Honestly, Dunkin Donuts has the worst donuts in Massachusetts, but that's not a bad thing.

[xiphias]

Don't get me wrong: I'm a big fan of DDs. And their donuts are decent, even good. The thing is, they are so ubiquitous that they form a baseline. If you aren't better than Dunks, you don't get to play in the first place.

It's like jacks or better to open: a pair of jacks is a perfectly respectable hand in five-card-draw. But if you set that as your opener, everything else has to be better. Or the Maxwell House Haggadah: for nearly a century, the coffee company has printed a cheap or even free haggadah (as an advertisement that coffee is kosher for Passover), which isn't a bad one. And it means that, to sell a Haggadah in the United States, you have to be better than that.

So Dunks maintains the minimum donut standard in the Commonwealth.

Comments

[tober.livejournal.com]

I think DD's yeast donuts are not particularly wonderful (and can think of a number of other yeast donuts available locally that are thoroughly better) but their cake donuts are IMO quite good and, despite trying, I haven't really found anything superior to their chocolate glazed donut[1] - indeed, a DD iced coffee[2] and a chocolate glazed donut is part of my Sunday morning ritual and I really miss it when I don't have it :P

Another case of something like this - Jack Daniels (the regular old black-label stuff) is very good and, although it won't (usually) be in the well in some random mediocre bar, the bar will almost certainly have it, even if the bar is not in the US. Moreover, a lot of "artisanal" hipster whiskeys are not as good as Jack. Similarly, Cabot Cheddar (which is practically ubiquitous) is excellent.

[1] DD donuts are not very good when stale, but no donuts are. As few DD locations actually make their donuts any more, finding them fresh has gotten a little more difficult, although I find that in the immediate metro-Boston area the donuts are usually still pretty fresh, as they're not baked far away and they're delivered quite often.

[2] DD's coffee really isn't too good. It's made from cheap beans and over-extracted and I can't really stand it hot but for iced coffee, where the cold blunts the taste and the ice dilutes it a little, I like it.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Honestly, liquors in general aren't a bad example of this. The Misters J -- Jack, Jim, Johnny, and even Jose -- are solid liquors. There are better ones out there, especially tequilas -- the basic yellow Jose Cuervo is actually only half tequila, and has caramel coloring -- but they're all perfectly drinkable. Even the Canadian whiskeys, like Seagram's 7, are inoffensive.

There are terrible vodkas out there (which amazes me -- making an adequate vodka is something that anyone with a basic industrial column still should be able to do), and terrible gins, and truly vile liqueurs, but pretty much all the ubiquitous whiskeys of whatever sort are fine. And Bacardi is fine. You can get a drinkable beverage in any bar, so long as they don't have, y'know, cockroaches in their ice or something. And even then, you could just get it neat. (Maybe you'd want to carry your own cup, though.)

I personally prefer the chocolate glazed donuts at Honeydew, and at a couple small local places, but that's definitely a matter of personal preference. I also like Dunks coffee, because I don't really like coffee that much.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*obligatory Jamaican eyeroll at Bacardi*

[jim-p.livejournal.com]

I'll see your eyeroll and raise you a Haitian Voudou Stare :)
(Barbancourt is *my* favorite rum!)

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmm Barbancourt....

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I didn't say it was good. I didn't even say it was rum. I just said it was fine.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

Hmmm ... So neither Ashni nor I actually drink, but we cook with alcohol a fair amount. We are specifically fond of using gin as a method of getting juniper flavor into meat. Currently, we are nearing the dregs of a (probably twenty-year-old) bottle of Beefeater. Is there a reasonably priced gin that would do the job better? (Asking because you are about the only person in our extended social circle who might know.)

-Nameseeker

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

No, I think you're using exactly the right one. Beefeater is among my favorite gins, because it's basically driven by the juniper. There are many other delicious gins out there that have more complex flavors, that use orange peel, cucumber, star anise, and all sorts of other flavorings to mix with the juniper and create fascinating and lovely blends -- but all that necessarily de-emphasizes the juniper. It might be fun to taste some of those and see if those flavor combinations would be good for what you want to cook -- I can imagine them going very well. But for straight juniper?

This is only my opinion: Beefeater is the perfect juniper-driven London Dry gin. And it's not particularly expensive.

I can point to other lovely gins, but for getting juniper into meat at a reasonable price point? I think you are using exactly the best possible gin for what you want to be using it for.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

Ok - thanks! This is the bottle leftover from my grandmother's gin and tonic habit, so it's good to know that it suits my purposes, too.

-Nameseeker

[gingicat]

I really love the chocolate glazed donuts at Donuts With A Difference in Medford. Of course, you do have to get there before 8AM if you want one.