As the doughnuts cool, they lose the crunchy skin and become the soft doughnuts most of us are familiar with.

Once they emerge, they spend their short two-week lives climbing trees, shedding their crunchy skins and reproducing.

Our favorite was a special of schweinhaxe (roast pork shank), a fill-the-plate hunk with crackling, crunchy skin and tender meat.

"I like this country," Gallus said, tongue titillated by the perverse mixture of flavors in the squab's crunchy skin.

The duck was almost confit-tender, but with a crisply browned and crunchy skin - a truly satisfying bistro dish.

We liked the combination of roast duckling with whole pink peppercorns and pear, but the duck was stringy and the crunchy skin too fat-laden.

Soaked in buttermilk before frying, the quail was moist and spicy, with crunchy skin.

And I remember how one of my five brothers liked to peel the crunchy skin off his chicken and save it until the rest of us had devoured ours.

But there was flawlessly crunchy skin, perfectly succulent meat and a gloss of parsley-studded chicken jus that added an extra measure of moistness, just to be safe.

Dr. Presilla ordered the hornado, which came in moist slices, bordered by slivers of crunchy skin, all golden and crackling, and four savory side dishes.