Holy Donut
Web Site: FaceBook - Holy DonutAddress: Vilnius, Lithuania
Rating:
We stopped in mid morning and had to wait in line— but there were a myriad of interesting flavors to choose among.
There were translations ( from Lithuanian) and the staff spoke English. But, due to the line, we just did a quick point and buy— as friendly donut research conversation would have been inappropriate.
All of the flavors presented were iced cake varieties— but larger and more solid than in the States. I chose a chocolate glazed with hazelnuts. The glaze was thick and delicious and the donut was a wonderful consistency. I ate enough to assess and would have had more later but the day was blistering hot and the glaze began to melt away.
Highly recommended.
Ze Donats
Web Site: http://zedonats.lv/Address: Riga, Latvia
Rating:
Our next stop was in Riga, Latvia.
Ze Donats is open from 10-8 on Saturdays, so when we arrived at 5:20 we expected a full array of choices. We were sadly mistaken; we had promised the concierge a caramel donut and there were none to be had. But there were several left of chocolate with hazelnut, chocolate with non pareilles, melon, coconut, peppermint, white chocolate, lemon, strawberry and more— all cake style.
The dozen I purchased (for the
concierge— wink wink) greatly diminished their stock.
I sampled a chocolate glazed. The glaze was good with high quality chocolate. But the overall donut was just mediocre— kind of dry and not at all crunchy on the outside.
Benefit of the doubt, perhaps the late hour attributed to my disappointment. Riga is a really cool place and it deserves a really outstanding donut shop or two. Unfortunately, that is not what I experienced at Ze Donats,
Sõõrikukohvik Donuts
Web Site: http://soorikukohvik.ee/Address: Kentmanni21, 10116 Tallinn, Estonia
Rating:
We had a less than a 24-hour visit in Tallinn—but went
out of our way to ensure we visited the famous Soorikukohvik Donuts.
We taxied
over after touring late in the day and discovered these simple powdered sugar
treats. They were straightforward, no
fuss, “tell it like it is” donuts (very consistent with our spunky tour guide’s
style—kind of “take it or leave it”). Good,
but not earth-shatteringly amazing. We also purchased a chocolate glazed but (surprisingly) did not taste it.
Munkki (Finnish) Donuts
Address: Multiple stalls at the daily market, Helsinki, FinlandRating:
We had less than a 24-hour visit in Helsinki—but went out
of our way to ensure we sampled the famous Munkki. We learned that the best bet
in the neighborhood of our hotel was one of multiple stands at the Helsinki
daily market where they are made fresh. We had a fairly early departure time
for St. Petersburg (9:00 am) so visited the market shortly after opening time
(at 7:00 am) and the munkki at several stalls were not quite ready yet. Still, we scored munkki at two
stalls—comparable to long johns dusted with sugar and filled with raspberry (or
perhaps gooseberry, knowing this part of the world) jam. They were delicious and authentic.
We also dropped by a neighborhood bakery (and have included a photo of the munkki here); but those were fancied up and after a small bite (banana glaze), we decided they were not to our liking.
No....they are NOT filled with possum!
Pyshechnaya Donuts
Web Site: noneAddress:
Pyshechnaya on Bolshaya, Konyushennaya
St. Petersburg, Russia
Rating:
We had read that a favorite Soviet era fried dough treat
was Pyshki (in St. Petersburg) and Ponchiki (in Moscow). These are basically the same type of donut
(with different names in each city)—a traditional cake donut, served warm and
dusted liberally in powdered sugar. In
the day, they were served from kiosks. They are still somewhat popular today
but harder to locate.
St. Petersburg is not a small city and there are language
issues. So, we aspired toward a donut
that was fairly close to the hotel.
Score! We learned from the
concierge (after checking with three of them with varying sets of directions)
that Pyshechnaya on Bolshaya was only a block away. The spelling shown here is transliterated so,
we were in for somewhat of a treasure hunt when we went in search of Pyshki in
St. Petersburg. We were about to give up
when we noticed a long line outside a storefront and decoded the Cyrillic
plaque in front of the building to discover… Pyshki!
There was only one flavor and they were sold in orders of
three each. We got in line and hoped for
the best and we were not disappointed.
Even though we visited Pyshechnaya on Bolshaya
only one hour before a fancy dinner, we couldn’t resist
gobbling down the entire crunchy and sugary on the outside, cakey and warm on
the inside Pyshki (only 1). It was delicious and, by far, the very best donut
we secured across the Baltic States and Russia in the summer of 2018. Wow. Delicious
and memorable. Could we have eaten the
other two in the order? You bet—it took
remarkable restraint to stick with one only.
When in St Petersburg, Do. Not. Miss. Pyshechnaya on Bolshaya. So
delicious!
Te Samyeponchiki
Web Site: https://ruspish.ru/Address: VDNKh Park
Inside VDNK mall, second floor
Moscow, Russia
Rating:
On to Moscow, to see if we could taste the difference between Pyshki and Ponchiki. These are basically the same type of donut
(with different names in each city)—a traditional cake donut, served warm and
dusted liberally in powdered sugar. In
the day, they were served from kiosks. They are still somewhat popular today
but harder to locate.
This location challenge became almost comical in Moscow. After
alternative suggested routes from the concierge, our tour leader, and our two local
Moscow tour guides, we decided we would take the plunge and navigate the famous
Moscow Metro to secure an authentic ponchiki. We were told to take the orange line out for
30 minutes to the Vdnka station, and then it was a short walk.
We took the Metro (an adventure in itself) and then took a wrong turn
(at first, unbeknownst to us)—so went about 7,000 steps out of our way. When we realized that time was running short
and we were seemingly headed in the wrong direction, we started asking for
help. The first two unknowing Muscovites
tried to help us—but between their Russian only directions and our
cluelessness, we were stuck. Then, luckily,
a young man came along with impeccable English and he pointed us in the proper
direction (we had emerged from the Metro station on the wrong side)! After another 3, 000 steps, we stumbled upon
the Cosmonaut Museum (!) in Cosmo Park (which after all that, was only about a 5 minute walk from the Metro).
Our notes had indicated that there were several Ponchiki
kiosks within the park...
maybe we should go that way?
...but they were nowhere to be seen
and we were getting tired. So, we
checked out the mall (presumably the site of another kiosk) and walked past all
the empty storefronts to discover (tada!) a storefront with Ponchiki on the
second floor! The name of this store literally means "exactly those donuts"!
After all that, the donut didn’t really meet our
expectations. It was warm but somewhat
stale. Same basic concept as the pyshki in St Petersburg but (sorry,
Muscovites), simply not as tasty.
Perhaps had we had more time we would have ventured deeper into the park
and discovered more of the real thing.
All that said, it was completely worth it to secure this
particular donut for the adventure alone.
