My quest for Mister Donut did not start out great….first of all the location listed in our tour book was no longer around…and Googling did not help either. So basically I had given up on the first night.
The next morning we were on our way to Insadong. Fannypack suggested we take a walk to Chungmuro Station instead of starting out at MyeongDong Station. We walked and walked…I wasn’t paying attention to anything really just yakking away…when suddenly Fannypack stopped and said, “Mister Donut???”
I looked at where she was pointing. I jumped for joy.
Why do I love Mister Donut so much??? Well I’ve often noted just how much I love any chewy glutinous concoction such as rice cakes, rice balls, mochi, anything of the sort. Mister Donut’s main event is their “Pon De” line which is a donut ring of chewy rice flour based donut balls, together as a donut ring. I first had it in Japan and I’ve fallen in love with them since. It’s constantly on my mind. I’ll never forget them.
Immediately I darted inside. It was around 10am and it was surprising to see that all the patrons were adult men.
There we so many to choose from. I picked two even though I was extremely full from our breakfast of waffles and honey toast at Caffe Bene. For my first two, I picked the Pon De Double Strawberry (1,500W) and the Pon De Choco (1,100W). There were lots more to choose from but I resisted.
The Pon De Double Strawberry was heavenly and probably the best I’ve ever had. It is their signature regular Pon De donut, glazed with strawberry flavored white chocolate, topped with bits of freeze-dried strawberries. Biting into it you’re hit with a strong authentic strawberry aroma. The chocolate glaze is done just right, not too thick, not too thin. I believe this is a limited edition donut.
The Pon De Choco is again the Pon De donut, glazed with milk chocolate. This is one of their staples and is always a good choice. I find Mister Donut’s donuts are never too sweet. It’s so fun to bite off each little ball!!
On another note…I saw that they actually had miniature versions of their donuts in a variety pack and they were just so darling!!! But again I resisted…
And recently I found out that the Japan branch collaborated with Hello Kitty to make HK-themed donuts…I would’ve died. Seriously.
Same day, different donut shop. When I gave up on Mister Donut earlier, my next choice was to go to the Korean franchise of Dunkin’ Donuts because they have a Asian-region only donut called the Chewisty with has the same concept, and same look too. I got another two this time. The flavors were the Green Tea and Cheese. Ya I like my unusual flavors.
I will have to say that the texture is very similar, but my tastes lie with Mister Donut just because they were my first ;). The Cheese flavored one was mildly cheesy which was more than I expected.
I must inform you that we accidentally bumped into another Mister Donut on our third day and I had another two even though I was superbly full. I can’t waste any chance of eating them!
And guess what guess what! While visiting a bakery in Hong Kong I was once again stopped by Fannypack because she saw this:
It’s an imitation product!!! They advertise it as a “Japanese Trend” and they put mochi in the name. But of course I had to try it.
I chose the normal Strawberry one (not the one with marshmallows all over it). It was not good. The chocolate glaze was much too thick and uneven. It was nice though for Hong Kong to try their hand in a popular Japanese product, but there’s lots of room for improvement.
I’d have to try those strawberry ones next time I go to Asia. I had their cappuccino, green tea, pumpkin, olive oil. I blogged about it too with recipe 🙂
Just checked out ur post! I gotta try out the recipe soon!