truly exceptional. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and wander down to the Café soon.\