Dynamo Donuts, the Fat Kid Crack House

Dynamo Donuts ranks right up there with Mitchell's as my favorite places to score my sugar hits in San Francisco.  They specialize in gourmet donuts and use fabulous fresh ingredients.  Their menu rotates daily depending on what is fresh, but they almost always have a few standard flavors, including their famous bacon apple maple donut.  Check the website and the twitter feed for the daily menu.

Unfortunately, Dynamo is one of those places where if you try once, you can never stop.  Although I have no personal knowledge, I imagine it is a similar experience to crack, except you get fat instead of skinny when you abuse this substance.  Small details.  So my new rule is that I can only eat their donuts if I walk to the shop, which is 2.3 miles away from my apartment.  Yes, I know the exact distance.

Here are some pictures collected over my multiple visits to Dynamo.  No, I didn't order all of these donuts in one sitting...but I can't say that I haven't been tempted.

Meyer Lemon Huckleberry.  This is what I got on the most recent trip.  Berry was the dominant flavor, but the lemon added a bit of a kick.  Yummy.

Bacon apple maple donut.  So flippin' good.  This is their local claim to fame and Dynamo absolutely lives up to the hype.  The picture isn't great- I am always so excited to eat this donut that I forget to take a picture before I have nearly demolished it.

I think this is the vanilla bean donut, but I'm not 100% sure.  Very good.  They actually use real vanilla bean in the batter and you can see chunks of it in the donut.

Caramel del Sel (bottom left) and spicy chocolate (top right).  Both are solid.  The caramel has hints of orange zest in it.  Simple, but really, really good.  Goes great with coffee.  The spicy chocolate is super rich, dense and cake-like.  I think they put chipotle powder in the sugar, making it a tad hot.  I think it is a sleeper hit and is one of my favorites.  A great choice if you want something to dunk in your coffee without getting your fingers all sticky with icing.

Chocolate rose.  Same batter as the spicy chocolate, but infused with rose water.  Very good.

Lemon thyme (left) and strawberry something (right).  I can't remember what other flavor the strawberry was paired with- on the website, it lists strawberry early grey, but I don't think this is what it was.  My bf, M, loves lemon flavors, so the lemon thyme was a big hit, but we both thought it could use a stronger lemon flavor.  The strawberry was very good- you could taste that the strawberries were fresh.

One of my all time favorites isn't included in my pictures, but it is on the website- banana de leche.  At first, M and I hesitated to get this because we were afraid that the banana flavor would overpower the donut.  We absolutely underestimated the talents of the Dynamo baking staff.  Everything was perfectly balanced, so amazing.

Looking over their website, it seems like they are adding a new batch of recipes into the rotation.  A must try: Monte Cristo.  Ham, gruyere cheese and homemade jam.  It looks like it has been deep fried (ok, I realize that they all have, but this especially looks deep fried).  Are you kidding me?!?!  Another one: Molasses Guinness Pear.  Come on now.

I think another Fat Kid Reunion is in order- who wants to join?

Fat Kid Mecca: Mitchell's Ice Cream

I love Mitchell's Ice Cream.  No, seriously.  I love this place.  So much that I am planning on naming one of my children Mitchell.  It helps that its a family name- I can at least pretend like this is my reason.  It will be served at my wedding and my funeral.

For those who haven't had the honor of trying this place, here's the low down.  It's claim to fame is its original tropical flavors.  These flavors include Ube (Purple Yam), Avocado, Green Tea, Mango and others.  Sounds strange, but I promise you, it works.  They also have a stellar traditional flavor menu.  Some of my favorites are Kahlua Mocha Cream, Peanut Butter Indulgence, Thin Mint, Grasshopper Pie and Espresso Toffee.  You really can't go wrong with any flavor at this place though.  They have a set of seasonal flavors as well.  During the summer months, they have Peach and Cantaloupe.  Around the Winter Holidays, Eggnog and Pumpkin are pretty solid.

In addition to the variety of flavors, Mitchell's also has tons of options for customizing your ice cream.  Cup, regular cone, sugar cone, waffle cone and waffle bowl.  Ice cream cookie sandwiches.  Milkshakes.  Sundaes.  Chocolate dip.  Chocolate dip with sprinkles.  Tons of toppings.  All pretty reasonably priced.  I always go with waffle cone and chocolate dip.

Jay rocked the Ube on a waffle cone.  The tip broke, so she accessorized her ice cream.

Ube was a big hit this visit.  

Not sure what flavor Suzan got, but she was keeping a watchful eye on Chou.  You can never be too careful when it comes to Mitchell's.

Food Carts = Fat Kid Reunion

Finally, a true Fat Kid outing- Off the Grid!  Off the Grid is a local association of mobile food carts that host weekly events throughout the San Francisco.  They host these events in "food deserts"- places with a lot of people, but few restaurants.  They host an event every Friday night out at Fort Mason.  This is the largest event with over 30 street food vendors and live music.

A group of Fat Kids decided to have a mini-reunion Friday night at Fort Mason.  It was a beautiful day in San Francisco and we hoped to take advantage of the sunshine.  After battling to find a parking spot, we realized that we weren't alone in this logic.  Although it was ridiculously crowded, the Fat Kids weren't deterred- we toughed it out and braved the lines.

First up, the JapaCurry truck.

So, I was starving at this point and forgot to take a picture.  Aftermath picture coming though.  They only had one food option, so the line was relatively short.  They were serving Katsu Curry and you had the choice of Pork or Chicken.  Super tasty sauce.  

Next up, the Curry Up Now truck. Here's the menu:

So their signature item is a Tikka Masala Burrito.  Genius.

Needless to say, I was pretty excited.  The dark horse, however, was the deconstructed samosa.

The pictures don't do it justice- seriously, so good.  It was almost like a chili, but better.  Hard to describe, but just amazing.  Would definitely order again and absolutely worth the wait.

We decided to divide and conquer, so a few of the other Fat Kids visited other trucks.

Korean tacos.  I'm not sure what the truck name was, but this got good reviews.  One of the tacos was really, really spicy, so word of caution to those who don't like hot sauce.

For dessert, we hit up the Creme Brulee cart.

Flavors of the night were nutella & strawberries, chocolate, caramel, and vanilla bean.

Needless to say, it got rave reviews. 

A shot of the nutella flavor.  Pretty tasty.  By the way, the Creme Brulee man charges $5 a pop.  The line was 30 people deep for the entire two hours we were there.  They must have been brining in cash hand over fist.  Starting to rethink this whole law school thing. 

Overall, a good food night.  Next time, we are going to try to make it right when it opens to avoid the lines.  Hope that it makes the whole experience a lot more enjoyable.  Nonetheless, a fun outing.