(Photo: KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES)Sunday, January 13, 2008
By Marc Ramirez
Seattle Times staff reporter (Washington, USA)
If the proliferation of fancy-schmancy doughnut shops — and names such as Top Pot, Krispy Kreme and Mighty-O — have made your eyes glaze over in the last five years, don't blame Tony Oeung. He's been quietly producing many a regular's holey grail at North Seattle's Family Donut for the past 14 years.
From as far away as Queen Anne and Capitol Hill, they step into his breath-mint-sized shop in the Northgate neighborhood and ask: How's life?
Can't complain, he'll say with a smile. It wouldn't do any good. And anyway, it beats soldering printed-circuit boards for minimum wage, which was what he did when he first came to the U.S. from Cambodia in 1980.
Faithfully, they face down his armadas of jelly-filled, frosted or sugar-topped pastries, baked fresh every morning by his brother-in-law, who starts work at 1 a.m. "I'd like a dozen," they'll say.
"For here or to go?" he'll cackle, and that's Oeung: Amid a breakfast buffet of newfangled hipsters, a dependable taste of old-fashioned cheer.
Q: Ever fritter away your off-hours doing doughnuts in the parking lot?
A: Never. If I get away from here, I want to get away and not think about doughnuts.
Q: What makes a good doughnut?
A: You gotta know how much water to add. If the dough does not expand, it will look bad. And it will taste bad.
Q: Which doughnut is most popular?
A: I think they like maple bars. They'll say, give me two dozen — but I want at least two maple bars.
Q: Your personal favorite?
A: I like the bear claw, the five-fingered thing. Sometimes I take it home, leave it aside until the morning and then put it in the microwave, then I cut it and put ice cream inside. Those are killer.
Q: So why doughnuts? Why not flowers or shoes?
A: I remember when I first came to the U.S., people were like, oh, let's go have coffee and a doughnut. I always stopped by 7-Eleven and got the powdered doughnut in the plastic wrap. Then, one time, I stopped by Dunkin' Donuts and thought, wow, this is a pretty good business.
Q: Remember the famous Dunkin' Donuts commercial where the guy gets up 3 in the morning and says, "Time to make the doughnuts"?
A: Hmmm. (He frowns, as if in thought.) No. But I think that's not enough time to make the doughnuts.
Q: Do you cook at home?
A: No. (He busts up laughing.) That's funny.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: Other businesses, like 7-Eleven, you have all the paperwork. Here we only have doughnuts and coffee, and that's it ... . The only problem is, you gotta get up early and make the doughnuts.
Marc Ramirez: 206-464-8102 or mramirez@seattletimes.com
From as far away as Queen Anne and Capitol Hill, they step into his breath-mint-sized shop in the Northgate neighborhood and ask: How's life?
Can't complain, he'll say with a smile. It wouldn't do any good. And anyway, it beats soldering printed-circuit boards for minimum wage, which was what he did when he first came to the U.S. from Cambodia in 1980.
Faithfully, they face down his armadas of jelly-filled, frosted or sugar-topped pastries, baked fresh every morning by his brother-in-law, who starts work at 1 a.m. "I'd like a dozen," they'll say.
"For here or to go?" he'll cackle, and that's Oeung: Amid a breakfast buffet of newfangled hipsters, a dependable taste of old-fashioned cheer.
Q: Ever fritter away your off-hours doing doughnuts in the parking lot?
A: Never. If I get away from here, I want to get away and not think about doughnuts.
Q: What makes a good doughnut?
A: You gotta know how much water to add. If the dough does not expand, it will look bad. And it will taste bad.
Q: Which doughnut is most popular?
A: I think they like maple bars. They'll say, give me two dozen — but I want at least two maple bars.
Q: Your personal favorite?
A: I like the bear claw, the five-fingered thing. Sometimes I take it home, leave it aside until the morning and then put it in the microwave, then I cut it and put ice cream inside. Those are killer.
Q: So why doughnuts? Why not flowers or shoes?
A: I remember when I first came to the U.S., people were like, oh, let's go have coffee and a doughnut. I always stopped by 7-Eleven and got the powdered doughnut in the plastic wrap. Then, one time, I stopped by Dunkin' Donuts and thought, wow, this is a pretty good business.
Q: Remember the famous Dunkin' Donuts commercial where the guy gets up 3 in the morning and says, "Time to make the doughnuts"?
A: Hmmm. (He frowns, as if in thought.) No. But I think that's not enough time to make the doughnuts.
Q: Do you cook at home?
A: No. (He busts up laughing.) That's funny.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: Other businesses, like 7-Eleven, you have all the paperwork. Here we only have doughnuts and coffee, and that's it ... . The only problem is, you gotta get up early and make the doughnuts.
Marc Ramirez: 206-464-8102 or mramirez@seattletimes.com
1 comment:
this is atleast the 3rd or 4th time that my father has made the seattle times newspaper.....also the 3rd or 4th time in Manning's career that the NFL has tried to rob another team of winning against the colts. GO CHARGERS!
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