Friday, June 03, 2011
National Donut Day
When I was a kid, a couple of times each year my dad brought us siblings to The Donut Bus. It was a converted school bus parked on the corner of North & Morris Avenues by Kean University (then
Newark State College), a few blocks from where I currently reside. It was a mobile donut factory. The Donut Bus sold only one kind of donut, plain, deep-fried in vats of bubbling oil, crunchy on the outside, soft inside, without or without powdered sugar. Also available were bags of broken donut pieces at a discount. They were equally good.
By the time I grew up the bus had disappeared.
Fast forward several decades. It's 1999. A small tornado has hit Rahway NJ, knocking down big trees across a swath of the town. I was at work when it happened & had to pass through a police checkpoint downtown to reach my apt. Power was out. I walked around looking at the damage. A police car came around broadcasting that there was no driving permitted in the affected areas & police had blocked traffic into & out of downtown where I lived. By later that evening I was getting bored. I was also getting a craving for a certain brand of donut - I forget the name, it was from Pennsylvania - I knew was sold at the Quick Chek in the next town over. I liked the brand because they were plain donuts crunchy on the outside & soft on the inside & reminded me of the Donut Bus. So about 11 pm I got in my car, negotiated a maze of side streets, some blocked by fallen trees, very dark, assuming correctly that the police had only enough personnel to maintain road blocks on the three or four main streets. I made it to the Quick Chek, where the power was on, bought a box of my preferred donuts, took it next door to a Dunkin' Donuts, which was crowded with refugees like myself, ordered a cup of coffee & ate some of my donuts, Then I sneaked back home the way I had come.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
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By the time I grew up the bus had disappeared.
Fast forward several decades. It's 1999. A small tornado has hit Rahway NJ, knocking down big trees across a swath of the town. I was at work when it happened & had to pass through a police checkpoint downtown to reach my apt. Power was out. I walked around looking at the damage. A police car came around broadcasting that there was no driving permitted in the affected areas & police had blocked traffic into & out of downtown where I lived. By later that evening I was getting bored. I was also getting a craving for a certain brand of donut - I forget the name, it was from Pennsylvania - I knew was sold at the Quick Chek in the next town over. I liked the brand because they were plain donuts crunchy on the outside & soft on the inside & reminded me of the Donut Bus. So about 11 pm I got in my car, negotiated a maze of side streets, some blocked by fallen trees, very dark, assuming correctly that the police had only enough personnel to maintain road blocks on the three or four main streets. I made it to the Quick Chek, where the power was on, bought a box of my preferred donuts, took it next door to a Dunkin' Donuts, which was crowded with refugees like myself, ordered a cup of coffee & ate some of my donuts, Then I sneaked back home the way I had come.
Labels: cuisine, growing up, holidays
