Yum Alert: What Are Malasadas & When Are They Coming To Lubbock?

If you've ever been blessed enough to visit Hawaii, you may already know that Hawaiian food is deeply influenced by Portuguese cuisine. In fact, you can get Portuguese sausage (uniquely spiced pork sausage) for breakfast at McDonalds.

In the late 19th century, Portugal had some of the world's most accomplished fishermen and explorers. Many Portuguese immigrated to Hawaii and brought with them their unique cuisine. Don't be tempted to think Portuguese = Spanish at all. It's really quite different.

One Portuguese treat that is wildly popular still in Hawaii is malasadas, a hole-less, sweet fried doughnut. Traditional malasadas do not have fillings, but in Hawaii they certainly do- popular flavors include custard, chocolate, haupia (coconut), and guava (a seriously underrated fruit flavor in the continental US, in my opinion). Malasadas are also sometimes dusted in Cinnamon sugar or Li Hing Mui seasoning. Li Hing is an acquired taste- it's a seasoning powder made of ground pickled plum skin.

So when are malasadas coming to Lubbock? A cryptic and tantalizing "Coming Soon" message was posted to the uber-popular LBK Foodies group: "Coming soon to the LBK - if you haven't had a malasada, you're in for a treat. We can't wait!" along with a very attractive photo of filled malasadas.

It appears that this will start as a "cottage" business, meaning that the items will be made in a residential kitchen by a person with a food handler's license. Since malasadas are a non-refrigeration required baked good, that model is perfectly legal per Texas Cottage Laws. I'd love to see this concept as a food truck or even eventually a brick-and-mortar as well.

Lubbock has many restaurants, but they tend to be fairly similar to each other. I am absolutely excited to see new cuisines take their place in the 806.