Hawaii #4

Blognut is sad to announce that this will be the final installment of our four part series on donuts of Hawaii. And the thing is, we're pretty sure that the item we're about to discuss is not actually a donut at all, making this a feeble conclusion to our Hawaiian coverage. But it's close enough.

A former plantation house, Gaylord's (snicker!) at Kilohana is now considered by most locals and tourists alike to be the best restaurant on Kauai . The kind of place that anywhere else would be filled with lame-ass snoots, Gaylord's manages to pull off the fine-dining experience without betraying the laid back Hawaiianism so prevalent in the island ether. And their food is the tops! The Furikake Seared Ahi may be the tastiest fish Blognut has ever consumed.

But what does this have to do with donuts you ask? The answer lies on Gaylord's dessert menu, in the form of a Deep Fried Chocolate Truffle. And why are we considering said dessert worthy of space on the pages of Blognut? Because it's fried, delicious and roughly the size and shape of a Dunkin Donut's Munchkin.

So here are the details: the truffles consist of Swiss bittersweet chocolate, fried in a coconut crust and served with vanilla bean ice cream. They resemble DD's Coconut Cake Munchkins but with a late summer tan. As Blognut's fork breaks through the crispy crust, a pool of dark, molten chocolate oozes from the truffle's center in a geo-appropriate volcanic fashion. On the tongue, the chocolate is rich, hot and perfectly bitter, and balanced in texture with the crunch of fried coconut. The vanilla ice cream douses the chocolate lava fire and all the villagers are at last safe.

Donut or not, Blognut would like to conclude our Hawaiian adventure by handing out a perfect 10 to Gaylord's incredible Deep Fried Chocolate Truffle.