Tigers and Cranes

It is with certainty that I can say that I’ve never once seen a “Mr.Donut” restaurant in America. It purportedly began selling donuts first in Boston, a city I have visited many a times, but not once have I had the pleasure of being in, let alone seeing one there. Dunkin’ Donuts? Yes. Boston’s filthy with them. But Mister Donut? Not so much.

This strikes me as kind of odd, since Mister Donut, AKA “Misdo” is practically everywhere in Japan. I love this place, since this is one place you can get their trademarked, and indeed, their most well known donut, the “Pon-de-Ringu”, roughly translated “Ring of Bubbles”. It’s called that since the donut, which is handmade, has a shape of ring of pons. Bubbles, I mean.

The chewy pastry even has its own mascot, the greedy lion called “Pon-de-Lion”, whose mane is made of, you guessed it, pon de ringus. He’s sort of an auto-cannibal, as the brochure states that whenever he gets hungry, he eats his own pons around his head. I mean, comeon, this has to violate some kind of second law of thermodynamics or something. He eats his own mane?

Whatever, the food there is delicious, and I used to be a regular eater at the joint. Not only are delicious pastries sold, but you could get things like soup and noodles, which to me, is pretty radical. I was once obsessed with getting a “Pingu” plate and bowl set, which had the most kickass penguin imprints on the plate and the bowl, all for you if you collected enough points on your “Misdo card”. Is it weird to be this infatuated with a donutery? Perhaps. But if you were to ever eat in one, you might understand.

Korea has been cruelly deprived of this fine eatery, instead, Seoulites having to make do with previously mentioned “Dunkin’ Donuts”, which, bizarrely enough in Korea, is considered a nice place to take your dates. Kind of different where Dunkin’ is a grumpy taxi driver’s hang out in America.

I did take coffee and donut in Dunkin’ Donut in Myun-Don in Seoul, and smack dab in the middle of crowded streets of Myun-Don, it’s a three floors of donut and coffee extravaganza. My experience was tainted by the fact that in Korea, if you want a bag for your purchases, you have to pay… like a nickel or something. But damn, yo! that stuff adds up!

Anyway, I had my plate of donuts and coffee to eat in, but because I suck at speaking Korean, the mean ol’ counter lady ended up charging me for the packaging, as if my food was to go.

Enough about Dunkin’ Donuts. What you really want to know more about is Misdo, isn’t it? Well, so one day I was strolling through the streets of Myun-Don, I see plastered on a window of a convenience store a sign that reads “Korea’s First Mister Donut! Opening Soon! in Myun-Don!”

Damn, this got me all hot and bothered.

So, on the morning of the grand opening, I waited in line to be one of the first 250 customers to walk through the door, so I could win a prize. I have to say, I hate waiting in lines, and I would never wait in line for say, a concert or PS3 or what have you, but dude! This is Pon-de-Ringu we’re talking about, so I lined up with about 500 other hungry Koreans in the morning before Misdo’s grand opening.

Oh, it was grand.

There were costumed Pon de Lions prowling about, and balloons, and streamers and well, the anticipation was at a fever pitch!

I was maybe first 200 to reach the door, and for my trouble, I could draw for a prize… grand prize being free donuts for a year! In my head, visions of me as a fat pudgy bastard floated around. Eagerly, with the help of ever helpful Pon de Lion, I drew out the prize of…

Pon de Lion Cell phone strap.

Well, it’s not a year’s worth of free donuts, but I’ll take what I can get.

Oh, and the donuts?

Very delicious, chewy, warm, and not too sweet. It’s everything that it should be in a donut, now available in Seoul. So, if you’re ever in the area (Near Saboten Shinjuku Tonkatsu/Omutomato), go in and say “hi” to Pon de Lion.

And eat his mane before the greedy bastard eats his own.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 11th, 2007 at 12:48 am and is filed under food, korea, japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.