Ten Eleven Thirteen
Can you tell what is missing? You might be tempted to say thirteen, but the real answer is me.
Today’s daily dose of fussy is being auto-posted, because if you are reading this in real time, I’m on the road to the farm. Yes, it’s Columbus Day weekend. No, the Princeton public schools don’t seem to take it off. But we’re headed out of town anyway.
I’ve got a wedding just outside of D.C. But first I’m going to drop the Fussy LIttle Children off at their grandparents’ farm in rural Pennsylvania. That means I’ve got a day full of driving, and most likely at this very moment I’m on the road. It also means I get to take my twenty-something year-old self out of his box so he can play with his old friends.
This should be a great weekend.
But I didn’t want to leave you in the lurch. And it turns out that October 11 (ten eleven) has historically been a pretty good day for blog posts. You know, up until 2013, that is. So today we’re going to go back and take a brief look at what I’ve been fussing about on this day over the years. See if you can catch some common themes.
Cider Donuts: A Cautionary Tale
With apology to Edwin Starr.
Tours.
Hah.
Good God y’all.
What are they good for?
Absolutely, nothin’.
Say it again.
Yesterday, KB @ Home-Baked Happiness raised a really good point. Recently she set off on her own cider donut tour in which she sampled an astonishing eleven donuts in one day. God bless her. But heroic fortitude aside, there is something notable about her results. They were much much different than those from the FLB’s Tour de Donut.
She found Devoe’s to be the best of the bunch, followed by Saratoga Apple. Just to refresh everyone’s memory, Saratoga Apple made in many respects a great donut for last year’s tour. However, when we were visiting they seemed to be cooking their donuts in old oil, which resulted in a lingering and unpleasant taste that just wouldn’t quit. More recently, Devoe’s at 9:00 am on a fall Saturday, seemed to be selling only day old donuts.
So, what can we learn from all of this?
The Best Donuts off the Beaten Path
Who has the best cider donuts in the Capital Region? Lots of people want to know, but I have the sense that most folks go to the same places year after year. And quite frankly, part of what makes apple cider donuts special in the first place is their role in the rites of fall.
But there are many transplants to the area, and they are unshackled by family history and tradition. Tourists may come out leaf peeping and want to get a taste of this legendary deep fried apple cider spiked donut. If you are looking for a cider donut that rises above the rest, where should you go?
That’s why the FLB has been leading packs of eaters into the orchards every fall for the past few years. We are on a quest to separate childhood memories and long held biases from matters of taste. The answer can’t be settled with a popularity contest. This is a problem that requires qualitative analysis to solve. So each year, the FLB picks five different donuts to evaluate, and rates them all on a fixed set of criteria.
Year One we took on the rivalry between Indian Ladder and Altamont Orchards along with a few of their more popular competitors to the north. Year Two we headed east of the Hudson. Year Three we went north, way north into Saratoga county.
The most recent tour was this past weekend, and it covered places beloved by many, but rarely mentioned first in conversations about the region’s cider donuts. Let me say, there are some gems hiding in plain sight.
Rally for Randy
Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. Forget about it. I can’t seem to shake writing about the Capital Region, even though I haven’t lived there for over two months.
What? It’s been two months already?
I tell you, time flies.
This was going to be an Albany centric week anyway. I have the scoresheets in from the Fourth Annual Tour de Donut, which should have an official winner announced tomorrow. Plus there was yesterday’s rundown on the things I’m actually missing from the 518.
I guess that gives me carte blanche to weigh in on this year’s Calling All Cooks competition. The ironic part is that I’m doing this out of friendship. But I’m pretty convinced that in the end, it’s going to make me no friends.
What Am I Missing?
All Over Albany’s Tournament of Pizza has commenced. Saturday was the Fourth Annual Tour de Donut. Sunday Mrs. Fussy flew the coop for a work trip to the west coast. And despite eating too many donuts to count in the last few days, I have yet to find a Boston Cream that I enjoy as much as those from Bella Napoli and The Cookie Factory.
I’m really enjoying the heck out of New Jersey, but there is a lot that I am missing.
That said, I’m really starting to feel at home in Princeton. Now that I’ve been here for over a month, I have come to realize Exit 8b is my home, and not Exit 9. The labyrinthine conglomeration of strip malls and access roads is no longer confounding, even at night. And I’m making friends with people from around the world who are starting to reveal the secrets of cooking the delicacies of their homelands.
Surely as time goes by, the things that I miss will start to fade away as I adjust to life without them. Still, this seems like as good a time as any to capture these longings. Maybe they might help some of you appreciate what you have.
Eating Jersey Like a Tourist
Yesterday I packed about a week’s worth of New Jersey food exploration into one very filling day. The good news is that Princeton is very much a walking town, so I got in a fair bit of movement.
I also checked out Modernist Cuisine at Home (and some other food books) from the library and lugged them around town. That one book alone is over ten pounds, so that was a little bit of a workout there.
It’s a good thing too, because I plowed through a handful of donuts, a deep fried hot dog, two ice cream parlors and two hoagie shops. The day also involved buying some more crushed aleppo pepper at the spice store and picking up another dozen eggs from the farmers market.
Here’s the rundown and what I learned.
Balking on Brownies
One of the first things I remember cooking as a child was brownies. They were always made from scratch. My job was to help with the stirring, and to lick the bowl.
As I grew older, I learned the secret to delicious, fudgy brownies was to just use enough flour to hold together the butter, eggs, and chocolate. Or at least that is how my mom used to make them.
But me? I don’t bake. And I’m afraid that recently I set my own kids down a slippery slope.
Wegmans Wows
There are lots of people who love Wegmans, but I can’t think of anyone who loves the grocery chain more than Stanford Steph. Incidentally, if you haven’t met her in person, she’ll be leading Saturday’s Fourth Annual Tour de Donut in my absence. It’s open to anyone, so you should totally join her in this fussy little fall tradition.
Anyhow, she was excited about my move to Princeton, as I could now make Wegmans a regular part of my shopping rotation. Steph gave me some pointers. She spoke highly of their store branded products, and also advised me to the advantages of downloading their iPhone app.
I took this advice to heart. Although I can’t say that it all went flawlessly. In fact, early on there was a bump in the road. Nothing serious, but it did make me doubt the store’s glowing reputation.
Then yesterday, I got the most surprising letter in the mail.
Saltpepperketchup
Wow. People came out of the woodwork yesterday to read about the misdoings of Dunkin’ Donuts. As a result, part of me is tempted to create a Donut Week as we lead into the Fourth Annual Tour de Donut this Saturday.
But I’m not going to do that. Mostly because I have another pressing concern on my mind. This one is a bit more personal. Perhaps it’s something others can relate to. Even those of you who aren’t in New Jersey.
If you were to ask me what condiment defines upstate New York, I would answer Frank’s Red Hot. In Philadelphia it has to be Cheez Whiz. Miami is mojo. Without a doubt New Jersey is saltpepperketchup. Yes, technically that’s three things. But they are always combined into a single word, and it’s supposed to go on a range of food from egg sandwiches to cheesesteaks.
There’s only one problem.
3 Reasons Not To Trust Dunkin’ Donuts
Before today’s food rant, I need to pause and acknowledge something important. This past weekend, the food world lost a luminary. Marcella Hazan passed away. She was, and thanks to her books will continue to be, a tremendous influence on how I think about food in general, and Italian food in particular.
If you don’t have Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, I suggest you pick up a copy today.
Earlier this weekend I was chatting with Marcella’s daughter-in-law on Twitter. We were going back and forth about donuts, and the horror that Dunkin’ Donuts has unleashed on the American culinary landscape. Honestly, I really think their donuts were much better twenty years ago, when each location fried their own donuts on site.
Sometimes the sacrifices an enterprise makes for uniform consistency across the brand aren’t worth the payoff. Dunkin’ Donuts isn’t unique in this regard. They are unique in that their category is now almost bereft of any local competition. One really has to look hard to find a good, old-fashioned donut shop.
And perhaps because they’ve cornered the market, Dunkin’ Donuts has been able to get away with a lot.
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