I'm Against a Homogenized Society

I know I have weaknesses. And when it comes to donuts, me and Homer Simpson have a lot in common. Fortunately for my arteries, you don't see too many donuts in this part of the world. The cake-donut lady in the town square on weekends does an OK job but to me, cake donuts are somewhere towards the bottom of the donut heap. Amateur stuff, really.

The top donut on my donut list, without question, is the custard-filled, chocolate-iced long john - and not one of these 'filled' donuts that you can get halfway through and still not be sure that it's actually stuffed. Before you finish the first bite, you should be having trouble controlling the custard. One (two?) of these and some hot coffee... whew... that's a good start to any day.

I'm pretty sure, then, my love of custard may be somehow related to that donut. Unlike the donuts, England has pretty much got all the bases covered when it comes to custard. There is a custard section at the grocer -- next to the extensive cream section -- and every store even has its own store-branded custard. And I aim to try them all. So far, I've tried the Sainsbury, Tesco, and ASDA store brands. I made a critical mistake on the ASDA purchase: I got 'light' variety that was low fat and artificially sweetened. In a lot of cases, I'm fine with that -- but custard is basically fat and sugar held together by egg yolks so it just doesn't work here. The current winner is Tesco but the Sainsbury brand was decent.

Custard has its dangers, though. First off, you have to buy it by the pint. For a family, that might work. For single usage, it's a bit much when you consider danger number two: they simply use less preservatives over here. Once you crack the top of the custard you have less than 3 days to consume. Driven by a fear of spoiling, I pretty much eat the whole thing in about 10 minutes. Nothing like taking down 1000 calories, 100 grams of fat, and 50 grams of sugar in about the same time it takes to drink a cup o' joe. It should make me sick. Should.

Cheers!

I'm against a homogenized society, because I want the cream to rise.
Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)