Open Writing

Off and on for the last few days, and pretty much steadily all morning, I have been sitting here trying to craft a column not over 750 words long, which is profound, thoughtful, timely and witty.

I can take 750 words to say 'Good Morning.'

Maybe the fact that another morning has proved to be good, or a least tolerable, and I have survived to enjoy it meets all of my criteria. You might say, 'What about funny?' But not if you were sitting here sharing coffee and doughnuts and looking at me with my lost-morning appearance.

Speaking of things profound, I've heard many discussions of the old chicken vs. egg question, but can you tell me whether doughnuts came before coffee was discovered, or was it the other way around?

Has anyone tried to determine where and when, never mind why, coffee was first used as a hot drink?

I checked out Wikipedia, my first line of research. According to them, coffee, which is to say hot water flavored with roasted seeds from the coffee shrub, was first used in what is now Ethiopia, around the year 900. Gradually its use spread, and it became well-known in Turkey and Europe in the 1400s.

The origin of doughnuts is in dispute, but likely they were Dutch or perhaps Danish or even Jewish, but their popularity bloomed in colonial North America. Evidently coffee was at least on the scene when doughnuts appeared.

That's precise enough for me. If some grad student is looking for a subject, or some group of bored patrol cops on the midnight to dawn shift want to pursue the question further, I don't care to hear about it. I'm too busy to fool with such trivia. Care for another doughnut?

I suspect coffee and doughnuts are one of the star members of a very limited class of foods that are universal, cross cultural, comfort foods.
Macaroni and cheese, what we in the U.S. call French Fried potatoes (Chips?), ice cream, red beans and rice. To name a few others.

You can probably think of a few. Amazing that some things that are delicacies in one culture are contemplated with shudders, if not outright taboo, in others.

I've been hogging all the time here. I'm notoriously long winded, I know. So if you have anything to add, just jump right in; don't worry about hurting my feelings.

What sort of doughnuts do you prefer? I usually think of the round, with-a-hole-in-the-middle, raised yeast doughnuts, with powdered sugar or a powdered sugar glaze.

There are all sorts, of course. First regular job I ever had was in a local small bakery, where another teenager and I made doughnuts, pies, and such. We made twists glazed with cinnamon-sugar, doughnut holes, jelly or cream-filled doughnuts, (also called Bismarcks in this part of the world), but no cake doughnuts, which so many of the groceries and fast-food places sell now.

And our pies were fruit pies, with two crusts, top and bottom, and cherry, berry, apple, or peach filling. The pay was mediocre, as such kid-jobs go, but the lady never complained about how many doughnuts and scoops of pie filling the two of us ate. And in wartime, with stiff sugar rationing laws, that was no small thing.

And hey, what about coffee. I like plain old boiled coffee, which most of you kids have probably never tasted. Boil it over a campfire. Get the water boiling, throw in some coffee. When it gets too thick, pour in more water. When it's starts tasting a little pale, more coffee. Careful! Don't burn your tongue with the first sip.

© Jerry Selby