National Doughnut Day Giveaway!

In honor on National Doughnut Day, I am have decided to do a giveaway!

I am giving away 3 $5 gift cards to Dunkin Donuts.

To enter, leave me a comment telling me your favorite doughnut by Friday June 6th at 11:59 PM Eastern.

• 1 Comment per Person.

• 3 Winners will be chosen random

Good luck and enjoy Doughnuts today!

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Mid-August Recap

Here is a quick recap of the articles from the blog this month:

• Putting 31 Ways To Earn United Miles into Practice
• 32 Way to Earn Miles: Read Blogs
• Earn 11 MileagePlus Miles $1 Spent at Marriott
• Men's Health's 20 Guy Trips
• Live Like a Local: Ben's Chili Bowl
• Tale of Two Lounges: Narita Airport
• Do it for the Doughnuts: Carpe Donuts
• Earn up to 16 Rapid Reward Miles per $1 Spent at Marriott
• Just Pay it Forward
• Travel Mistakes
• Opinion Outpost Offers United Miles
• Cash Back Boy Fails Again
• Do It For The Points: Ordered Ebook
• My Visit to 9/11 Memorial
• Love Boat's Final Cruise
• Cash Back Boy's Mailbox

Busy month so far, but have even better things brewing for the rest of the month.

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Do It For the Doughnuts: Carpe Donut

Last weekend, I was walking down the street in Brooklyn looking for breakfast and stumble upon this food truck:

Hot Fresh Donuts? Sold! I had to stop even though I had family waiting for me at home. The food truck known as Carpe Donut.

Today, they were only selling their Apple Cider Donut. According to this sign and a little research, the Apple Cider Donut was rated by New York Magazine as one of 2013's Best Donuts. (see article here).

                                        

There was also a sign explaining what the donuts are made from: 

                                       

From there website, "You’ve never eaten a donut like this. We only use the finest ingredients including organic flour, local eggs, local apple cider and organic spices. We cook all our donuts in 100% pure soybean oil. No hydrogenation, no trans-fats, no shortening. Our donuts are all natural so if you are not going to eat them within a couple hours, you should refrigerate or freeze them. These babies are fresh and don’t have an indefinite “shelf life” like those other things that are passed off as donuts."

I decided to buy 6, which cost me $11 and I also got a FroDo, aka ice cream sandwich donut, which cost $4.50. They take credit cards for all us mile folks. The best part was the donuts came in a paper bag to suck up the grease.

My first taste was unexpectedly crunchy, but inside was light and fluffy. The donut was not overly sweet and you could definitely taste the hint of apple cider.

I had one a few hours later and it wasn't crunchy anymore. Rather it was just soft and fluffy. Still good, but I think the key is to eat them right out of the fryer.

Later in the day, I had my FroDo, an apple cider donut split in half and filled with organic vanilla Blue Marble Ice Cream. The FroDo is packaged in a small plastic container, which I liked. I was expecting to get it in plastic wrap, which I assumed would result in a mess. With container, its easy to transport, protects it from getting damaged and keeps it cold.

The FroDo looks like a mini bagel with cream cheese. The one I received was not assembled nicely.

To be honest, I did not like the FroDo. It had to much ice cream and not enough Donut. I was hoping that the donut would be fluffy, sweet and apple cider flavor would be present. What I got was a mushy donut with blah vanilla ice cream and not apple cider flavor. I'll give them an A for effort and creativity, but I think they need to go back to the drawing board.

The donuts were amazing. 2 thumbs up! The experience eating them remind me of being a little kid living in Connecticut. The annual tradition of going to the orchard/pumpkin patch, getting a pumpkin, a bag of apple cider donuts and unpasteurized hot apple cider. There are many times in the Fall that I long for the New England fall experience. This donut truck brought me right back there and left a major smile on my face!

Since this is a food truck, they move around. Follow them on twitter or facebook to track them down!

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Do It For The Doughnuts: Astro Doughnuts and Fried Chicken

Do It For The Doughnuts typically involves us traveling to try various doughnut shops around the country. What I have overlooked is that Washington, DC is starting to be a hot bed of over-the-top doughnut shops. So much so, the Washington Post is hosting a March Madness style contest pitting doughnut shops against each other.

After the initial round, the doughnut shop in the lead is Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken.

I had to go visit this place for two reason. First, Astro beat 25 other places in the first round of the WashPo's contest. But more importantly, last week, I walked into a conversation in the work lunch room about this crazy doughnut place located downtown. When it starts popping up during the water cooler conversation, something must be either really good or really bad. I had to try this place quickly.

Astro Doughnuts is located between 13th and 14th Street on G Street.

The closest metro stop is Metro Center; take the 13th & G exit.

The doughnut shop does not have much to it: a counter and trays of doughnuts. Since the only place to sit is a bench outside and that was occupied, I took the doughnuts home.

Astro Doughnuts has a sleek black box. Bring these to the office and your popularity will rise.

The store only had five doughnuts available when I went, so I got six. Don't know why I got six, but I told the guy I wanted six. The types of doughnuts available changes by the day. Visit the website to see their list.

The first doughnut I tried was the Salted Caramel. 

      - The doughnut was good. The first thing you will notice is that these are fresh doughnuts. The

         yeast doughnut was spongy, but that took away from the overall doughnut. The icing combo 

         got lost by the sheer volume of the doughnut.

The second doughnut was the PB &J.

          - The doughnut is square. It wins points for being square. The jelly inside the doughnut was
             so good. I wish there was more of it or they had a doughnut stuffed fulled with it, because
             I would buy a dozen of them on the spot. On the other hand, the peanut butter was not good.
             It was bland and blah. When you put it all together, the PBJ combo failed.

The next on deck was maple bacon.

         - The maple bacon is a staple on my doughnut list. The bacon was crispy and salty. Two
            key parts to any good bacon. The maple icing was noticeable. When put all together, it
            was finger licking good.

The fourth doughnut is Vanilla Bean Glazed.

           - I didn't understand this doughnut. The writing on the doughnut was very pretty. However,

             it lack flavor. I had to check my receipt twice to know what flavor I was eating.

The final doughnut was Birthday Cake.

           - This was the clear winner. Hands down! The doughnut was made from cake batter,

             not doughnut batter. It was soft and chocolaty. The squirt of frosting in the middle

             add so much flavor. Another one I would return to eat in the dozen.

                                      

Astro Doughnuts were very tasty. A great weekend treat. I will defiantly be a returning customer; 

just on a different day to try new doughnuts.

The cost depends on the doughnut type and was somewhere between $2.25 to $2.75 each. 

Astro Doughnuts: 1308 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004 - (202)-809-5565

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Do If For The Doughnuts: Gordough's

On my trip to Austin, I had to find a place to get doughnuts. To find this doughnut place, I Googled, "Austin's Best Doughnuts." The place the popped up was Gordough's. A quick review at Yelp, revealed over 1,100+ reviews and a 4.5 star rating. With those type of stats, I knew this was the place to try.

Gordough's is a food truck. Yes, a Doughnut food truck. It is located on 1503 S 1st Street, in South Austin.

The truck is opened seven days a week closing somewhere between midnight and 3am. The truck fries up doughnuts on the spot and adds various toppings to it. The menu goes from traditional to crazy. Each doughnut costs somewhere between $4.50 and $6.00 each, kinda expensive.

  

 My sister decided to get a simple doughnut, Mama's Cake: Yellow Cake Batter with Fudge Icing

    - This was good. Very good. The fresh out of the fryer taste of the doughnut shined with this one.
       You got that crunch when you bit into this. Fork and Knife Required or 10+ napkins!

I decided to get six doughnuts.

My first choice was Son of Peach: Peach Filling, Cinnamon, Sugar, Cake Mix Topping

   - It was good but I could not tell it was peach. I thought it was honey, but overall good.

My second choice was Sara's Joy: Coconut filling with fresh coconut and chocolate icing

    - First, all of the "filing" is not pumped in the middle, but rather slopped on top of the doughnut. A 
      major letdown. Second, the chocolate was burnt and that ruined the taste. Third, it was messy and not
      in a good way. Major fail of a doughnut! 

My third choice was Heavenly Hash: Marshmallow with Chocolate Fudge Icing Topped with Fudge Brownie Candy.

   - The brownie candy was tasty. The rest of the doughnut was not. The chocolate was burnt
      and that ruined the doughnut, because that's all I tasted.. Also, the hot doughnut 
      underneath made it very messy.

My fourth choice was Baby Rattler: Fudge Icing & Fudge Oreos with a Gummy Rattlesnake

     
      - This was a fun one. Think the dirt dessert. Get the gummy snake, the oreos and the 
         chocolate icing and you were transported back to your childhood. One downside is the
         hot doughnut melted the gummy. But the size of the gummy snake was impressive.

The fifth doughnut was Flying Pig: Bacon with Maple Syrup Icing.

    - The bacon was crunch and salty which was a major plus. The maple icing did not cut the cake.
      Overall, this doughnut failed. It did not melt in your mouth like the one at Voodoo Doughnuts.

     

The final doughnut was Dirty Berry: Fudge Chocolate Icing with Grilled Strawberries

        - The strawberries were sweet and plentiful. However, they were not enough to 
           compensate for the burnt choc0late made worse by a hot doughnut.

I was disappointed by this place. Maybe I tried the wrong doughnuts, maybe it was a burnt chocolate or maybe they were rushing to get 6 doughnuts to me. I like that each doughnut is fried to order, but letting they cool a little before adding the toppings might help. Thinking about it, this maybe a drunk food place. They have a doughnut (Boss Hog) with BBQ and potato salad on it or another one with Canadian Bacon, Cream Cheese and Jalapeno Jelly. I would try those at 2am after drinking at the bars, but 5pm on a Sunday afternoon, I just wanted a fun tasty doughnut, which I got half the time. Batting .500 is not worth it at $4.50+ a doughnut.

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Will Travel For Food: The Doughnut Burger

On our weekend in Colorado Springs, Chris and I made a visit to Crave Burgers.

Crave Burgers has three locations in Colorado. The one in Colorado Springs is located about 25 minutes away from the airport.

The restaurant felt like it was in New York City with exposed ceilings, metal paneling on the wall and the bright openness to it:

However, the reason why I came to Crave was not its aesthetics, but the food. I saw Crave on the Food Network, but I don't remember which show. After watching this mystery food show, Crave immediately went on the my travel food bucket list.

I started with one of their most famous milkshakes: Velvet Elvis - Pecan Praline Ice Cream, peanut butter, banana and bacon

This shake was AMAZING! I don't like the taste of banana normally, but this shake was great. The pecan ice cream combined with bacon and peanut butter was the perfect combo.

For the main course, Chris went with the Kentucky. A fried chicken burger with avocado  bacon, tomato and lettuce. He enjoyed the burger, a lot. He ordered it with a side of fried pickles, which were delicious. Most fried pickles I had are soggy in the middle; these were super crispy and amazing. 

                                               

                                                                      

While, I order two different burgers. My first burger was the Luther: bacon, cheddar, egg and onion sandwiched between 2 glazed donuts:

This is the burger that I wanted to try the most. It was a let down. The doughnuts overpowered the burger as  it was to sweet. The sweetness made the taste of the burger and egg disappear.

My second burger, the Fatty Melt, was so much better. The Fatty Melt is a bacon cheeseburger with tomato and pickles between two grilled cheese sandwiches.

This burger will be appearing in my weekend lunch rotation very soon. The burger shined and was delicious. Yum, Yum, Yum... My only compliant is I wished the grilled cheese was cooked a little more. 

I got both of my burgers with fries. They were good, but nothing to write home about. For a little extra, one can get sweet potatoes fries, but I am not a fan of sweet potatoe fries. Can't explain why I don't like them, I just don't.

The cost is about $10 for a burger and $5 for a milkshake. Not cheap by burger standards by any notion, but what you are paying a premium for is quality and quirkiness. I would pay $10 for a quality quirky burger any day of the week.

On the way out I saw pictures on two different walls and inquired about them. Supposedly, Crave Burger has a food challenge:  Big Bad Wolf Challenge. The Big Bad Wolf Challenge requires a challenger to eat 3 loaded 3 Little Pig Burgers in 45 minutes, without restroom breaks. Winners get this shirt:

And their picture on this wall:

\

Losers pay $25 and get their picture on this wall:

On my way out, an employee told me that they have 150 more LOSER pictures to add to the wall. My guess is that its difficult.

Crave Burger is awesome! If I am ever close to one again, I will defiantly be visiting again. Two thumbs way up!

The website does not have menus, so I took some pictures for yall:

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