Sometimes, if you’re lucky, the donuts come to you

Chris’ take: As we mentioned earlier, the 45 best food trucks listed in Seattle Met magazine spend most of their time in Seattle, and show up mostly at mid day. So you can understand our excitement when one of their top 13 rated food trucks showed up at Meeker Days this weekend in our own little town of Puyallup! Now anyone who knows me knows that there is a food item that I am particularly passionate about. Donuts. Whether its posting about Happy Donut Friday at the hospital cafeteria on Facebook, or arguing over the merits of traditional donuts like Dunkin Donuts or Winchell’s, vs. Krispy Kreme (yuck), I take my donuts seriously.

But enough about me, what about Street Donuts? If you’re in a hurry, and don’t have time to read the rest of this, here’s the summary: You need to go to Street Donuts. Their mini donuts come fresh out of the oil with the perfect blend of firmness and softness, the type of donut that “gives” when you bite into it at exactly the right point. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you’re not truly passionate about your donuts).

But it’s not the perfectly fried miniature rings of awesomeness that sets these folks apart, its their toppings. We went with the obviously safe choice for our first batch, cinnamon and caramel. From the very first bite, the cinnamon and caramel donut was pure perfection. The kind of perfection that makes you close your eyes and wish the moment could last forever (I told you I’m passionate about donuts). But that was the easy choice. For our second batch, we went with their signature ginger and cardamom dusted donuts. Now I’ll be honest, I didn’t even know what cardamom was (its a floral spice!), but that didn’t stop us. With a little trepidation, I bit into the first ginger and cardamom donut, and… It. Is. The. Best. Donut. I’ve. Ever. Had. Period. I’m serious. When you go to street Donuts, try the ginger and cardamom donuts. If you don’t like them, I’ll buy the leftovers from you.

Sophie’s Take: Now, don’t get me wrong. I love sweets. But, they just can’t be “too-sweet”. Doughnuts have always been the happy-medium, the perfect mixture of sweet and savory. But then… today, I realized that throughout my doughnut eating carer, I have been cheated. Biting into that cardamon ginger street doughnut, I knew that from now on, I was going to be spoiled. There is no turning back to what I thought was a “good” doughnut. Nothing can quite compare to the perfect harmony those two spices create. It was a symphony of pure deliciousness. Yes, the caramel cinnamon doughnuts were wonderful as well, but nothing like those cardamon ginger dusted rings of heaven. So thank-you Street Donuts, thank-you for raising my ever high expectations of what a good doughnut is like. Thank-you. (By the way, if Dad offers to buy those doughnuts off you, I’ll pay you $2 more! Keep that in mind…)

The 411: Check out Street Donuts at streetdonuts.com, or on twitter, @streetdonuts. And if you’re free this weekend, Meeker Days is still going on Saturday and Sunday, 6/16/12, and 6/17/12 in Downtown Puyallup. Make sure you stop by Street Donuts while you’re there!

Taco Bus Adventure

Chris’ take: So, it turns out, that almost all of the Seattle food trucks only operate between 10:00 and 2:00, which makes it a little tough to have lunch there, seeing that Soph is in school, and I’m at work in Puyallup. So today, we decided to hit one of the local taco buses here in Puyallup, Mis Chiquititas on Meridian. It lacks the ambiance of Taqueria Los Amigos, our usual haunt, which is in an old school bus, and co-located with a bikini barista stand. Mis Chiquititas owner was super friendly, and gave me the opportunity to practice my spanish. Generally speaking, I only know enough spanish to get myself in trouble, but today I was able to use it to learn an interesting piece of trivia. The owner has four children and fifteen grandchildren. I’m wondering if that is where the name Mis Chiquititas comes from?

I had my usual, the carnitas torta, and it did not disappoint. The meat was tasty, with just the right amount of crunch and spice, the bun was toasted to perfection, and the sandwich provided a juicy, chin dripping highlight to our beautiful sunny day.

Sophie’s take: From a vegetarian’s perspective, this place rocks! Most food trucks I’ve heard about, aren’t necessarily the most vegetarian-friendly. That is, unless you like to drink soda pop for a meal… They may not have many specifically “vegetarian” options, (one to be exact), but you can easily order a dish with no meat. For instance, today I ordered a Regular Quesadilla. Normally, this comes with some type of meat, but you can easily ask for “no meat”, in which they’ll ask you if everything else on the quesadilla is OK.

I have to say, quesadillas are a food dear to my heart, and Mis Chiquititas… Well, their quesadillas are quite amazing. Not only did they use multiple types of cheeses, but they had lettuce in the quesadilla. Genius! Now, every time I eat a quesadilla, I’m going to want lettuce. Mis Chiquititas, your food does not fail to impress!

Guest blogger’s take: Today we brought famed taco bus aficionado, Maxwell Oliver Ollivant the First along for his expert opinion. Max chose to sample Mis Chiquititas tacos, three spicy pork tacos, and three carne asada tacos, all six ordered “extra hot” Max states that the tacos had excellent flavor, tangy zest, and were plenty spicy. He definitely liked one of the selections better than the other, but to be honest, we weren’t quite sure whether it was the spicy pork or the carne asada, but my guess is the pork was the one he liked better. Both were excellent though, he says.

The 411: Mis Chiquititas is located at 12413 Meridian Ave E. Puyallup, Wa.