Donut Queen

In March I went to Portland for work.  It was only the second time I'd left the state since Before the Advent of the Plague, but it went quite well; despite having heard dire tales of unruly passengers who refused to wear their masks, my travels were smooth.  Since I'm three and a half years older than the last time I made a cross-country journey, the toll my travels took on me was greater than I remembered.  But the work part was informational and encouraging, and my travel was grant-funded.

Please ignore the fact that I couldn't get the freeway to line up when I stitched these photos together

I had been to Oregon before, albeit briefly; it was on that trip that I bought my favorite Adidas sweatshirt.  Portland, however, was new to me.  I stayed near Old Town, on the western shore of the Willamette River, and traveled every day to the convention center on the east side.  Walking around downtown Portland was not unlike being in any large city full of towering buildings; many of them dated from around the turn of the century.  The odd thing was looking back at downtown from the east side.  From across the river you can see that just beyond the normal city there are evergreen-covered hills.  They're a reminder of the natural resources that contributed to the area's growth, and of its relative youth as a city.

One of the things that Portland is known for is do(ugh)nuts.  Voodoo Doughnut is probably the most well-known shop, but there are bakeries throughout the city and its suburbs.  Some of them are local chains, like Coco Donuts, and some are specialty places, like the vegan Doe Donuts.  In my pre-trip research I tried to determine not only which shops were nearest to my hotel and other spots I might be visiting, but which were recommended, or not; most lists, for example, are topped by Voodoo, but others claim that it's just for tourists.  There was in fact a line outside the Old Town outpost of the shop, one I chose not to stand in.  The most salient opinion I turned up in my scouring of the Internet was that the best (and biggest) apple fritters in Portland were at a place called Donut Queen.

I had an apple fritter—at the top in the photo to the left—from one of the other shops listed above and it was lacking in two key elements: the number of apple chunks, and a crispy exterior with lots of little crannies in which the glaze can settle.  These are the key elements to the apple fritter.  I have suffered many a lackluster and disappointing fritter in the past, but, knowing that some of the best I've had were from California, I had high hopes for another West Coast state.

From downtown Portland I got on the 20 bus and headed east to the Mount Tabor neighborhood.  I used public transportation throughout my stay; it was a welcome change from having to drive everywhere.  The light rail system especially was fun, because who doesn't like riding a streetcar?  Invest in mass transit, America!  After a ride of about 20 minutes I got off the bus and walked a block or two up the street to a little yellow house.

A sign outside Donut Queen calls their offerings the "best donuts in town!!"  If they put that design on a t-shirt I would buy it, as I can attest wholeheartedly to the truth of this claim.  When I arrived the bare-bones shop had no other customers, though a father and child showed up as I was leaving; shortly after I walked in a cashier came out from the back to help me.  I got two apple fritters (one to bring home) and a maple old fashioned for just over eight dollars.  

My friends, these are probably the best donuts I've had in years.  YEARS.  (This is not a sponsored post; all opinions herein are my own, without outside influence or monetary sway.)  The icing on the maple old fashioned was thick and the whole thing was a good three and a half inches in diameter, and the apple fritters were as long as my head is tall (though not as wide as my head).  The fritters were the rich mahogany that indicates they'd spent the perfect length of time in the fryer, and their lumpy surface was evenly coated with glaze.  As a stalwart apple fan, I could have done with perhaps a bit more fruit in the dough, but there were enough to lend flavor to the fritter.  Still, it was delicious, and well worth the price and the trip out there.

So when you go to Portland you might be able to see some cherry trees in blossom, and giant sequoias, and cool buildings, and PNW-themed graffiti, and that's all good.  But do yourself a favor and go to Donut Queen.  You won't regret it.