Amazing.
When it comes down to it, I don't think I could ever have too many
donuts. My case in point for this fact would be the time I ordered a pack of
five Timbits one morning a few summers ago and they accidentally gave me five whole donuts
instead. JACKPOT. I walked out of the Tim’s with a
stupid grin on my face, trying not to burst into laughter and feeling like I had just successfully robbed a bank. I did not
need five donuts – but I ate them all throughout the day anyway, cause HEY,
bang for my goddamn buck right there. And hence the nickname “donutgirl” was
born - a nickname that has stuck with me ever since and that seems to be making more and more sense everyday, especially since having begun this blog.
Lee’s Donuts in the Granville Island Public Market was a worthy
contributor to my donut diet this week (a really effective diet btw). Lee’s is one of the more historic donutshops in Vancouver – it is one of the markets’ five original vendors and opened
over thirty years ago on July 12th, 1979. Since then Lee’s has been poppin’ out
some of the most delicious, freshest donuts around. Rolled and cut by hand –
key to creating the right texture - these donuts are the real deal.
The owners of Lee's Donuts: Alan Lee and his wife, Betty-Ann.
Donuts = True Love
I didn't get to try too many of the donuts on this excursion so I definitely need to go back for another round, but in the mean time, here are my thoughts on some of the dough at Lee's:
- Apple:
Ratio is extremely key in any filled doughnut. On the one hand, you don't want sticky jam hands, but on the other, it sucks being chintzed. Unfortunately, the dough to
filling ratio is off in this donut - it took a few too many chomps before I even
got to the apple filling. At one point I found myself wondering if I'd ever get to it at all, and experienced a brief moment of great confusion and despair. Thankfully, I did make it to the filling. And while there's not a lot of it, it is delicious. It's sweet and tangy, with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg,
and most importantly, it doesn’t have that gelatinous quality that many
filled pastries so often do. I dunno about you but I’d rather not bite
into something filled with a substance similar to Jello. With a little
less dough and a little more filling I'd be pretty happy ripping into another one of these again.
- Coconut Cream: Again,
my only problem with this one is ratio. The coconut filling itself is
everything you would want it to be: it tastes like real coconut and it’s creamy…how descriptive. More filling though please, Mr. Lee.
- Pumpkin Spice: I think I am drowning in pumpkin spice. But it's all good. If I'm gonna drown, pumpkin spice seems like the ideal substance to drown in. And of the three donuts I tried this one definitely reigns supreme. It's worlds better than the one at Tim’s (I guess that's not super surprising) in that it's basically just way more authentic: more pumpkin-y and spicy, and clearly made fresh instead of frozen. Get on this one before fall is over because WINTER IS COMING and soon we'll all be drowning in candycane-hot chocolate-white mocha-gingerbread-salted caramel-peppermint-egg nog-latté-donuts. Which I'm also okay with.
It's no wonder Lee's has been around for over thirty years - the donuts are quite good. What I find most impressive about each of the doughnuts is that although they're deep-fried, in no way are they too oily or heavy or rich. The dough itself is perfect - soft and fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside. So next time you're on Granville Island, hop on over to Lee's and get yourself some doughnuts. And while you're at it, why not get some for your friends or family? There is no better gift than the gift of doughnuts. Ron Swanson knows what I'm talking about.
Donuts, go nuts.
Until next time - you know you love me.
Xoxo,
Donutgirl
Photo Credit (in order of appearance):
