SESAME DONUT BLISS

(a man and woman work together to prepare the fluffy donuts -- he rolls and prepares dough, she stirs donuts in oil with exceptionally long chopsticks)

One of my favorite places to eat is on the street. In foreign lands and at home, in Portland's bezerk food cart scene -- there's just something really soulful and satisfying about eating something you can watch be cooked, usually over a high heat, and handed to you on a paper plate or in a napkin. Street food is cheap, delicious and often much safer than eating in a fancy hotel, where ingredients may have been lying around for hours, perhaps getting funky (not fun for the traveler's belly). So when Dave and I stopped and watched this team make simple sesame donuts, (we were entranced) and thought to get one and "eat just a bite." Little bites turned into big bites and then we ate the whole thing because it was perfect. It made me create a new rule -- fried foods are only to be eaten fresh off the fryer. This donut was so far from a dough ball sitting in a pink box (I'm still enamored with those pretty pink bakery boxes though) at an office room, I swore I'd never eat a tired, sad limp fried good again. These street donuts were hardly sweet, with a light sesame flavor, a steaming interior and perfect ratio of golden crust to pillowy insides. It was sesame donut bliss for sure!