The Great NYC Donut Tour of 2013

Last week was my fall break from the University of Utah. My only experience with post-secondary education before this year was at BYU, which crams too much into the school year to allow room for breaks. So I had already been anticipating the wonders of a spring break, but when I found out I got a fall break too, I almost didn't know what to do with myself.

But only almost. I hit up my favorite travel destination, New York City, for four days--my first visit in almost a year. The whole trip was great. I saw a lot of friends I hadn't seen for a while, including some who have moved to the city since I last saw them (hooray for the replenishing of my couchsurfing pool!), and met the new babies of my old roommate Ryan, and of David and Marlene McCune, who lived in Omaha the last time I took advantage of their hospitality.

I could write about these fun reunions, the great pizza and burgers I ate, the most expensive movie I've ever seen (Gravity, in IMAX, at NYC ticket prices), or even having to spend the night at JFK on the way home. And maybe I will, someday. But for this post, I'm going to focus on a surprising theme that emerged on my trip: I ate a lot of fancy donuts.

On Friday night I had plans to meet my friend Erin to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and eat pizza at Juliana's, which is basically the new Grimaldi's, by which I mean the old Grimaldi's, because there's a literal new Grimaldi's right next door. (Google it or ask me about it if you're interested in NYC pizza, it's an intriguing and delicious saga.) She suggested we get dessert first, because she wanted to introduce me to the donut ice cream sandwich at Holey Cream, a little shop in Hell's Kitchen.

They slice a donut in half, then add three scoops of ice cream. I got Milky Way, red velvet (on the clerk's recommendation), and, hiding behind them, oatmeal raisin. All were very good, but the oatmeal raisin was the best ice cream I've had in a long time--it was amazing. Then they ice the top donut half, and you choose a topping for them to dip it in. I got toasted coconut, and it was a winning choice. The creation tastes better than it looks--and admit it, it looks really good, doesn't it?

The next morning, I got up just after 4 AM so I could be in line for a cronut by 5:30 (the bakery doesn't open until 8:00). You may have heard about cronuts and their ridiculous popularity in New York. There are knockoffs sold at other bakeries, but I wanted the real deal. My friend Aja was already in line by the time I got there; in a strange coincidence, the guy next to us in line was a BYU student, in town for a job interview. We quickly made friends with the others around us in line (we were numbers 8 and 9, only 100 or so people get a cronut each morning before they sell out), and the time passed relatively quickly. Finally, the bakery opened, and we bought our treasures.

See, treasure! It even comes in a little gold carrying case. Many have asked if that is butter on top, but it was a banana chip. There's a different flavor every month; October's is caramel apple creme fraiche. I also got the "Perfect Little Egg Sandwich" you see in the background, though it's not actually that little. The brioche bun was delectable.

I was trying to capture the interior layers in this shot, but the picture in the link above does a much better job of that. The name implies that it's a combination croissant-donut, but to me it actually tasted like a reall fancy and delicious and cream-filled churro. I took the second cronut back to share with David and Marlene, and we warmed it up a bit first, even though the bakery advises against that due to the filling. But I think it improved it. In reality, no single food item is worth waiting in line three hours for, but it was very good, I had a lot of fun with Aja and our new acquaintances, and I'm glad I did it.

Later that day, we celebrated Marlene's birthday (a few days early) with a trip to Shake Shack, followed by dessert at Doughnut Plant. I was full of burgers and shakes, so I only got one--a coconut cream. There was a little too much cream for my taste, but the surrounding donut was one of the best I've ever had.

So there you have it. My NYC Donut Tour was over less than 24 hours after it began, but what a tour it was! I can't wait for my next trip--I hear I need to expand the tour to include The Donut Pub.

I don't expect to eat any donuts this weekend, but I do plan on attending Gospel Doctrine class. As noted in last week's post, we'll again be discussing family history work. When you think about it, the gospel is just like your traditional glazed donut--one eternal round. And what could be a better symbol of linking generations together into one great chain through temple and family history work, than the cruller? As the old hymn says, "sweet is the work!"