There are a lot of reasons I think I am overly qualified to track down, taste and determine the perfect donut. For starters, I love those little fluffy, glazed pieces of heaven that are better known as Donuts – it is that simple! When I was a child my Mom used to make us donuts by boiling lard and allowing us to drop in small pieces of some sort of premade Pillsbury dough. After that these little fried jewels were removed and get this, immediately dropping on plate of sugar. Now a day’s one might think she was trying to kill us or make us fat but back then, it was all great fun and as long as no one put an eye out – everything was OK! While that seems simplistic, those were some damn fine donuts and they set the stage for this quest and this blog, 40 some years later. Thanks Mom!
Later in my early teen years I had a paper route, and guess what – there was a donut shop in the middle of my route. They have the BEST cream filled Long Johns, not custard but cream that was similar to the cream in a Twinkies. When I would collect from my customers I would ALWAYS stop by that donut shop and get a couple of those Long Johns and a carton of milk. That was before plastic containers of milk, it was a cardboard carton. That place was located on Lexington avenue between Clifton and Courtwright Blvd. in Mansfield Ohio, can not for the life of me remember the name though. I do remember there was a cute girl who worked there on Saturdays.
Another qualifier is that I have tried donuts literally the world over. I spent 10 years in the US Navy sampling donuts from Punta Arenas Chile, to Alexandria Egypt to Barbados, I’m telling you that I know a LOT about donuts!! One of my favorite shops from my youth was the “topless donut shop” in Fort Lauderdale. That was back before it became a family friendly place for spring break. I was all of 19-20 and from a very small town in Ohio so you can imagine my surprise, topless women serving donuts, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. What more is there for a young testosterone filled man to think about other than bare naked Boobs and glazed donuts! I ate a lot of donuts on my visits to Fort Lauderdale for sure!
So while I will probably never find another shop quite like that one, Once visiting such a place, a man has to dedicate his life to looking for anohter one like it!!
So while I will probably never find another shop quite like that one, Once visiting such a place, a man has to dedicate his life to looking for anohter one like it!!
