Mochi Donuts from MoDo

Donuts.   You know I love them.  You know I eat them at least once a week, if not more.  And yet, I've reviewed very few mochi donuts.  Why?  I think I am less excited about mochi donuts than most people.  I'm not sure why, but I haven't ever really gotten into them.  I think I just really enjoy regular donuts so much?  I do like mochi, and absolutely adored the hybrid mochi tart from Pâte à Choux, but mochi donuts are much like cookies to me ...  they are fine, but not something I get all that excited for.

Of course, I do still like to try new things, so when a co-worker brought in mochi donuts from MoDo, once others got their picks, I did try a few.  I don't know much about MoDo, as their website doesn't have much info, and it is located down in Santa Clara.

Assorted Mochi Donuts, $2.50 each.

Our lineup contained all the MoDo standard donuts: black sesame, cookies & cream, churro, matcha green tea, pandan, lilikoi, and milk chocolate, plus the weekly special tiramisu sugar.

The tiramisu sugar was a very subtle flavor, I didn't taste the coffee element at all, but did detect cocoa powder in the sugar coating.

Pandan.

"Its taste is described as a grassy vanilla with a hint of coconut on top with a mochi donut!"

The first one I went for was the pandan, the darker of the vibrant green glazed donuts (matcha was the other green one).  The flavor of the glaze was fairly subtle, yes a bit sweet as it was a sugary glaze after all, but the pandan flavor wasn't particularly strong.  I would have liked a more pronounced flavor in the glaze, although I know pandan is always a fairly low key flavor.

The donut base was a decent enough mochi donut ... lightly chewy, lightly rice flour flavor.  Fine, but, as I said, just not something I get that excited for.  ***.

Black Sesame, Lilikoi.

I moved on to two others, both of which were considerably more flavorful.

Black Sesame: 

"Slightly savory, deep roasted sesame flavor, similar to peanut butter (without the nuts!)".

The black sesame flavor was exactly what I was looking for.  Another sweet glaze, but savory-nutty in the way black sesame is.  I really enjoyed the flavor of the glaze.  

The base donut was the same, kinda ho-hum for me, but I heated it up a little, and liked it even more that way, it got even stretchier and more mochi-like.  ***+.  My favorite of the trio I tried.

Lilikoi:

"A Hawaiian classic - lilikoi (aka passion fruit) is a juicy, sweet and tart, not-quite-citrusy tropical fruit."

I also tried their signature lilikoi, and was blown away by the sweet fruity flavor.  Yup, that was passionfruit all right! Definitely best for those who like a very fruity tropical flavor.   ***+.

Woodblock, Redmond

Woodblock is a cocktail bar in Redmond, WA, open for lunch during the week, brunch on weekends, and dinner nightly.  They also host happy hour, late night bites, and special whiskey nights.  The food gets very good reviews, during all meal periods, which is hard to pull off.  They also look to have a great cocktail program, and excellent liquor selection (1000 selections of whiskey, scotch, bourbon, and rye alone!), but I only experienced delivery, and they do not offer any for delivery.  They also have a stellar brunch lineup (crab cakes benedict!  Biscuits & gravy!), but I ordered at dinner time.

My order was prepared quickly, and delivered soon after.  No qualms with the delivery experience, besides lamenting the lack of booze options.

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Snacks & Appetizers

Woodblock begins the menu with "Snacks & Appetizers", which is where I focused my ordering.  Much here is very alcohol pairing friendly food, such as a charcuterie board, burrata, and duck liver mousse.  Crowd pleasing truffle Parmesan fries, chicken wings, mac + cheese, and falafel round out the nibbles, with fried brussels sprouts and spiced carrots for those who want a bit of vegetable.  

Soups and salads are in a separate section of the menu. I skipped those, along with the burgers + sandwiches, and "Large Plates", although the brisket gnocchi (to which you can add burrata) was certainly tempting.  I ordered two appetizers (and dessert!), to complement some other leftovers I had with me.

Scotch Egg. $8.

"Pork sausage wrapped, cage-free soft-cooked egg, panko breaded + fried golden, on bed of caramelized onion, arugula, served with currant-grain mustard aioli."

I don't know the last time I had a scotch egg.  It has been years, certainly.  But this is probably *the* signature dish at Woodblock, on the menu at brunch and lunch as well as dinner.

It came with some fresh and peppery arugula that complimented it well, and very tasty caramelized onions.  I asked for the currant-grain mustard aioli on the side (it was an option in the delivery app). and I'm glad I did.  It was fine grain mustard aioli, but I didn't love it.  I didn't taste the currant, and I think that really would have balanced the dish out nicely.  I wanted a touch of sweetness and more robust flavor to go with the sausage.  I did use it, but also added some bbq sauce of my own, which went better for me.  I think hot sauce would have worked too, just, something to jazz the flavor up a touch.

So, accompaniments, ***.  But this dish was obviously about the egg itself.

Scotch Egg: Inside.

The scotch egg was certainly well executed.  The panko crust super crispy (even for delivery) and evenly coated all around.  The sausage layer was super thin, making it all more delicate than I expected.  It also meant that I didn't taste much sausage, a bit of a letdown for me as I love sausage, and wanted to enjoy that element more.  The yolk was perfectly runny inside.  So, execution on this, very nice.

I liked the dish, and it was novel to have a scotch egg again, but, I wanted more sausage, a more flavorful sauce, and a touch more seasoning.  The flavor fell a bit flat.  I wouldn't get it again, but I didn't regret getting it.  *** overall really.

The scotch eggs are available as a single for $8, pair for $15, or trio for $22.

Chicken & Duck Liver Mousse. $10.

"Bacon, clarified butter, currant-grain mustard, toasted rustic bread."

The dish I was looking forward to perhaps even more than the scotch egg was the chicken & duck liver mousse.  I love a good mousse/pate, and this gets a lot of mentions on review sites.  It has been on their menu forever.

At first glance, it certainly didn't look very good.  Definitely a dish that takeout made a mess of.  It is normally served in a glass jar, with the grainy mustard on top.  I think they just scooped it out of the glass jar they make it in, and sorta tried to dump it into the takeout container reasonably intact, but, it certainly didn't come out looking very good.

The mousse was good though.  Very creamy.  Decent liver flavor.  Good, but not extraordinary.  It really needed a touch of salt to make it pop, slightly under-seasoned.

The mustard element here was again described as "currant-grain mustard", and I again didn't taste any currant.  And I again didn't really care for it.  The strong mustard taste really overpowered the mousse, and it was mixed in a bit from the takeout plating.  I really wanted some kind of fruit component, a touch of sweetness, which again, I think the currant would have provided, but, wasn't really here.  I was glad I had some blackberries to add to the mix.  I also didn't taste any bacon.  The clarified butter cap was kinda mixed in, again, due to the takeout nature, normally this is a layer right on top.  It didn't really add nor detract from it.

The toasted rustic bread I didn't care for, it was really toasted, more like crostini, and quite crisp.  I wanted something to spread the mousse on, but it wasn't this.  I was glad I had some crackers and broiche on hand.  Gluten-free diners can select either apple slices or gluten-free bread (for a charge) in place of the regular bread.  I'd be tempted to do the apple slices myself, given the dislike of the bread.

Overall, a good mousse, definitely a dish that suffered in takeout, but also still felt like it was missing a little something (sweetness, seasoning).  ***.

Dessert

The dessert menu is certainly a key part of what drew me in to Woodblock.  All exactly the style of desserts I like, including bananas foster bread pudding with a rum caramel and ice cream, a brown sugar maple panna cotta (sadly, not available for takeout), and a carrot cake ... amaretto carrot cake that is.  Yes, boozy elements in most of the desserts, and all came with recommended pairings of port, dark rum, or others.  They also carry Olympic Mountain ice cream and sorbet in several flavors (but not for delivery).

I went for the carrot cake, which gets stellar reviews.  I was certainly tempted by the bread pudding, but I know I have a very specific style of bread pudding I like, and, since delivery doesn't include the ice cream, I knew that wasn't quite right for me, as the ice cream is essential.

Amaretto Carrot Cake. $10.

"Amaretto-soaked carrot cake, cream cheese frosting, toasted almonds + caramel."

The carrot cake is another much lauded dish from Woodblock.  And this one didn't suffer from takeout like the others.  It looked good.  A huge slice, drizzled with caramel.  That said, it was the biggest letdown of the meal.  It wasn't worthy of the accolades, and honestly, was probably the worst carrot cake I've had in years.

The cake itself was overbaked.  It was dry, and burnt along the top sides and edges.  You can sorta see how dark it is here.  Surely, the person frosting it must have realized this?  It also didn't taste particularly fresh, again, not very moist, but maybe it was just the overbaked quality really taking its toll.  

Then there was the amaretto component.  Much like the currants in the mustard components of the previous two dishes, I detected none of it here.  I was looking forward to that bit of extra interesting flavor.  And moistness.  I didn't taste any amaretto at all.   I did taste almonds, lots of them.  There was slivered almonds all throughout, and coating the top and sides.  Definitely the most almond forward carrot cake I've ever had, so, in that regard, the naming is quasi-appropriate.  The nuts added a good crunch, but also served to further dry it out.

The case was otherwise standard enough carrot cake with shredded carrots.  I didn't detect any pineapple nor raisins that can commonly be found in carrot cake.  But, dry, brunt, and too heavy in the almonds for my taste. * cake, not really anything redeeming about it.

Carrot cake, at least for me, is only partially about the cake anyway.  Carrot cake tends to have a higher-than-average frosting to cake ratio than other cakes, and usually this thrills me.   But it also can frequently have cloying sweet frosting, which at least was not the case here.  The frosting was sweet but not too sweet, just, appropriately sweet.  Kudos for that.  But it didn't taste much of cream cheese at all, and trended in the Criso direction.  Sweetened Criso is what it seemed like.  It wasn't bad exactly, but certainly didn't deliver much in the way of cream cheese.  **.

And finally, the caramel, just a thin sauce, that seemed out of a bottle.  It didn't add to the dish.  I was glad I had strawberries and blackberries on hand to give this a fresh component at well.

Really, just, not a winner in any way.  Sadness. *+.