Ray in New Orleans

It's so NOT totally true. Despite their current faddishness, there is not one Krispy Kreme product that's anywhere near as good as even a plain Dunkin' Donuts donut. Not suck-worthy at ALL.

Krispy Kreme is a pale shadow of Dunkin' Donuts. Those who think the inverse is true are insanely deluded. I mean, who ever heard of icing and glazing a donut. Madness. As Miss Syl says, not suck-worthy. Not even lick-worthy.

I miss Dunkin' Donuts. I don't think there are any in the Los Angeles area anymore. *pout*

Yankees.

You guys must enjoy the BHA and BHT in Dunkin Donuts.

I have no idea 'bout no faddishness, I've been eating KK since I can remember, and I'm an old fuck. A dozen hot glazed to go, please.

However, Shipley's in Hattiesburg is better, and Tat-o-nuts in Ocean Springs (made with potato flour!) rocks the llama's ass.

Fuck chain donut shops. The best donut i ever ate was from a local no-name shop.

I remember sittin' in the bed of a pickup truck with a stunning girl, eating galzed donuts made by some veietnamese woman who couldn't speak any english.

Mmmm.

Ok, maybe it was just the company that made it so good. Some people just make food taste better.

Shipley's in Houston was ALWAYS good. And Krispy Kremes can whip the butts of ANY Dunkin' Donuts concoction any day o' the week.

On a trip to Las Vegas years ago, I noticed Hawaiians at the airport with boxes and boxes of Krispy Kremes. I don't know about now, but back then, there weren't any Krispy Kreme stores in Hawaii. Having seen that, I tried them when they opened a store in Austin, but discovered that they're deep fried circles of air soaked in sugary goop. I personally don't get it.

I miss the crullers at DD. This wasn't just a NE thing -- I went to high school in San Antonio, and my friend and I used to stop by DD on our way to school, and I'd get a cruller. Ever since the DD crullers have become unavailable, they've achieved this sort of mythic status in my mind. Maybe if I actually ate one, I'd discover that they actually suck. I don't know.

Yeah, but Carole Elaine, you have Randy's Donuts, and that's really good, albeit only in one location, and not a convenient one, maybe. But worth the trip.

Ashley/Hiromi: Yeah, KK were really regional but around for a long time. Then, in the 90s they did this huge national expansion and everyone was acting like they were "the thing." When, EXACTLY like Hiromi said, they're just way too over-glazed and goopy, with no substance to 'em. Yeah, they're better hot, but still not the best.

And yeah, Karl Elvis, NO donut beats a non-chain donut. My favorite donuts ever were bough at these roadside stands along Skyline Drive in Virginia when I was a kid. That, and churros made on the street in Spain.

Plus, KK's coffee sucks ASS next to DD's heavenly brew. And a donut is NOTHING without a coffee. And anyone who says differently is a traitor.

I speak as someone who is capable of eating donuts like popcorn -- I will not touch a Krispy Kreme with a ten-foot tissue paper napkin thingy.

I gots some no-chain donut cred, too, Syl. My two best: 1) a small family-owned apple orchard in upstate New York where they made their own cider and their own donuts, and 2) this tiny pastry shop in Venice that made little round donut things that had a moist, vaguely lemony inside.

Syl said: And a donut is NOTHING without a coffee. And anyone who says differently is a traitor.

Fie! You are no true donut lover! You think donuts are a mere vehicle for coffee!

I prefer to eat 'em with milk. I eat all sweet things with milk. Anyway, I don't get dunking them in coffee. The only thing I dunk are cookies because they're substantial. Donuts are too light to dunk. Dunking, especially in piping hot liquid, dissolves them into mush.

Hiromi, the idea of sweet stuff - cookies, donuts, cakes, whatever - with cold milk has always sounded disgusting to me. But then, i really don't much like like. To me it's hot coffee that goes with the sweet fatty treats. But then my second favorite flavor in the world is fresh, hot, strong coffee.

On the Krispy Kreme theme, I describe them as tasting like they're good, but not actually being good. I actually had an argument with Doxy about that concept, she could not get her head around the idea. But i think some of you will get it. Certain foods have the illusion of tasting good in that you put them in your mouth and then want more; yet when you're done you think, ick, why did I eat that? Krispy Kremes are like that; you bite one and you get this jones for more even though they are just air and fat and sugar without any flavor. Some fast food is the same way, you eat it and you can't stop but when you're done you have this chemical taste on the tongue.

But then my second favorite flavor in the world is fresh, hot, strong coffee.

There seems to be an unspoken pervy reference here.

There seems to be an unspoken pervy reference here.

From Karl Elvis? Nah.

(You know he's been waiting all night for someone to say something.)

Also, strangely enough my great fresh homemade donut memory in Virginia was also at these roadside places that made fresh-pressed cider. I don't remember drinking cider with the donuts, but maybe that's a good alternative to coffee or milk we're overlooking?

I did grow up drinking cold milk with cakey dessert stuff, so I don't have an aversion to it, but for some reason eating donuts was always associated with hot drinks, not cold.

I actually don't like most American drip coffee. I was a tea drinker most of my life (with milk--English ancestry). I didn't realize I even LIKED coffee until I went to Europe and had good versions of drip coffee and espresso. Dunkin' Donuts coffee being the big exception. Theirs is just about the only drip coffee in America I've really enjoyed until they started importing higher-end stuff. And even now, I still think it ranks up among one of the best.

Course, I'm off the caffeine and sugar now, so coffee, tea, and donuts are pretty mucy rarities these days. Strangely, I don't miss them much.

...I describe them as tasting like they're good, but not actually being good...i think some of you will get it. Certain foods have the illusion of tasting good in that you put them in your mouth and then want more; yet when you're done you think, ick, why did I eat that?

Yeah, I totally get that, and it's precisely my point why they're lame. They're designed for bodily addictive response, not actual taste. THAT is the reason/explanation for the double-glazing and the dough with maxium white flour and sugar and no other hearty substance to it. Krispy Kremes are designed (deliberatly, I expect) to spike the highest sugar carb spike in the body, which creates a narcotic-like response and in a vast majority of people, leaving behind some addictive brain memory which leaves the body craving more. So it doesn't matter if it *tastes good,* because it *feels good,* chemically. The brain imprints the craving for the sugar spike and tries to get you to keep repeating it, and since the KK donut is the food it remembers providing it, you keep associating it with, your response to seeing a KK donut, or even the logo becomes and instant mouth-watering craving. And as you're putting it in your mouth, your brain is all psyched that it's gonna get high, so it tells you, all panting, "gonna taste good...gonna taste good...reward, reward, reward!" But afterwards, you're like, "Meh, what did I gain from that? It didn't even *taste good.*

Sorry, I'm moving heavily into food geekery here...

I'm also ashamed to say I didn't reread and edit that comment. You guys are going to have to do some interpretation-fu to make it read right, but the basic gist is there. Sorry. Tired.

Krispy Kreme is just a different style of donut from a different donut tradition, that's all. Glazed yeast-raised donuts are a southern thing, cakey donuts are a northern thing. The idea that it was somehow deliberately designed to produce a biochemical response seems kinda farfetched since these donuts have been around forever (KK is older than Dunkin Donuts.)

What torques me is that it is so difficult to get any donuts of any kind in New Orleans right now (other than grocery store ones). They tore down the last Dunkin Donuts on St. Charles, half the Tastee Donuts are closed since the flood, and to eat beignets you have to deal with French Quarter parking.

Like everything else, if you want donuts, you have to drive to fucking Jefferson Parish.

Okay, I'll detract the "deliberate" parenthetical statement, but the point is still true--the way they're made creates the "good but not good" response that Karl was talking about.

Ray... talk to me, buddy... how ya holdin' up? I'd rather have a beignet any day.

Thank you, KE and Miss Syl - y'all are right on re: Krispy Kreme. And yes - non-chain beats chain most day any day of the week (a chain donut that I miss is Donut Inn's peanut butter twist) and twice on Fridays. I remember a non-chain donut shop I used to go to in Chatsworth that had heavenly donuts. I miss them.

Miss Syl, I haven't been to Randy's Donuts yet, since it's definitely not near my neck of the woods. I'll have to rectify that, especially since I've been in LA for over 20 years.

Milk is okay with donuts (I'm not really a milk drinker - a holdover from my vegan days), but coffee with cream and sugar is the best with donuts. No contest.

Three words: Bacon Maple Bar

This may or may not be the ultimate donut. It's hard to say. We'll have to visit portland to find out.

I-- Uh--

I have no words, KE. You can bet I'm not going to Portland to find any...

mm.. I haven't had Krispy Kream or Dunkin' Donuts, being a canadian and all.. but I'm wondering if you are just looking for an excuse to be done with a strap-on.

Hi Ray :)

Been a long time!

Donuts, the Goyim bagel.

No decent bagels no decent donuts