I’m a Dunker

When it comes to food combinations, give me something absorbent and a liquid with complementary flavor.

I love many things dunked, and some are required — I refuse to eat a dry oreo, or any non-chewy cookie without milk. Pro-tip: the way to “dunk” a thin mint is taking a small nibble out of opposite ends and sucking the milk through like a straw; it’s delightful.

A newer dunk discovery of mine is the grass fed burger at Cafe Osage, choosing their tomato soup as the side. This is dunking level 99. Similarly the ham & cheese at Loafers with their chicken and rice soup is unbeatable. In fact, I recently found that this is the best way to enjoy this soup if you’re taking lunch in a van, for both culinary and practical purposes.

There are, of course, all the classic coffee combinations, the most iconic being donuts. I find a chocolate a covered donut to be especially well-suited for this task, as the chocolate is both sweet and rich enough to stand up to coffee, and it helps hold the cake together once saturated.

One that I don’t get is how some people dunk fries in chocolate shakes. I think this doesn’t do it for me because it’s not really dunking, inasmuch as the fry does not soak up the shake. It’s simple dipping, no more than sticking them in ketchup.