78 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {food coloring} can remember, her family has been in the business of donuts. “My dad opened several donut shops in San Francisco. My cousins and my aunts, from Southern California all the way up to the Bay Area, also own donut shops,” says Lean. She started working as a preteen folding donut boxes and cleaning up on weekends, eventually working the register and interacting with customers. “My dad always taught me more of the management side,” she recalls. “He always hoped we would take over the business. I was the oldest of my two siblings so I had to learn the ropes.” But instead of donuts, Lean went into the business of serving breakfast, owning and operating a few restaurants in San Francisco. “My dad’s been telling me “Be kind.” That’s the motto emblazoned inside the lid of every large pink pastry box at Cruel Donuts on Laurie Meadows Drive in San Mateo. Owner Lean Ma has made that her goal, all while offering up some of the most inventive donuts on the Peninsula. “I wake up at 4AM every morning and I’m excited to come into the store and have my cup of coffee and see the first customer,” she says happily. Born in a refugee camp in Cambodia, Lean and her family arrived in the U.S. in the early ’80s and settled in San Mateo several years later. Ever since she TREATS cruel donuts words by ELAINE WU • photography by PAULETTE PHLIPOT
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