More Days for Beignets At Reading Terminal

Bill Beck has doubled the availability of beignets at Beck's Cajun Café at the Reading Terminal Market. They're now available (while they last) on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Until about a month ago they could only be had on Wednesdays and Sundays.

The beignets are cooked to order and served very hot, topped with confectioners sugar. If you're ordering them to take to seating elsewhere in the market, don't let Beck's counter server put a lid on top; they're so hot the escaping steam will transform these delights into a heavy, soggy mess. Besides, these are best consumed hot out of the fryer, with a cup of coffee.

They are best ordered as early as possible in the morning. Beck's Reading Terminal Market outpost has only one deep fryer, and by lunchtime it's being used for fried seafood.

Beck's Beignets

Beck's Cajun Cafe at the Reading Terminal Market continues to offer fresh, hot beignets on Wednesdays and Sundays as long as they last.

When Bill Beck first offered beignets soon after opening his mecca to Louisiana foods their quality was hit-and-miss. But I've had them thrice over the past month or so, and they've hit the mark each time: crispy exterior, light interior, exactly what fried dough should be. Get a cup of chickory-inflected Community Coffee to go with an order of six of these large rectangular doughnuts doused in confectioners' sugar.

If I don't make it up to Haegele's Bakery in Tacony for Fastnachts on Fat Tuesday, I hope Beck makes the beignets a day early that week.

Beignets Are Back!

Bill Beck of Beck's Cajun Café says he's solved his beignet problem and assures me they're light and fluffy inside, and crispy on the exterior. I haven't tried them to confirm yet.

They are available on Wednesdays and Sundays only. Bill's beignet man (who comes in the night before to prep the dough) makes only enough for 30 orders each day.

Beck tried the beignets last year, but the results were inconsistent at best. He shut down beignets until he could invest the time to figure out what was goint wrong and fix it.

Yes, We Have No Beignets

Bill Beck has 86'd beignets at his Reading Terminal market counter, Beck's Cajun Cuisine.

Reason: They've been awful.

Although my first sampling found them just fine, with a reasonably light texture, he's had problems since. In two subsequent tastings, the outside was impossibly crunchy and the interior hollow. Beck's tried to figure out what's wrong, but for the time being decided to forget about them. And all this after spending bucks on a heavy-duty mixer whose sole purpose was to prep the dough.

So, once again, the Reading Terminal Market will have to wait for a superior sweet fried dough.

Beignets Arrive!

The heavy-duty stand mixer finally arrived at Beck's Cajun Café so the new Reading Terminal Market eatery can now make those beignets.

I've never been to New Orleans so I won't presume to make comparisons to what's offered by the finer establishments of the Crescent City at 2 a.m. to local and foreign drunkards looking to put something in their stomachs to hold down the liquor.

What I can say is that these are a quite fine variation on the theme of hot fried dough with sugar.

Who among us doesn't, at least occasionally, crave hot fried dough?  It's even a religious tradition. (Tonight being the first night of Hanukah, it's time to indulge in sufganiot, one of the the traditional fried foods of this festival, basically a jelly doughnut, just as the Pennsylvania Dutch love their fastnachts for Fat Tuesday.)

Bill Beck's rendition is among the lightest hot fried dough I've ever had, which seems like an oxymoron. Not that these are low-caloric! He drowns them in confectioners' sugar, as you can see in the photo. Order them with a cup of Community Coffee (with chicory) imported from New Orleans.

Beck is also proud of his jambalaya, as you can see in the second photo.