Dunkin' Donuts, the Coffee, not the Doughnut...
My sister and I, we grew up with Dunkin' Donuts, not the coffee, but the doughnut, glazed or strawberry filled... It was a pure delight for my childhood palate, until our grandma decided it was too fattening for the 4 year-old Asian kids we were, so grandma switched to Baskin Robbins. She would take us every afternoon after kindergarten class of our childhood years to the local Baskin Robbins (in front of Arisugawa park in Azabu, Tokyo), whether rain or shine, winter or summer... She would order one scoop of orange sherbet... It tasted like a mix between Fanta and Kool-Aid, a beautiful, but yet an amazingly unnatural flashy orange color... we loved it...until we realized that Baskin Robbins ice-cream factory was not limited to orange sherbet.* They had a variety of flavors, much cooler -so to speak- than orange sherbet: e.g., mint ice cream filled with chocolate chips... We saw that kindergarten kid (then our classmate) eating it, or rather swallowing it. My sister and I wanted to give it a try, wanted to ask our grandma that maybe, a change in flavor would not be a bad thing in our monotonous culinary afternoons, but never managing to voice our objection to the daily treat that my grandma was generously offering us. 10 years later, when I had full authority to decide which ice-cream flavor would slide into my greedy throat, I finally tried that most wanted mint ice cream filled with chocolate chips... First reaction? Disappointment. Felt like eating a mint-flavored chewing gum. Since then, I opt for orange sherbet -not that I still crave for Baskin Robbins, which has been truly replaced by a whole pint of "dolce de leche" Haggen Dazs...
All this digression, what was it for...? oh yes, I wanted to talk about Dunkin' Donuts. I didn't know until I moved to NYC that Dunkin' Donuts made coffee. Not a random coffee, but THE coffee, the best coffee I've ever had in my entire short life. Ok ok what would an East Asian (hereafter "EA") know anything about coffee? EAs could talk about tea (green tea, not Ceylon or darjeeeeeling) but not coffee, you would say! EAs don't produce coffee... Anyway anyway, so I discovered Dunkin' Donuts coffee, with milk, no sugar. I was first very skeptical in having a sip of this warm Styrofoam coffee. After a first few sip, I was converted. I had this sudden feeling of warmth, as if I were sleeping in my fluffy bed in a cold winter night or this feeling inside of me when I have "tea and cake" next to the fireplace. Good bye bitter taste Starbucks! The only downside of Dunkin' Donuts, besides the fact that I always want to buy a glazed doughnut with my "large-coffee-with-milk-no-sugar" is that there are comparatively fewer stores in Manhattan. Starbucks are on each block/corner so why not Dunkin' Donuts? Luckily (Thank you God), there were 3 Dunkin' Donuts' stores within walking distance from my downtown apartment. (Check out stores on Fulton/Cliff St, Fulton/Nassau St, and on Broadway/John St. As a matter of comparison, I was surrounded by 10 Starbucks stores within walking distance). The staff was not as nice as the "baristas" and the stores were a bit shabby. However, here is evidence that Dunkin' Donuts are famous for their coffee: go online to Dunkin' Donuts and you'll see that their doughnut skills are not mentioned, they only talk about and sell coffee and all sorts of coffee related accessories. You'd say, "silly, they don't talk about doughnuts on their website because they can't sell doughnuts online! Doughnuts are perishable goods!...." Well... go to Krispykreme, the first image you'll see is a big original glazed with a whole in it...not coffee...
Another digression, I also discovered for the first time Krispy Kreme in NYC (sounds as if I were living secluded in a Monastery and discovered every single delight that life has got to give in NYC, but the answer is NO). At first, I thought Krispy Kreme was much better than Dunkin' Donuts, but I've changed my mind and gone back to my first love, Dunkin' Donuts... Novelty always appears handsome, I guess, until we get bored of it...then we go back to our true values...
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* Footnote: Strangely, my sister has always managed to drop her orange sherbet cone in the park. Grandma would buy her another cone but my sister would drop it again... She would cry staring with eyes full of tears at the flashy orangy spot on the ground...
Labels: Memories..., Self derision, Simply coffee
posted by The Little Prince's alter ego @ 7:41 PM
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