I live in a tourist destination, and we are known for a certain food.
Let’s say it’s donuts.
People come to our town, and they Want. Donuts.
And there are places – let’s call one Donut Palace --that get a ton of press about their great donuts.
Donut Palace gets that press because they, no surprise, do indeed make fantastic donuts.
So the crowds form.
Lines are crazy long.
People do weird things like wait in line for hours and hours for a donut, just to get it from the iconic donut spot they saw on Food Network. (or whatever).
Meanwhile, people forget: we are a city known for donuts! So many places make amazing donuts. This is WHAT WE DO. So many donut spots are absolute geniuses at making rounded blobs of fried sweet dough!
In fact.
If you want a chocolate donut, you might want to go over to Donut Hut, because they have a master chocolatier who procures the best fair-trade chocolate ever, which makes, you guessed it, the best chocolate donut ever.
If you want a raised-glazed donut, head over to Donut Land, because they have a really inventive yeast that they use that makes the puffiest fluffiest donut ever.
Even if you just want to buy an all-around regular dozen mixed donuts, the locals – those in the know – would not fight the crowds at Donut Palace most weekends. Because next door at Donuts-R-Us, they do just as good of a job, but tourists head straight to Donut Palace because, well, they have heard of it.
Let’s not get caught up in the names.
Yes, these schools have names because they are good. Great, even.
But we don’t need to love them just because they are well-known.
Thanks to the many insiders here at CC, we don’t have to be the clueless tourist who just joins the crowd without actually stopping to think: would I rather have a yeasty-puffy donut from down the road? Or, might there be an equally great spot that doesn’t have so many tourists outside that only 11% of them will get in?
Thank you to all of you here on CC who have shared your wisdom so very generously. I dare say M9/10 is a different experience for many of us because of you.
xxxxoooo to all today and tomorrow as we celebrate ALL donuts.
