Donuts galore!

Save from a couple of years staying with my grandparents and a few more years tagging along when my father pursued his PhD, I've been living my whole life in Penang. I was born there, grew up there, went to school there.. and the list goes on. So because of this, I think I'm eligible to speak for all Penangites on how we've been missing out on donuts!

No, its not those donuts the mak cik jual kuih sells where you could buy 4 at the price of RM1 (or is it 3 for RM1 now?). Its those ridiculously priced donuts, the colour of every shade in the rainbow and with all flavours imaginable.. yup, thats the one! You know, we don't even have Dunkin Donuts..

..so I wasn't suprised when Irnis asked me if I had tried the Big Apple Donuts and Coffee outlet at the new Jusco in Bandar Perda. This now-pregnant-again mum of Umar told me about the outlet with so many details that I felt like going there at once to try it out hehe..

Still, I'm not really a BIG fan of donuts. If I pass Dunkin Donuts on the RnR of Tapah or Sg Buluh, I might buy half a dozen of it but thats it. I won't go anywhere JUST to find donuts so after Irnis had gone home, the wanting-to-go-straight-to-Jusco feeling just faded away..

Anyway, last Friday, I decided to check out the new Jusco and since Bart was free, I thought I'd drop by her home to pick her up. While waiting for her to get ready, her mum kept talking about the said donuts, telling me how she loved them.. and this comes from a super chef! However, luck wasn't on my side. When we arrived, the queue was too long for my liking. Decided to go check on some jeans (Kak Zura had told me that one of my favourite brands were selling those jeans at RM29.70 after a 70% discount.. of course la I grabbed one! Hmm.. ok la, I bought two hahah..! Murah whaaaaattt!!) first THEN go check the queue.

But then, after paying for my puchase, we went to look around the other shops and by the time we arrived at the Big Apple, the was no line at all.. as was the donuts! *sigh*

My tummy was grumbling by then as I hadn't taken my dinner yet and it was already 10pm so Bart told me there was another bakery which specialized in donuts that had just opened. However, she told me, after eating Big Apples, she didn't quite like this other place but since I was hungry, we decided to go there.

It was called Nash Donuts (Bart said her friend told her it was under the Nasmir Nasi Kandar franchise.. dunno if its true or not!) and had quite a wide variety of donuts even at 10.30pm. It also had a small corner for buns and bread but it was clear that the 'highlight' of the cafe was the donuts.

We settled on 4 donuts after 'interrogating' the staff about the donuts. I chose the savoury ones consisting of this generously-covered-by-cheese donut and this chicken floss donut with lots and lots of that stuff on top. One thing about Nash, diorang tak kedekut! Then Bart took this Mango topped donut and a donut covered with melted chocolate and almond flakes.. okay, maybe one thing about this cafe, the donuts didn't have names.. or they might have names but the print was too small. Mostly, I just asked the staff about the donuts. I chose to wash mine down with an Orea Shake while Bart chose the ice blended Machiato.

I took my first bite at the cheese donut and believe me, I fell in love at once. They had popped the donuts in the microwave for a few seconds so my donut was covered with oh-so-delightful melted cheese while Bart's chocolate+almond combo was very tempting after the chocolate was melted that way. Even Bart was suprised as she said, the last time she came here, the donuts weren't that good. My chicken floss one was good.. very good! While Barts mango one was ok² laaa.. but her choco+almond flakes one was simply.. whats the word? Divine.. ooohh, so Paris Hilton hahah.. I usually don't like pastries with almond flakes but this donut changed my view on almond flakes forever heheh..

By the time we polished off all our donuts, (I had already made up my mind to buy some for take-away and was sure I'd be able to do that as there were still huge amounts of doughnuts at the time we ordered!) the counter was almost clear. WhaaaaAAAaaT?! Sheesh.. there goes my take away!

Told Bart, since she thinks Big Apple is way better than Nash's, I can't imagine how those doughnuts would taste..

..and so now we come to the events of yesterday haha..! Knowing that for the next month we'd be fasting, so no more food hunting during broad daylight (and at night time la jugak kan since we have our tarawikh), I thought, what the heck.. it now or exactly one month later, if I wanna try out the Big Apples donuts, that is!

So there I was, alone (didn't feel like bothering Bart as I had planned to dash in to Jusco after that then rush home!), and queuing up for half an hour awaiting my turn. I had arrived before 12pm but the line was already a mile long. I couldn't even read the donut choices as the board was way up front so I just sat quietly in the line awaiting my turn.

When my time finally arrived, I was a bit stumped haha.. Not because there was so many choices, but because I was figuring out which donuts were least like the donuts I've tried before during my Dunkin-Donuts-at-RnR days.

I finally settled down with 6 choices (Initially wanted to buy 3, but since I don't think I'm coming back here any time in the near future, might as well make it half a dozen!).

Note: I 'stole' the picture below and above from the web. Didn't even THINK of snapping pictures as I was looking much more forward to tasting the donuts. This also explains why photos from Nash's Donuts also didn't make it into this blog hehe..

First and foremost was the famous Duren Duren where the filling is said to be made by fresh durian. I tasted it right after I got into my car (they said you should eat it within 3 hours of purchase) and ohhh la laaaa, was it divine (Paris Hilton again!). I though the dough was made of durian, turned out it was the filling: fresh cream with bits of durian. Very cliche when I remembered how I closed my eyes as I savoured the taste of this one hehe.. But seriously, sedap giler yang ni. Will definitly go buy this one again!

Then I took Kiwi Blitz which is not exactly THAT different from my usual choices haha.. It had this white frosting then a dallop of Kiwi jelly in the middle. Still, the Kiwi jelly was tangy as a Kiwi should be and not like the Kiwi Jelly you find at some cake shops.

Next one was the Green Teaser that is supposedly made with green tea and sprinkled with sunflower seeds (?) but I couldn't actually detect the green tea in the topping.. it was nice though! Very zen hahah..

Another one that caught the Oreo lover in me was the Choreo. Very, very nice.. It had some fresh cream on top then sprinkled with lots and lots of Oreo crumbs! Yummy!! I won't go bored if I had to eat this donut with the Oreo cheescake from Secret Recipe and wash it down with the Oreo shake from Nash and Oreo+icecream thingey from McDs (Ya Allah, camne leh lupe name bende ni tah?).. so I guess, maybe I'm a bit biased on this choice, huh?

Next one was Say Cheese which has white chocolate on top and sprinkled with cheese. I choose this because I have a weakness for cheese actually, explaining why I chose a similar donut at Nash's but Nash wins! Big Apple was a bit 'kemut' on the cheese, I tasted the white choc more and only had hints of the cheese so next time I want a cheese-themed donut, I'll go to Nash.

The last one was inspired by Bart's choc+almond flake combo at Nash. The Big Apple version was called Californian Almond and instead of milk choc, it had white chocolate but the taste was just as good (I'm not a big fan of white choc actually, so comparing it to normal milk chocolate is actually VERY hard for me hahah!)

I had wanted to try their Spicy Flossy but they were out of it. Plus, the picture they displayed didn't look even half as nice as Nash's..

Well, thats all I wanna say. Now, I know where I can get donuts (as opposed to waiting when I use the PLUS highway la kaaaannn for my fix of donuts!) Ohhh, btw, Nash is much more cheaper. Big Apple is at RM2.20 a piece, and RM11.50 for half a dozen. Nash is RM1.60 per piece and RM9 for half a dozen.. but considering the choices they offer, I might just spend a total of RM20.50 for a box of half a dozen from each outlet hehe..

P/S Delving into the sin of gluttony eh, Ayu.. bulan pose ni, tak baiiiikkkkk!! Btw, I didn't finish all at once tau.. Duren Duren and Say Cheese I took as my luch yesterday, but the other four I had cut into quraters and 3 quarter of each donut is still waiting patiently in the fridge.. along with choc cheesecake and raspberry cheesecake I bought from Secret Recipe.. Ooohh, gluttony, gluttony hahah.. ;p