Gourmet donuts, defined

Of all the things I've learned about New York, three single things encapsulate all the travelling gourmand needs to know. Quality coffee is scarce, wine selection is plentiful, and food portions are gargantuan to a fault.

So go to the great 9th St Espresso, enjoy the many fine wine shops that the island of Manhattan has to offer, and know that only mediocre kitchens overfill customers' plates (Monday's trip to A.O.C. Bedford was a shining example of how better restaurants have a real conception of serving sizes).

But this post is NOT about oversized portions. Yes, the doughnuts you see here are large, and yes they are served out of a huge galley on Grand Street that draws big crowds (consider yourself lucky if you can find room inside the building to stand in line, let alone to eat your purchase). And when I was there to order a half dozen, I was not allowed to leave without agreeing to a baker's half dozen. Hmph. Size matters.

BIG APPLE BEIGNETS

Doughnut Plant is all about being big but proportioned. Make no mistake about it; these delicacies are just the right size, as my vigorous testing on sample sizes shown above concluded beyond a doubt.

Largeness is constitutive for Doughnut Plant doughnuts. Why? That's a bit of a surprise. These doughnuts have holes have in them like you might expect, but many of them are actually filled in various areas inside the ring. A trail of fruit that trace out the shape of these adorably unctuous loops of dough. (Sorry to spoil the shock of delight.) So these things need to be big. Please give the people who make them the real estate they need to do their thing.

Doughnut Plant doughnut makers capitalize on the space they grant themselves in another way. To sizable volume they inject magnificent flavours from a sweeping list like ginger, Valrhona chocolate, vanilla bean, rosewater, pumpkin, real spiced apples, and peanut butter and raspberry jelly. Those are just the ones I tasted last week. There are more. Many more, all with big mouthfilling sensations harnessed in an appropriately sized torus deep-fried in fat and coated with sugar.