California Goes Nuts Over Donuts

A state known for Hollywood, Muscle Beach and a generally health-conscious mindset has showered attention onto an unlikely media darling lately: the donut.  The sweet, fried dough treat has been grabbing headlines up and down the West Coast.  Perhaps sparked by National Donut Day (which falls on the first Friday of June every year), California media has been going nuts over donuts. National Donut Day brought with it Dunkin Donuts’ brand new Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich.  While the wave of media coverage surrounding the Massachusetts-based company’s marriage of egg, bacon and donut carried all the way to the West Coast, Californians could only sit by and dream.  The donut chain won’t be dotting California’s landscape until 2015. IHOP, on the other hand, may tout itself as international but is based in Glendale, Calif.  This week, IHOP introduced a twist, or rather a flattening, of the traditional jelly donut with their Jelly Donut Pancakes.  The new menu offering boasts a raspberry jelly filling with “real donut glaze” and a dusting of powdered sugar.  The new donut-inspired flapjacks just recently landed on the menu, but so far they’ve gotten a thumbs-up from one Twitter fan.  

Dear @ihop you win. #Jellydonutpancakes — Ben Fuller (@bdfuller) June 12, 2013

The sandwich-ing and pancake-ing of the classic donut by Dunkin Donuts and IHOP was met with largely positive fanfare and media coverage.  However, the decision by Psycho Donuts to give away free “Foie Bombs”, donuts filled with foie gras, garnered some backlash.  Proponents of the California state law banning the use of foie gras, made from over-enlarged livers of force-fed ducks, took to social media to voice their disgust at Psycho Donuts’s National Donut Day giveaway.  Psycho Donuts even received death threats as a result, as reported by KPIX CBS 5’s Kiet Do. Similarly, a concoction being introduced at the San Diego Fair by Chicken Charlie’s was met with mixed reviews.  The Krispy Kreme Sloppy Joe utilizes Krispy Kreme’s sweet donut with the saltiness of Sloppy Joe and cheese.  CNN iReporter Chris Morrow’s husband gave the Krispy Kreme Sloppy Joe a shot, and seemed to become an instant fan. However, not all the reviews have been positive.  The Twitterverse has offered some less-than-favorable opinions on the fair food.

The Krispy Kreme Sloppy Joe's from the San Diego County Fair is what you exactly what you think it is: DISGUSTING.myburningkitchen.com/2013/05/31/san…

— Darlene Horn (@DarleneEats) June 5, 2013

That is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. "Krispy Kreme Sloppy Joe Sandwich. Yes, It's Real shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/kri…"

— Mire Rodriguez (@mirerod) June 11, 2013

So Krispy Kreme is now selling Sloppy Joe's on doughnuts . I cannot fathom eating that . No wonder America is obese .

— Bria (@BriMychelle) June 11, 2013

If you’d like to get your paws on one of the Krispy Kreme Sloppy Joe sandwiches, you have until the end of the San Diego Fair on July 4.  If you missed the National Donut Day foie gras donuts, then you’re already too late.  The IHOP Jelly Donut Pancakes will only be served until July 21, however the Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich, described by Dunkin Donuts as “Going Where No Breakfast Has Gone”, seems like it’s here to stay for the foreseeable future.