This month, I was craving something sweet and came across a new food truck called Ono’s Malasadas.
Malasadas are essentially a fried doughnut made from yeasted dough and often rolled in cinnamon and
sugar. They were started by the Portuguese on the island of São Miguel in the Azores as a way to use up
butter, lard, and sugar prior to Lent. In the late 1800’s, Portuguese families moved to Hawaii to work the
sugarcane and pineapple plantations, bringing the tradition of malasadas with them. While traditional
malasadas are simply fried dough rolled in cinnamon and sugar, upon thriving in Hawaii, they were filled
with various custards and fruit jams.
Ono’s Malasadas has only been open for four weeks, so they are quite new to the food truck scene. The
owners’ parents spent time in Hawaii, fell in love with a malasada truck there, and had the idea to open
one in Utah. They are also in the process of building a brick-and-mortar location where Ripples used to
be in Provo.
I was excited to try these. Whenever I have a choice of doughnut, I always choose the custard filled one,
so these seemed right up my alley. Ono’s Malasadas was offering plain malasadas, ones rolled in white
sugar or cinnamon sugar, and ones filled with either haupia (a coconut custard) or whipped Nutella.
They also had raspberry and mango sauce as options to drizzle on top.
I decided to order one of each of the filled malasadas, topping the Nutella one with raspberry sauce and
the haupia one with mango sauce. I eagerly awaited what I was sure to be delicious – after all, how can
you go wrong with hot fried dough filled with sweet custard?
Well, Ono’s Malasadas managed to disappoint. Malasada means “badly cooked” in Portuguese, so I
guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. And so, in the spirit of Lent, I’m going to list the things Ono’s
needs to give up if they want to be a successful food truck:
1) Quit putting malasadas in little paper bags. The sauces drizzled on top create a sticky gooey trap,
making it impossible to get the malasada out without coating your hand in sugary syrup. And,
once extricated, the malasada does not look visually appealing.
2) Give up filling the malasadas unless you can keep the filling inside. Both my malasadas were
oozing cream in an obscene and unappetizing fashion and a large amount of filling was wasted
in the bags.
3) Stop neglecting the temperature of the frying oil. It is essential to have the oil hot enough to
quickly cook the outside of the dough, sealing excess oil out. These had clearly been cooked at
too low a temperature, absorbing oil like a sponge. It didn’t matter if I was biting into the
Nutella one or the haupia one because they both tasted like grease and not much else.
Thoroughly disappointed, I was ready to write off Ono’s Malasadas for good. However, the universe
sometimes has other plans. I’d visited their food truck around lunchtime. Later that evening, I was at an
event and someone had purchased a dozen malasadas from Ono’s. Apparently, if you purchase a large
enough quantity, they do put them in a box instead of individual bags. I tried a couple of the non-filled
varieties and they seemed properly cooked, tasting like a sugared doughnut instead of old fry grease. So
maybe, just maybe, there is hope for redemption – time will tell.
Know Before You Go: Ono’s Malasadas is closed Sundays and Mondays. The food truck is, of course,
mobile and they cater events. Once completed, Ono’s brick-and-mortar location will be at 3225 N
Canyon Road in Provo. Two filled malasadas cost $7.34. The non-filled varieties are 75 cents cheaper. If
you text “YUM” to 855.974.4876 or check out their social media pages, there are opportunities to get a
malasada for free.
