March (Donut) Madness

Danapalooza II's Great Temescal Donut Challege was a raging success (although, if you're like me, you had to endure a major sugar come down afterwards). Here's how it worked: I procured tasty treats from three local donuterias and then placed them unlabeled on plates. Attendees then tried all three kinds of either glazed raised, glazed old-fashioned, chocolate glazed, or crumb, and then rated them from one to five. The real masochists also compared them to the dozen from Krispy Kreme and Colonial Donuts, which partygoers brought on their own. And here are the final results:

Glazed Old Fashioned:
Golden Gate Donuts (42nd and Telegraph) - 18 ("A darker coloring.")
Lee's Donuts (40th and Telegraph) - 16 ("Somewhat whimsical aroma of deep fry.")
Lee's Donuts (Broadway and 45th) - 10 ("Light & crumbly -- wow!")

Chocolate Covered:
GG - 28 ("When you sink your teeth into this one you think, 'I'm really eating a donut at this moment!'")
Lee's 40th - 26 ("A totally average donut.")
Lee's Bway - 13 ("Terrible. Stale. Out of a box?")

Glazed Raised:
GG - 25 ("Light and sticky sweet. This is what plain glazed should be like.")
Lee's 40th - 20.5 ("Tasted old but was okay.")
Lee's Bway - 18 ("Bad donut.")

Crumb:
GG - 21 ("The best! Soft inside, crystally borderline crunchy coating.")
Lee's 40th - 22 ("The best!")
Lee's Bway - 16 ("Meh.")

So there you have it. Golden Gate takes three out of four. One other thought: Krispy Kremes taste the best the next day, although Colonial's chocolate cake donut was surprisingly fresh as well.


As for the Photo Contest, here's some suggestions for the identity of the sharply dressed man in the front door photo:

"He used to live here. … At night, he and Dan bongo together at Lake Merritt."
"Many music journalists claim he has been a pivotal figure in the history of rock 'n' roll."
"Leonard Nimoy. Or a guy from Ottawa who teaches ceramics and sings tenor."
"Insurance agent by day, Turkish undercover cop by night, ladies man through and through."
"His name could be Waldo [sic] or Harold."
"This is a photo of my first boyfriend, Stan Bernowitz. He really took advantage of me. … I had been unable to have an orgasm because my clitoris was not in my throat, like Stan said."

Yikes!


Other highlights of the week:
Watching Jeffrey Lewis sing songs that he illustrated with his own comics. Meeting a union organizer/burlesque artist with an MBA from the London School of Economics.
Seeing Eric's ecstatic look when he started dancing to his old DAT tapes of the Big Wu (and seeing Elly's stomach-pat hippie dance). Hanging out with Shana and Victoria for too brief a time. Drinking Botswanan liquer, eating BYOW homemade cupcakes, tossing back good tequila while listening to Stereo Total at the Make-Out Room, having a whole back room full of friends at Suriya Thai. Discovering that soccer and shotgunned beer is a good hangover cure. Total present capture, as Laura called it. Understanding that getting older is weird, but it can be fun too.

I could say something mushy about how my friends make life worth living but I won't. That'd be too corny.