Anybody that knows me well knows that I cannot say “no” to a donut.  And that I spell doughnuts “donuts”.  Hakeem told me about a place that he reviewed for a website that he writes for (which I have also guest-contributed) called Nuok.com.  If you want to read Hakeem’s novice attempt at restaurant criticism, go here.  But if you want the real scoop about the Italian donuttiere - Bomboloni, continue reading my intrepid followers!

Bomboloni is the Italian version of a custard filled donut, and Bomboloni the restaurant is the Italian attempt to chime in on the nascent donut trend sweeping the nation*.  I apologize to what few vegan readers I have, as bomboloni and doughnuts by definition are not vegan, so maybe you can read more about my trip to Blossom erstwhile.  Nevertheless, after a long day of strolling the streets of New York, Hakeem and I had a hankering for something sweet.  Now, we had far more common sense than the 45 people waiting in line for Magnolia Bakery, so we went to Bomboloni to try out the donuts that he recently reviewed for Nuok.com. 

I ordered a pistachio bomboloni, which I devoured immediately, barely savoring any pistachio-custard-filled morsel.  Despite purchasing them late in the day, the donuts were still very fresh-tasting, probably biased by the quality of the custard filling.  Hakeem also had the bright idea that we buy a few more donuts to eat the next morning for breakfast, and I could not even muster a response to such a brilliant suggestion beyond “Sounds good.”

The next morning, I looked forward to trying out my gianduja donut and my tiramisu donut.  The tiramisu donut was topped with a chocolate wafer, which after a night sitting out was quite soggy. The donut was not as good as it could have been, but still 100X better than any Dunkin’ Donuts donut, which leads me to wonder just what exactly they are doing to their donuts to make them so bad.  The tiramasu filling was sort of a rummy chocolate flavor, and was pretty average especially when compared to the pistachio from yesterday.

The gianduja also had a pleasant dark chocolate flavor, and surprisingly, I preferred this to the tiramasu (I’m sure regular readers are familiar with my stance on tiramasu).  However, the chocolate was much darker, which I appreciate, so I like to think that I was at least getting some anti-oxidants from this donut.

The donuts at Bomboloni are fantastic, and the best part is, you can still get a good selection late in the afternoon.  This is one of those special New York places that not everyone has found out about, so it’s not been ruined like Magnolia.  I know I continually deride places like Magnolia, but I actually like it as a bakery.  I just don’t think it’s 45 min wait good.  Bomboloni is another such place - it’s great as long as you don’t have to wait in line (which we didn’t).  Because of that, I’ll give it four cheese sandwiches for making a great donut.

*I’m predicting that there is a donut trend that will finally eradicate the stupid cupcake trend that has already destroyed so many lives the last few years, and restore some balance to the universe.

Bomboloni
187 Columbus Avenue
New York, NY 10023-5103 
(212) 877-3080

Generally, when people think of Indian food, they think of spicy colorful dishes that are rich and creamy.  For me, Indian food is so much more than the tikka masala or palak paneer stereotype.  Which is why I decided to review Sree Gupta Bhavan.  While it is a regular Indian hotel that serves both north and south Indian food, it is also a sweetshop and bakery providing a wide array of desserts and snacks to take home and slowly become obese off of.

My first trip to Sree Gupta Bhavan was with my uncle, who took me out for breakfast there, and sure enough, I got a masala dosa.  The dosa was quite flavorful, despite being served on a plastic yellow tray.  I feel like there is something to be said for serving food in a hotel on metal plates with banana leaves on top (see previous reviews for a better idea of what I’m talking about).  So the whole plastic tray mod wasn’t exactly my aesthetic choice, but it was passable.  The dosa itself was crisp and tasty, with spicy oniony potatoes in the middle (not shown), and came with sambar, coconut and tomato chutneys.

After seeing the plethora of mixtures on hand, I had to come back and get a snack just to have something to keep me going during my afternoon tea before dinner.  Mixture admittedly is a terribly generic word to describe a very specific concept, as it is basically a snackfood that is composed of nuts, some murukku (a fried dough dish, visible in the foreground), puffed rice, and curry leaves.  It can either be very spicy, as in the above madras murukku, or sweet and spicy, as in the badam mixture below.

While the above madras mixture was composed of ribbon pakoda (a flat sheet murukku), various other kai murukku, boondi, puffed rice, peanuts, and cashews, the badam mixture was made of almonds, coconuts, cashews, boondi, thin sev (very fine murukku), puffed rice, and raisins.  Because of this, the badam mixture was sweet, in combination of being spicy, making it a delicious combination of flavors.  If you’ve ever been to mexico and had their sweet chili candies, you’ll understand the flavor combination I’m talking about.  There were at least 10-15 other types of mixtures that I didn’t get to try, but I appreciate Sree Gupta Bhavan for providing a wide assortment of mixtures that you wouldn’t normally get in your standard Indian store here in the America.

In my opinion, if there’s one thing Indians do sans pareil, it is make desserts, which is surprising, as the observed population of fat Indian kids is far less than the expected, considering how delicious our sweets are.  Here, a plate of three different Indian sweets, gulab jamun (brown ball on left), kala jamun (darker brown ball on right), and jaangiri (orange ring in foreground).  You are probably most familiar with gulab jamun, as it is a staple menu item on most Indian dessert menus, and it is a sweet made of fried milkdough soaked in rosewater sugar syrup (the name gulab comes from “rosewater”).  Kala jamun is a variant of the gulab jamun where sugar is added making it caramelize upon frying giving its dark (kala) colour.  Finally, jaangiri is a staple south Indian wedding dessert most akin to funnel cakes, if funnel cakes were smaller, orange and soaked in a sugar syrup.  Do you see my point about childhood obesity?

Finally, I returned for some paneer jamun, paneer meaning cheese, and jamun referring to a fruit that gulab and kala jamuns look like.  I thought that paneer jamun would have a very interesting flavor since I love paneer and I love jamuns; however, it was woefully disappointing and almost banal considering my expectations for it.

I hope you now have some idea of the kinds of delicious treats afforded to you at a bakery such as Sree Gupta Bhavan.  Admittedly, the real treat in Madras for bakeries is Sree Krishna Sweets, though I was unable to go there due to scheduling conflicts.  But if you’re intrigued and are in Madras, I say you go!