A SPUDNUT Encounter - My First

Oh, Spudnuts!
        I grew up in south Arkansas, about 25 miles north of the Spudnut Capital of the Universe:  El Dorado, Arkansas.  Ok, so not the universe.  But, what was once a national franchise is now saved for 38 stores, ranging in location from Washington and California on the West Coast to Virginia and the Carolinas on the East Coast.  Along the way, in 1948, and currently in 2012, Arkansas fell into the mix.  Never had I encountered a “spudnut.”  That’s right – never.  While I have been to El Dorado so very many times, I was oblivious to the Spudnut phenomenon. 
          On 4^th of July, my sparklers often “Spudder(sic).”  And I have searched until I found a “Spud(sic)-muffin!”  I even share the observation with Sarah Palin that Spudnuts could fit in with a conversation about Sputnick. She said we needed a Spudnut Moment not a Sputnick Moment.  “We need free market ingenuity of ordinary American entrepreneurs, both great and small -- whether they make high-tech gadgets or potato donuts," Palin wrote. We need American Ingenuity and hard work.  We need “SPUDNUTS!”
         "Spudnuts are hilarious until you eat one, and it shuts you up real quick."  
          Spudnuts are different from doughnuts. For one thing they're made from potato flour and for another, they just plain taste better. They are lighter and not as greasy as a doughnut (donut). Shop owners state, “spudnuts are habit forming. Eating just one could turn you into a regular customer and one of our life-long friends. If you're not careful you could find yourself coming in to the shoppe on a daily basis to chat with friends or just to relax with a cup of coffee, a spudnut and a newspaper.”
         “It is hard to think of El Dorado, AR, without thinking of Spudnuts,”says one patron.  Personally, I think about oil wells when I think of El Dorado, but to each his own.

            This place (Spudnut Shoppe) is an El Dorado icon whose history goes back to the 1940's when its founder brought the POTATO style donut, also known as the "Spudnut," back home from California where he was stationed in the Navy during the war.
            After hearing that my cousin was looking forward to a trip to El Dorado to get some “Spudnuts,” Marvin and I had to experience what the the unique culinary hubub was all about.  So, before we drove back to Hot Springs from Camden, we drove 25 minutes south to El Dorado and pulled right up to the Spudnut Shoppe.  There we stood in line and bought a dozen “spudnuts” which we ultimately shared with Pam. 
          It was definitely worth the drive and constitutes yet another culinary adventure in Arkansas, this time in South Arkansas.