Amjad, Omar, and Sidecar Doughnuts

Location: Sidecar Doughnuts, Los Angeles, CA

People: Amjad and Omar

Dessert: Butter and Salt Doughnut

 

To me, doughnuts are simply bread covered in frosting. For this reason, I believe doughnuts to be the most inferior of all desserts. However, I had to place my personal beliefs on hold when—during my first outing as a college student in Los Angeles—I found that the highest ranked Santa Monica dessert place on Yelp was Sidecar Doughnuts. Putting my faith in Yelp, I dragged my friend through the salty air and the sweaty streets to this shop. Unfortunately for her, Sidecar Doughnuts would end up lacking gluten-free and vegan doughnuts, leaving her to stare longingly at mine.

When I entered the bakery, there was a long line of people with their noses pressed up to the glass display cases, attempting to make a choice between about a dozen flavors. My choice was simple: because of my doughnuts-are-bread-with-frosting theory, I could only bring myself to try a cake doughnut. This narrowed down my options and made it easy for me to decide on the butter and salt doughnut. 

Making it through the line, my friend and I looked for a place to sit. Unsurprisingly, the outdoor seating area was crowded on the Sunday afternoon. We did, however, notice a table with a friendly-looking man and woman and asked if we could join them. The woman opened her arms enthusiastically and said that we could. She resumed taking a bite out of her huckleberry doughnut and looked over to the man sitting next to her whose meal mirrored her own, with the addition of a coffee cup.

I introduced myself and she said that her name was Omar and that her husband’s name was Amjad. I asked if she was from the LA area and she responded with a chuckle, replying that she was from Serbia. The two of them were on a vacation and their first stop was Las Vegas, where apparently the heat was unbearable. Then, they made the eight hour drive up to LA. The entirety of their trip would be two weeks, but Omar said that she could stay here forever, with the all the activities that LA had to offer. I wondered what brought them to this doughnut place specifically, and just like me, she had a one-word answer: “Yelp.” Her husband chimed in for a second in Serbian and she translated that they love to try new foods. In fact, while they were eating their doughnuts, they were actually searching for the next restaurant to go to. 

At about this time, I took my first bite out of the butter and salt doughnut and was stunned for a second. The glaze on top of the doughnut had a sharp crunch to it, but this gave way to the soft, and cake-y interior, a great contrast to the bread-y doughnuts that I am familiar with. The butter flavor made the doughnut feel like it melted in your mouth before the kick of the salt brought you back to reality. After taking this first bite, I stared into the inside of the doughnut and marveled at the vanilla bean specks that were so distinct against the backdrop of the tan doughnut.

Omar snapped me out of my trance when she asked what brought us to LA. I responded that we were students at USC and that luckily, we would have four years to explore the food in this area. When I told her that I wanted to study medicine, she responded that she is an OB-GYN back in Serbia and that her husband is a technologist. I asked them if I could write about them for my blog and take their picture. The couple seemed really excited about the blog, but reluctant about the picture, which was completely understandable. Omar mentioned that a cultural difference that she had noticed between Serbia and the US was how willing Americans were to have their picture put in public places. So instead, I had Omar set up a little scene for me to photograph. She dusted the crumbs off the table and placed her husband’s coffee cup close to what remained of her doughnut and the resulting photograph is what I’ve included in this post. By this time, Amjad and Omar were noticeably excited for the next stop on their Yelp bucket list, and so we said our goodbyes. 

As I finished up my doughnut, I had a moment of appreciation for Sidecar Doughnuts for successfully creating a doughnut that I actually enjoyed. While I’m not going to rethink my doughnuts-are-bread-with-frosting theory anytime soon, I might just have to exclude cake doughnuts from it.

Here’s to the power of Yelp and a safe journey back home for Amjad and Omar,

Anokhi