Today we had an excursion to Allie's Donuts, and since we had made the trip we had to buy a dozen and a "coffee, regular." Coffee regular (weak coffee with cream and sugar) is one of those New Englandism that I once thought was the way the whole world ordered coffee. I always ordered coffee-cream-no-sugar, but probably haven't said that is some twenty years, because how many places still fix your coffee for you? The donuts at Allie's were good, but not life altering. B and I sample as many donuts as we can, although, sadly, the donut is a dying American gastronomic form. The best donut I have ever had was at Old Fashioned Donuts on the far South Side of Chicago. I'm still not sure if this memory was overly influenced by the hour drive on local streets preceded the donuts. I just remember how tender they were, so tender. After testing at least seven bakeries in greater-Portland, OR, B and I are agreed that Annie's Donuts is the best. I loved the apple cider donuts at Atkins Farm in Amherst when I was in college, and eat a bag of them every chance I get.
I cannot abide flashy donuts like Voodoo and Fractured Prune. I won't even mention the donut behemoth DandD. They have ruined the donut through mass production, and likely run all the good donut shops out of town. The donut is a food rooted in New England, and as such it's essential nature is to be simple and not overly sweet. The important thing is the tender cake with a thin crust. I like glazes and fillings, but not frostings or sprinkles--too much. The Allies donuts had good interiors, tender and not too sweet, but the exterior was a little too crusty and crunchy, throwing off the overall balance.
After donuts, we went to the beach, which was cool and breezy. LB collected rocks, and we temped the waves until we lost-resulting in wet feet. I'm back home.
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