You say Doughnut, I say Donut
by Richard Foss
A friend moved from the South Bay to New Zealand but comes back periodically to visit family, and on every visit he indulges three food cravings: Mexican food on the way from the airport, and Southern barbecue shortly thereafter. And doughnuts. People fry dough everywhere, so why couldn’t he find a good doughnut in New Zealand?
While people in other countries do submerge dough in boiling oil, nobody but Americans makes doughnuts quite like we do. First, there’s the hole, which was first punched by a Maine sea captain named Hansen Gregory in 1858. Baked dough rings go back to the Roman Empire, but nobody had tried that with fried dough. The hole makes the dough cook through evenly. Captain Gregory earned a plaque in Rockport, Maine for his achievement, but it hasn’t caught on in the rest of the world.
Then there’s the variety of flavors. Portuguese have their malasadas, Danes their ebelskiver, Arabs luqaimat, and Indians gulab jamun. But most have a coating only of sugar or syrup, not the vast variety we enjoy. Add in the consistencies of different doughs, from the dense crumb of an old-fashioned buttermilk to the lightness of a cruller, and there are texture and flavor combinations beyond counting.
To indulge in my South Bay expat’s craving and my awakened curiosity, we visited three doughnut shops in the South Bay. One is an outpost of a famed classic establishment; one represents the multitude of Cambodian-French doughnut shops; and one newcomer is making 21st century variations. Below are our impressions.
The Cambodian doughnut: Niko’s, Redondo
Over 2,400 doughnut shops in California are owned by Cambodian immigrants. They are familiar with the form because their culture has been frying rice flour cakes called nom kong for centuries. When they come to the USA they gravitated to the industry, led by the example of an entrepreneur named Ted Ngoy who went from being a trainee at Winchell’s to owning over 40 locations of his own.
The South Bay has several shops owned by Cambodian families, and we visited Niko’s on 190 in Redondo Beach. The shop’s namesake Niko, whose grandfather emigrated to escape the Khmer Rouge, always welcomes customers with an enthusiastic smile. We tried a glazed blueberry, an apple fritter, an old fashioned buttermilk, and a chocolate cruller, all classic items. The old-fashioned buttermilk is a test of the flavor and texture of the dough, and this one passed with flying colors. The exterior had a slight crispness, with the interior soft, light textured, and fragrant. The apple fritter was also good but slightly over-glazed for my tastes. I like to taste the apple more than the sugar, and I had the same reaction to the blueberry. Crullers are different from cake doughnuts because they’re made with eggy choux pastry, the same as an éclair, making them a crust around an almost hollow shell. They’re best immediately after they’re made, and this one was fine and obviously very fresh.
Depending on when you arrive at Niko’s, the selection changes — the cases are full in the morning, and usually almost empty when they close at 2 p.m. The community obviously depends on this place for their morning breakfast, and they’re wise to do so. Best Doughnuts in Hermosa is another shop that keeps longer hours, and I usually go there for my Cambodian doughnut fix, but when in the neighborhood I’ll happily stop here.
Niko’s, 2429 190th Street
Redondo Beach
(310) 921-8466
The classic doughnut: Randy’s, El Segundo
The original Randy’s doughnuts is an internationally famous landmark thanks to the giant doughnut on the roof, which is visible from the freeway. The place has been featured in movies and TV shows since 1952, and when a branch opened on Rosecrans there was great joy among their fans. We went in with high hopes and viewed the case with anticipation, noting the way everything was arranged to contrast the colors of frosting. The doughnuts on sale ranged from simple to ornate, and included varieties like Nutella oreo mochi, red velvet, chocolate glazed with fruity pebbles, and other novelties.
We chose a bacon maple long john, a glazed “crondy,” their version of a cronut, an unglazed buttermilk, a matcha tea raised doughnut, and a maple doughnut topped with miniature churros. When we took the first bite of the bacon maple, the glazed frosting shattered and much of the bacon fell off. The bacon had apparently been added after the frosting had partly cooled, so it was just sitting on top and didn’t stick. When you put the bacon back on, it’s not a winning combination. My houseguest referred to this doughnut as “a blunt instrument of sweetness and fat,” and so it was.
The crondy was also a disappointment, because the pastry was very soft and chewy, and the whole attraction of a cronut is that the fried croissant pastry has distinct, crisp layers. It might have been fine when it was fresh from the fryer, but these doughnuts are made at a commissary in Inglewood, not on site. The buttermilk doughnut suffered from the same problem — it had a soft, spongy crust and was markedly inferior to the one we had at Niko’s the day before. The doughnut that was the most pleasing was the matcha tea raised doughnut, which had a balance of sweetness with a slight tea bitterness. The nadir was the maple raised topped with gummy mini-churros that had been glued in place with sugary caramel. It was one-dimensionally sweet and after two bites we set it aside as inedible.
I have fond memories of the doughnuts at Randy’s original in Inglewood, but for whatever reason these did not compare with the ones from Niko’s or from our third contender. So it is when you revisit a place you enjoyed as a teenager and discover that your palate has moved on and they’re still right where they were.
Randy’s, 2181 Rosecrans Avenue, Unit C
El Segundo
(310) 616-3406
The modern doughnut: Sidecar, Manhattan Beach
I was wary of Sidecar Doughnuts because I thought of them as similar to Blue Star, a place focused on novelty that opened and closed location in Manhattan’s Metlox Plaza. Their doughnuts were very pretty, very expensive, and not that good. Sidecar had some very complex items in their case, and we gave both the unusual and classics a try when we ordered a Saigon cinnamon crumb, a huckleberry, a lemon pound cake, a butter and salt, and their maple bacon doughnut.
I tried the huckleberry first and was shocked — it tasted like fruit, not like a sugary mass that had been near some berries. The lemon pound cake had a similar balance, the tartness was suited to an adult palate, not the childlike one at Randy’s. The maple bacon redeemed the idea of putting those flavors together, and the Saigon cinnamon crumb showed that they can leave a good idea alone when they need to. The butter-and-salt was another simple thing very well done, a vanilla bean cake doughnut with brown butter glaze and crunchy flakes of fleur de sel.
We also ordered a savory item, the basil eggs benedict doughnut, a poached egg with hollandaise and ham inside a near spherical crust. Whoever came up with this idea was a genius. They execute it perfectly, the egg not overcooked by a second. It’s a high style breakfast that you can eat in one hand and a great way to start the morning. Unlike their other items, these can’t be ordered online, so if you want one you have to go to the store and hope they’re available. If they are, get one — you’ll thank me later.
Sidecar Doughnuts
3026 N. Sepulveda Ste. G-110
Manhattan Beach
(310) 564-2632
What did I learn from three days of eating lots of doughnuts? Lots about the variety from establishment to establishment, and also that I really shouldn’t start the day with sampling lots of doughnuts three days in a row. But it was a fun experiment that gave me a new appreciation for an American invention. ER
