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Made Doughnut House, located in Beklobet, behind
Global Hotel, reopened its doors about three weeks
ago, after closing when its then owner was taken
ill. She first started selling the pastry more than
30 years ago, but only as takeaways, like the many
stalls that can be seen around the city.
While she has recovered, her son, Dereje Belay, has
since taken over the café that has been serving
customers doughnuts for 12 years.
“They are real doughnuts,” Dereje told Fortune. “The
machine we use to make them is from the US. The
recipe we use was developed by my mother over the
years.”
The classic doughnut has a hole in its centre. This
allows for more even cooking. As a man who clearly
takes pride in his café, he considers the quality as
most other products as inferior.
Made’s doughnuts are certainly delicious. They are
slightly smaller than the “normal” ones found in the
street stalls his mother started out in. They are
also firmer in texture and as well as considerably
less oily.
This, Dereje attributes to the ingredients they use
with the flour, which includes milk and eggs, as
cake does. The whole pastry is really cake like, and
instead of bland dough, traces of cinnamon can be
detected.
Yet, there is also a marked difference in price.
While a doughnut with icing sugar from a street
stall will set one back around 3.50 Br, Made’s is
nine Birr, with VAT.
Dereje’s wife has a similarly named café, Made
Coffee & Pizza, located around Ras Mekonnen Bridge
in Piazza. While it sells doughnuts, its focus is
more on serving pizza, something the doughnut house
does not offer, at this stage.
It also sells only about 50 doughnuts per day, as
opposed to the doughnut house that sells around 250,
according to Dereje.
Prior to taking over Made Doughnut House, Dereje was
a furniture dealer. He furnished the café from his
warehouse. There are 10 light wood round tables
around the café. The glass cake display is directly
opposite the entrance, just a few steps off the
quiet asphalt road.
Should one not wish to take one’s treats away, it is
not a bad idea to sit down, as the interior is
rather reminiscent of a cosy kitchen. Almost the
entire front wall facing the street comprises
windows, letting in a good deal of natural light.
The wooden furnishings further add to the warm,
homey atmosphere.
A menu stands at attention on each table and the
fare not yet expounded upon contained therein is
hardly cheap, even before taking into consideration
that the prices are exclusive of VAT.
A cup of tea is 2.82 Br, macchiato 4.35 Br. Not to
mention the juice, traditional food, and sandwiches
also on offer, there is every variety of cakes from
banana cake (8.26 Br) to Black Forest (10.43 Br) and
Tiramisu (12.17 Br).
Doughnuts are especially popular in the US, from
where Genet Tsegaye also imported her automatic
doughnut making machine. However, unlike Made, hers
is a takeaway stall, and she only makes the mini
variety.
The owner of American Mini Donuts, located in front
of DG Tower on Bole Road, Genet’s doughnuts amount
to about six grams each. Sold in small paper bags
donning the logo of the mother company, Donut Star,
the mini doughnuts are sold in servings of either
eight pieces (10 Br) or 16 pieces (20 Br).
The toppings on offer are cinnamon sugar (an
additional two Birr), as well as chocolate,
strawberry, and vanilla syrup, all four Birr per
serving.
The sugar falls right off the doughnut to assemble
at the bottom of the bag, like salt over popcorn.
However, the syrup clings and adds a welcome bit of
moisture to the dryish pastry.
Genet plans to add pineapple flavour to the options,
once the syrup she has ordered is cleared to leave
Djibouti, she told Fortune.
“It is very tasty, but costy,” Mikias Bekele, 24, a
customer who came by at around 5:45pm on Wednesday,
February 9, 2011, told Fortune. “It you work it out,
a doughnut generally costs six Birr. One little
packet with syrup thus costs more than two
doughnuts, and I don’t think the amount of pastry is
the same.”
Aside from the machine, Genet also imports the flour
from which the doughnuts are made from Donut Star.
As her stall has only been open for about two
months, she has not yet run out of supplies with a
need to report some.
Yet, this is bound to change when she opens other
branches: One is planned at Edna Mall, to open this
week, while another, at Getu Commercial Center is to
follow seomtime in the future, according to Genet.
“Mini Doughnuts are new to Ethiopia,” Genet told
Fortune. “I am hoping that the novelty of it will be
popular.”
American Mini Donuts usually stays open until around
10:00pm, or when late night customers in search of a
snack dry up, according to Genet. It is usually
busiest from 5:00pm onwards, she said of the
deep-fried snack.
However, it contains some interesting vitamins, if
the placard on the window shielding the cooking
space is to be believed: it supposedly contains
niacin (B3), which lowers cholesterol; iron, needed
to make hemoglobin, the protein needed to carry
oxygen throughout the body; and riboflavin (B2), key
to maintaining humans’ health.
In a rather outlandish touch, it also informs
gluttons of the calorie content they are about to
consume: 100g, or the double serving, contains
390Kcal, of which 6.5pc is fat, and only 3.5pc the
above mentioned minerals.
Be that as it may, the treat is delightful, and
these facts hardly detract from the eaters’
enjoyment. |
