The wonut illustrates another grand old American tradition, too: the layering of mountains of different types of food in a single dish, which goes back at least to the invention of the ice-cream sundae 120 years ago.Good ideas spread fast, so hybrid hits are soon copied.
On a coach in Fukuoka once I heard a young lady discourse for ten minutes on the different flavours of ice cream you can get in Japan (green tea and squid sundae, anyone?).
Its four minarets hem in a massive vanilla sundae of domes and semi-domes, in a modern pastiche of the traditional Ottoman style.
To dream of an éclair or a cream puff, even of a modest dollop nestling a cherry or topping off a sundae, was close to a traitorous act.Mr Rich, however, dreamed often of whipped cream.
If beer's more your thing, check out their gold medal winners from this year's International Beer Challenge: Cambridgeshire golden ale with chicken and chorizo empanadas, Scottish craft lager to match chargrilled calamari, and, for pudding, their Belgian cherry wheat beer is divine with chocolate sundae.
Their celebratory meal consists of ice cream sundae, buttered toast, pretzel sticks, jelly beans and popcorns.
Enclose it in a gift bag or cardboard box wrapped in Christmas paper and the portable sundae bar is good to go.
By the time we were working our way through a mile-high sundae of knickerbocker glory (it took a while to find the fruit, but yes, cherries and pineapple were in there) a miasma of gloom had settled over the restaurant.
But in disinheritance, material possessions are emblematic of withheld love; the individual has sought affirmation, approval and affection throughout life, and being cut off is the final raspberry on a sundae of rejection.
But the knowledge that I'll almost certainly end up looking like a cross between Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia and an apricot sundae makes this a definite no-no for me.
Or what about this fabulous spread for the picnic blanket: feta & herb pastries, chicken & chorizo empanadas, manzanilla & cuquillo olives, followed by raspberry razzle sundae.
