Quest for Donuts

When I left my small hometown 20 years ago, it soon became clear that I was not likely to ever again easily find three culinary staples of my childhood: fresh kielbasa; homemade ice cream (seemingly around every corner); and real bakery donuts.

After years in the DC area, I had discovered that you could mail order kielbasa from Usinger's. And eventually Lazy Sundae opened up a few blocks away, offering all sorts of great flavors of homemade ice cream. (Side note: and it was always busy — I mean, really, what took so long for someone to decide to open an ice cream shop? Virginia? In summer? Who would possibly want ice cream then? But I digress).

And we were introduced to Heidelberg Pastry Shop, with its amazing assortment of Old World pastries, including fresh donuts.

In Santa Fe, it was like we had to start all over again. We've discovered some local ice creameries — few, far between, but good. No European bakeries, but it didn't really concern me much, what with the other local breakfast delicacies we discovered.

But during Andy's latest visit, it occurred to me I wanted donuts. The way that Saturday morning was going, it made sense to just have some stuff around that everyone could eat as needed. Plus, I think having a New Englander around got it in my head. So I headed out to Dunkin' Donuts. They were fine, they got us through the morning, but not all that satisfying. At some point, driving along Cerrillos, Andy spotted a small (non-chain) donut shop in one of the plazas that we'd never noticed before. I filed that away for future reference.

Back in New England a couple weeks back where, especially around Boston, there seemed to be a Dunkin' every few feet, decided I wanted some of the bakery donuts I used to have growing up. M+D have gotten out of the donut habit, but were game — and, in calling around to the local bakeries, discovered that America (or at least Wethersfield) does, indeed, run on Dunkin'. None of the bakeries made donuts anymore.

This past week, we were dropping Monica's car at the shop on Cerrillos, I ducked over to the donut shop — Kip's Donuts — to note the hours (Tuesday-Saturday, 6am-noon or until they run out).

So this morning, headed there to pick up some breakfast.



A small place, a good selection. Baking going on right behind the counter. Sweet smells.



Mmmmmmmm.