Speaking of Mister Donut, it seems that they are g…
Speaking of Mister Donut, it seems that they are going to make an attempt to return to Taiwan this fall. As I recall from the old stores in the train station and in the triangle-shaped shop next to the old Tonglin Department store, the donuts weren’t that exceptional, but at least they were real donuts. The closest thing we’ve had since Mister Donut left was one half-hearted attempt by Ankiss, an attempt that lasted only a few months. Ankiss is a pretty stupid name anyway.
My guess is that, if the MD spin masters don’t whip up a consumer frenzy by making donuts The Thing To Eat! To Look Fashionable! And Western! so that lines not seen since the good old egg-tart days of yore appear at every outlet, we’re going to see the typical life cycle of a restaurant here, a.k.a. good donuts for about 6 weeks, then a general slackening of service. Fried squid will edge onto the menu after a couple of months, then other more attempts to satisfy local tastes. Then they’ll start frying the donuts along with the squid, sweet potatoes, and bean curd. The servers will get all surly because people complain that the donuts taste like sea-dough, and investment in the franchise will be pulled due to lack of profit.
But who knows? I could be wrong. I’m long past the days when I could have 11 donuts for breakfast anyway. Nowadays I’d be lucky to get 5 at most.
In any case, this fall could theoretically see me one day eating real donuts as I watch the original Star Wars trilogy or the extended version of The Return of the King on DVD after a nice long session of Half-life 2. Talk about the Life of Reilly. Dare I hope?
