Dining Out Boston

Last night at the Oak Bar I did manage to find some sweet offerings on their menu (two decadent-sounding sundaes) but the prospect of a bill for alcohol and dessert was discouraging. The grand atmosphere also didn't seem to lend itself to licking sides of the dish for stray hot fudge and loudly scraping the bottom for these last slurps of ice cream, which, of course, you must do to fully enjoy a good sundae.

The absence of dessert on Wednesday combined with a loooong day of work today made me determined to satisfy my sweet tooth tonight and my unexplained craving for donuts. With only a few downtown blocks between me and the T (and my next engagement), the only solution was Dunkin' Donuts.

A butternut, french crueller, old-fashioned cake, and chocolate glazed donut, cost me $3.35, very affordable considering I was relying on their intoxicating trans fat to restore my sanity. In earlier posts, I've extolled the virtue of the butternut donut, my favorite, and this specimen was no exception. The grainy, toasted coconut exterior thickly covered the dense yellow cake, making for quite a substantial snack. I couldn't say the same for the stale french crueller, more air than donut, which suffered from uneven glazing and dry dough. Although the glazed chocolate donut didn't really taste like chocolate, its moist, dark interior still satisfied. And, finally, nothing hits the spot like a good old-fashioned cake donut, browned from its dip in the hot oil and less cloyingly sweet than the other new-fangled varieties.

A glass of milk and a donut and a half later I was calmed to the point that work, or rather employment in general, no longer seemed like an endless, unsatisfying, exhausting institution. I remembered why I like marching downtown five days a week, metro in hand, and belly full of energizing breakfast.

Of course, the fact that three Dunkin Donuts are near my office doesn't hurt.