You say tomato, I say...

According to the dictionary, the correct spelling for a circular shaped chunk of fried dough is Doughnut.  On signs around the country, it's Donut.  Down in New Orleans, it's Beignets(which, trust me...I made them a few weeks ago...it's a doughnut). At the county fair, they have elephant ears/fried dough...

Pretty much every sub culture/region has it's version of a 'doughtnut.  The Jewish culture have Sufganiyah(plural sufganiyot). 

I don't go into it much...but I am from a Jewish family on my father's side...but I am not practicing.  Heck...since I never even had a Bar Mitzvah, I'm not sure I can call myself Jewish.  But...Jewish is one of those things that kind of straddle a line...Yes, it's a religion, but it's also a culture, with rich traditions.  And my wife and I want my daughters to know about that culture.  So...we eat matzoh at Passover(and other times, because I love me some Matzoh Brie), and we light the menorah and talk about what it means...and for Hanukkah this year, I made a batch of these sufganiyot for breakfast, and a few nights before that, we had latkes with dinner, and a really tasty noodle kugel(I used Alton's recipe, but egg noodles instead of lasagna noodles) for desert.

I think you always worry that you might be doing stuff wrong as a parent when you are raising your kids, and trying to teach them things that are important...but I think in this case, by tying tasty treats in to a bit of history...my kids have a much better chance of remembering the significance of oil than they would if I just handed them a Jewish History book.

Now I just need to find an excuse to work gefilte fish into a holiday...THAT will stick in their memories for a good long time.