Mariscos El Kora

"Kora makes some of the best doughnuts in the city, but for Thanksgiving you can pre-order their beautiful, Filipino-inspired pies and cookies for pick-up at Alewife Brewing in Sunnyside. Instead of pumpkin and apple pie, bring a kalabasa spice pie or a sampalok apple to dinner." - neha talreja, molly fitzpatrick

"Unlike most of the places on this list, Kora doesn’t have a physical storefront. In order to get a box of their Filipino-ish doughnuts, visit their website when orders open on Saturdays at 12pm, then pick up your desserts the next Saturday at their makeshift window in Long Island City. The process is kind of a hassle, but it’s 100% worth it. At $37.50 for a box of five, the doughnuts aren’t the cheapest in the city—but you aren’t going to mistake this place for Dunkin’. Past highlights have included a brioche doughnut with a whole flan embedded in the middle, and a perfect, sticky ube doughnut stuffed with ube custard." - molly fitzpatrick, bryan kim, will hartman, willa moore, neha talreja

"Getting through Kimberly Camara’s sari-sari pastry box waitlist has become a sort of rite of passage, with its size quickly ballooning from dozens to 800 - 10,000 in just a few short months. Born during the pandemic and a continuation of Camara’s grandmother’s legacy, the pastries in the ever-changing boxes reimagine classic Filipino desserts and flavor combinations within brioches that swing more ensaymada than doughnut. There’s the leche flan ni lola, where rich flan that feels closer to tocino del cielo sits atop even more flan by way of cream before being enclosed by brioche. Traditional ingredients like kalamansi, a citrus native to the Philippines that tastes like an orange and a lemon’s firstborn, saba banana, and ube also make appearances. Set a timer for 3pm, head to their website, and hope the weeks you spent helping your family book vaccine appointments have paid off." - paolo espanola

"Unlike most of the places on this list, Kora doesn’t have a physical storefront (but it's in the works). In order to get a box of their Filipino-inspired donuts, you have to visit their website, when orders open on Saturdays at 6pm, then pick up your desserts the next Saturday at their makeshift window in Long Island City. The process is kind of a hassle, but it’s 100% worth it. At $37.50 for a box of five, the donuts aren’t the cheapest in the city—but you aren’t going to mistake this place for Dunkin’. Past highlights have included a brioche donut with a whole flan embedded in the middle, and a perfect, sticky ube donut stuffed with ube custard." - neha talreja, kenny yang, carina finn koeppicus, carlo mantuano, sonal shah