A foie gras doughnut is the latest doughnut innovation to emerge in what’s shaping up to be the summer of fancy donuts — which is good because frankly, we’re all pretty cupcaked out but still need some sort of overpriced and complicated dessert to spend too much money on.
The foie gras doughnut is a west coast challenger to the reigning cronut, a croissant doughnut hybrid that prompted a massive craze and predictably ensuing Craigslist black market. Cronuts became all the rage when the limited number produced each day (just 200) quickly sold out after the bakery responsible opened at 7 AM, and NYC residents found the supply of cronuts to be far insufficient to meet demand.
While New York’s cronut was decadent in terms of scarcity as well as structure, California’s foie gras doughnut adds an element of luxury the humble cronut lacks — San Francisco Gate explains the “Foie Bomb,” as the foie gras doughnut is known:
“The Foie Bomb, pictured above, is actually more of a filled doughnut hole. It’s stuffed with the foie gras mousse and then pierced with a pipette of honey, fig and balsamic gastrique. That’s a leaf of crispy fried sage on top. According to Psycho Donuts, customers are ‘encouraged to squeeze the contents of the pipette into the Foie Bomb’s center while simultaneously consuming it, to achieve the desired flavor profile.’ ”
Did someone just say “flavor profile” describing a doughnut? Aren’t these the things we shove in our faces while driving and holding a coffee because we were too lazy to get out of our cars and go into the bagel shop to get a proper breakfast sandwich?
Psycho Donuts’ Ron Levi explained said flavor profile to ABC , saying of the foie gras doughnut:
“You have the unctuous fattiness of the mousse, in the center of a yeasty raised doughnut hole, and, on top of that, the honey-fig gastrique — sweet, tangy and acidic. On top of that, the piece of fried sage, lightly salted with sea salt. The fattiness of the ‘foie’ and the herbaceousness of the sage — as long as you get it all into your mouth, it’s an experience the whole way through.”
Not only is the foie gras doughnut controversially pretentious, the treat has also come under fire for flouting California laws prohibiting the sale of foie gras .