Recipe
05 Jun 2009

Cinnamon Sugar Donuts with Caramel Sauce

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In recognition of National Donut Day, The Astronomer and I considered driving out to Glendora to sample The Donut Man‘s famed fare, but traveling eighteen miles for a sugar rush seemed excessive. Instead, we stayed at home and attempted to recreate the stupendous donuts that we devoured at Animal on Fairfax. How can The Donut Man possibly beat homemade donuts drizzled in a warm caramel sauce? He can’t.

For donuts

  • 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon melted butter
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • Cinnamon and sugar
  • Oil

For caramel sauce

  • 1/2 pound of soft caramel candies
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • Salt

Make donuts

Whisk together the flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and baking powder in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside. Whisk together the egg, sugar, butter, and milk in a large-sized bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine thoroughly. The batter will be sticky, so either use a spoon or a pastry bag to extrude the dough for frying.

Pour two inches of oil into a heavy medium saucepan. When the oil is hot, extrude a ball of dough approximately an inch in diameter into the oil. Fry the donuts until they are golden brown, then remove them and place them on a paper towel.  If the oil is too hot, the donuts will brown before they are cooked through, so it is a good idea to sample a couple as you go along and adjust the heat accordingly.  While the donuts are still hot, drop them into a bowl with half a cup of sugar and a few sprinklings of cinnamon. Move the donuts around until they are well-coated.

Make caramel sauce

Combine the caramels, milk, and a dash of salt in a double boiler or a bowl set over a saucepan filled with an inch of water. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the caramels have melted to a smooth consistency, about 20 minutes. To serve, drizzle caramel sauce over warm donuts.

Makes approximately 20 donut holes.

Restaurant Review
04 Jun 2009

Đông Nguyên Restaurant – Alhambra

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As much as I love introducing friends and family to new foods and great restaurants, being shown the ropes by a resident eater is oftentimes even better. Every once in a while, it can be a real treat to just sit back, relax, and let someone else assume the role of Gastronomer.

It’s a red letter meal whenever I dine with gas•tron•o•my reader Sharon. She currently resides in Durham, North Carolina, but grew up in the heart of the San Gabriel Valley. Her extensive knowledge of Chinese and Vietnamese gems up and down Valley Boulevard is impressive and inspiring.

The initial plan for our Wednesday night dinner was to meet up at Sharon’s favorite banh cuon restaurant in Alhambra. Unfortunately, it was closed this evening, so we headed next door to Đông Nguyên, a restaurant Sharon’s family has been frequenting since she was a small fry.

Located in a strip mall with an uncanny resemblance to Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A., Đông Nguyên specializes in Chinese-Vietnamese cuisine. The restaurant’s proprietors hail from Vietnam, Chợ Lớn in District 5 to be exact, but are ethnically Chinese. The majority of the dishes served here are traditionally considered to be Chinese. However, some of the offerings contain distinctly Vietnamese touches, like nuoc mam-based marinades and sauces. This is fusion cuisine at its finest.

All of the wonderful ladies who work at Đông Nguyên can speak Cantonese, Vietnamese, and of course, English. While Sharon spouted her order in Cantonese, The Astronomer and I gave ours in Vietnamese. Sharon and I were both impressed by the lack of language barriers.

Before our entrees arrived, we were each served bowls of Chinese medicinal soup. The mildly warm chicken broth-based soup contained barley, lotus seeds, goji berries, and a number of unknown, but surely virtuous, ingredients.

The Astronomer ordered the house special—com ga Hai Nam, also known as Hainanese chicken rice ($6.50). This dish is prepared by boiling a whole chicken in an aromatic broth, and using the resulting liquid in place of water to make the rice. At Đông Nguyên, both the chicken and the rice are prepared splendidly. The rice is delicate and incredibly fragrant, while the meat is tender and infused with notes of garlic, ginger, and onions.

The absolute best part of chicken rice is the ginger and chili dipping sauce served on the side. Poured liberally over the chicken and rice, it makes the entire dish really come together.

Sharon ordered her go-to rice plate, com suon nuong ($6.50), which came with a little dish of nuoc cham on the side. I had never before seen such a mountainous portion of grilled pork chop slabs. The Astronomer commented that this was most definitely an America-sized portion. The Vietnamese are very skimpy with their meats.

I settled on a bowl of mi vit tiem ($6.75)—Chinese duck noodle soup. The large bowl arrived hot and was brimming with tangled egg noodles and big hunks of duck meat, all in an herbal star anise broth. The mi vit tiem was served with pickled green papaya on the side to balance the duck’s fatty nature. Although the noodles were definitely solid, it didn’t match the awesomness of my Lunch Lady’s rendition in Saigon. What can I say? I’ve been spoiled.

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Đông Nguyên Restaurant
1433 East Valley Boulevard
Alhambra, CA 91801
Phone: 626-300-8618

Dong Nguyen on Urbanspoon

Dong Nguyen Restaurant in Los Angeles

Restaurant Review
03 Jun 2009

Bánh Mì Mỹ Dung – Los Angeles (Chinatown)

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After sampling a number of banh mi sandwiches around town, namely at Bánh Mì Mỹ Tho, Ba Le French Sandwich & Bakery, and Bánh Mì & Chè Cali, I concluded that in the San Gabriel Valley, inexplicably hefty baguettes are the main obstacle keeping good banh mi and from being truly stellar. The bread is “far too large and much, much too thick,” I wrote a few months back. “A proper Vietnamese baguette is made entirely of rice flour, which yields a crisp exterior and hollow center, thus allowing the fixins to really shine through.”

While scoping out the Chinese banquet scene in Chinatown on a Sunday afternoon, I finally encountered a baguette worth writing about. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was the closest to perfection I’ve encountered here in Los Angeles.

I found my ideal baguette specimen at a teeny tiny hole in the wall called Bánh Mì Mỹ Dung—pronounced “Me? Yoong.” The bread here is made fresh everyday by the shop’s proprietress. If the baguettes aren’t piping hot when a customer rolls in, the proprietress, also the head sandwich maker, takes an extra minute or two to carefully toast it in the oven. This small but important detail really makes a world of difference taste-wise and texturally.

The banh mi‘s innards weren’t as noteworthy as the baguette holding them together—the various meats and pickled veggies were on par with other Vietnamese sandwich shops.

The Astronomer and I split a banh mi nem nuong ($2 – sweet grilled pork patties) on our visit. Our order was actually for a banh mi thit nuong (grilled lemongrass pork), but the woman behind the counter most likely gave us what she had on hand. We didn’t mind. That’s the way it goes sometimes when you’re dealing with Mom and Pop in an itty bitty shop.

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Bánh Mì Mỹ Dung
314 Ord Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone: 213-617-7094