Beignets are very tasty members of the doughnut family, presumably French in origin. Available from two and only two sources:

The famous Cafe du Monde, located just across Decatur Street from Jackson Square in the French Quarter, serves them up very generously covered in powdered sugar. (Don't wear black!) CDM has expanded and now has a number of "branch" locations around the New Orleans suburbs, where the coffee and beignets are pretty much the same as at the original cafe, but the atmoshpere just ain't the same.

The other source for authentic beignets is the Morning Call Coffee Stand, formerly located just a couple of blocks down Decatur from the CDM but ~ since sometime in, I believe, the 1980s ~ now housed in a strip mall in suburban Metairie. Some of the woodwork and furniture from the original Morning Call was moved to the new place, so the interior offers some echo of the former glory. Many old-timers will swear that the Morning Call's product has always been clearly superior to Cafe du Monde's; they may be prejudiced by the fact that Morning Call used to offer carhop-type curb service, way in the distant past. (By the time I arrived in town in 1969, that service was already a thing of the past, and the subject of many nostalgic discussions.) Morning Call serves their beignets "nekkid," without sugar ~ they provide shakers of powdered sugar so that patrons can apply their own.

Beignets are made with no holes in 'em, and are deep-fried like any "standard" doughnut. The main difference is that they're good to eat only when very fresh, still hot from the grease pit. The dough is constituted in such a manner that if you let 'em cool off, they very quickly become thick, heavy and unappetizing.