379 Grand St (between Essex St and Norfolk St, LES)
Fatty Kat Eats: Peanut Butter and Jelly, Tres Leches, Carrot Cake, Pumpkin (yeast), Creme Brûlée, Coconut, basically anything they sell...
Doughnut Plant
After falling in love with these magical rings some 6 years ago, my friends and I have consistently planned weekends and meals around trips to the Doughnut Plant. Seriously. When the only storefront was on Grand St, we would trek to down to the Lower East Side, which was still a frontier at the time (but definitely not anymore). Once the Chelsea location opened its doors, our adventure died a little death, but the doughnuts lived on!
I'm sure most of you have already tried these wondrous pastries. If not, you are either living under a rock or need to up your doughnut game significantly. Honestly, the concept of a doughnut makes me sick--a boatload of oil, sugar and fat packed into one thing...so I try not to think about it :). Doughnut Plant has perfected its craft to a point that eliminates any such negative thoughts--some would say, a miracle. It also helps that the doughnuts themselves taste so damn good.
On one particular occasion, my colleague walked into work with boxes of Doughnut Plant doughnuts. In our eyes, she was Santa Claus on Christmas morning. There were so many doughnuts to choose from, and each one looked equally enticing. Fortunately, all of us played nice and shared the popular ones: Coconut, Tres Leches and Peanut Butter and Jelly. Thanks Dianna!
I'm a huge peanut butter fan, so the Peanut Butter and Jelly doughnut (yeast) was easily my favorite. It brought back so many grade school memories when me and every other kid had a Juicy Juice, a Fruit Roll-Up and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, except 1,000 times better! This one was particularly fluffy with a perfect peanut butter to jelly ratio. The crushed peanuts tempered the unavoidable sweetness and added a fun texture to each bite.
The Coconut doughnut (yeast) was also fluffy, and the coconut flavor was subtle. It didn't exactly taste like it just got pulled from a palm tree, but it didn't taste extremely fake either. The creamy Tres Leches doughnut was also a big hit among my colleagues. Unlike a yeast doughnut, this cake doughnut was denser and obviously more cake-like, which didn't necessarily make the pastry too heavy.
Besides the many doughnuts I devoured on that fateful day, I also love the incredibly rich Creme Brûlée doughnut, the Carrot Cake doughnut and the Pumpkin yeast doughnut). So many doughnuts, so little belly space...
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