Everyone in Saint Louis but me has been to the hot new donut place, Strange Donuts. Gary slept in, so I went there to get one of everything. Well. Two of everything.
The thing is, a Strange Donut is a cake donut. Mom loved a good cake donut, and happily she lived close enough to Old Town donuts to get her weekly fix. I inherited her appreciation for the cake donut with the crispy crust. Deep fried cake. Who wouldn’t love that? Gary. Come to find out, Gary doesn’t love the cake donut. It’s like I don’t even know him.
Strange Donuts mix it up every day. There are a few normal donuts, but most have some little twist. At times they have a Stranger Donut. The latest was a donut crushed into a waffle shape, topped with fried chicken, to make a Chicken and Waffles donut. I missed that one, but I applaud the effort.
These were today’s donuts.
Fat Steves
These are token “normal” donuts, the donut cousin of the white rice at the Chinese restaurant. I didn’t initially plan to get these, but I wanted some donuts for Gary in case he was put off by the odd ones.
Glazed
I think this is what turned Gary against all twelve. Picture a glazed donut: a suspension of fat and sugar that dissolves in your mouth. This was not that. This was a cake donut with glaze on top, as the long johns above were cake donuts with icing on top. I understand his dismay. If they had sold me a French cruller and it was actually a cake donut, I would be none too pleased.
Maple Bacon
Well, here we go. Goodbye to the donuts that should have not been cake, on to the donuts that cannot be poor imitations because you’ve never had them before. This was unexpectedly bacony. 25% maple, 75% bacon. And it looked like real bacon.
Chocolate Whiskey Sour
Chocolate? Yes! Whiskey? No. Sour? What? Huh? That was orange glaze dribbled on it, but I couldn’t taste it.
Peaches and Cream
A little too tart on the peach side, but the cream was lovely. This was one of my favorites.
Blueberry Lemon Sage
This was primarily cake donut, but in addition there were equal parts blueberry, lemon, and sage. 70% donut, 10% each of the lemon, blueberry and sage. I could have used more.
Chocolate Haze
This was your classic crispy chocolate cake donut. Very nice.
Gooey Butter
Saint Louis is proud of our signature baked good, the gooey butter cake. It has a base like a chewy brownie, topped by a cloud of almost raw batter and powdered sugar. It’s cake mix combined with a few sticks of butter. It’s not just the taste, it’s the texture. This donut asked sweet, I suppose, and buttery, but it felt like a donut.
General Custard
I asked why this donut was in the “normal” side of the display case, and the cashier answered it was just a typical custard donut. I always shun the custard donuts. No more. Never again. This was wonderful. Like an eclair, but a donut. God!
Rainbow Party
This was another classic donut. They could have named this Kid’s Cereal Donut. Color and sugar and not much else.
Southern Comfort(?)
This might have been named southern sunrise instead of southern comfort. I’m not sure. I didn’t notice an alcohol taste, or a sunrise taste. It tasted sweet.
When I was done tasting each one, I finished off the buttery tart peach one and the chocolate custard. (If anyone is curious, all my calories today came from donuts.) I thought about how sad it was that Gary doesn’t like cake donuts – really, how did I marry him – and how my mom would have dealt with the selections at Strange Donuts. She would put on a pained expression and pitifully, patiently ask, “Don’t you have any plain …cake … donuts?”
5 responses to “I Finally Get to Strange Donuts”
I probably could have been talked into trying the peach or the chocolate custard, but when you get right down to it, I really don’t like cake donuts. They seem heavy to me. I do, however, love the big puffy raised donuts, especially glazed, the ones that when you pinch them in your fingers they squish right down, but they don’t seen to be made anywhere any more. At least not the REAL ones. Does Gary like those?
I’m gaining weight just looking at the photos.
~~Silk – I never liked them until Mom had me get them every week. If it’s made perfectly, a cake donut is light. Hard to get a good one, though.
Hattie – I think I;m gaining weight just having them in the freezer.
I cannot think of anything finer than the phrase, “All my calories today came from donuts.” Tomorrow is the last day of school before I am bombarded by three children all day, every day, so I think I know how I am going to ease the pain!
Lynn – I hope the beginning of summer donut helped.