to appreciate. Among the many flavors they offer is maple bacon, which give me joy not only because they taste great, but also because of the delicious irony that the shop apparently considers bacon a vegan ingredient.) From Doughnut to Donut Alert readers may have noticed that a couple of sentences ago, I used the spelling “donut,” dropping the unnecessary and unpronounced extra letters. Inasmuch as donuts are made of, and derive their name from, dough, there’s an obvious argument to maintain that etymological continuity and leave in the extra letters. The dictionary tells me “donut” is a “less-common spelling of doughnut,” and that may be, but I’d like to make it more common. And I have some support in this from the very same dictionary, which tells me that donut is a “fully accepted spelling.” It’s certainly becoming more common— especially as brands using the “donut” spelling proliferate—and so much less fussy, as befits a simple ring of, you know, do. I remember my first encounter with Krispy Kreme. It was back in the mid-1990s, before the chain had expanded to become the phenomenon it is today, and when the only commercial doughnut shop chain I had ever known was Dunkin’ Donuts. At the shop I visited, as at most Krispy Kreme locations, visitors could watch the doughnuts being made; a window ran along the side of the shop where the line formed. I was fascinated by the mechanism that flipped the doughnuts over in the oil when they were halfcooked, and watched in awe as they passed through a curtain of glaze. Although doughnuts are such a simple food, I felt I was watching something magical. Then I tasted one, and was even more impressed. I had never known what a fresh, hot doughnut was like—the difference from what I had experienced before is like that of fresh bread hot from the oven compared to week-old supermarket bread. It was light, soft, perfectly sweet—delicious. Indulge | 15
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