16 Comments

I also love donuts, and pine for the donut of my youth found in a grocery story whose name I cant remember. after shopping with my mom we would buy a donut for the road, a chocolate covered cake donut. I can still taste the thick layer of choc frosting! nothing has ever come close. do beignets count?

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Beignets most certainly DO count. They are not just in the donut family, but they are in the direct line of succession, the prime lineage, the mysterious heart of the the donut galaxy.

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Alas, my friend, Spudnuts no longer exist. Maybe They're hiding somewhere where the diet police won't find them. It's a big desert out there.

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I hear you. I'm also on the run.

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Thanks for reminding me of the glorious spudnuts we used to get in SLC. Made with potato flour, the flavor was rich and the texture was light yet stood up to the frying so the outer crunch delicately encased the billowy middle.

Chocolate devilsfood took their place and added girth to my pirate's delight frame. When I volunteered as a candystriper at the snack bar at the LDS hospital, doctors loved to get one with a coffee between surgeries. Can you imagine being the patient under those knives?

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I'd rather have a doctor high on donuts than Adderall, but only for a short operation. And there's a place in Florida on the gulf coast - trying to remember the town - that has a local greasy donut shop that's famous for its potato flour donuts. I had not known they were a thing until then and - now that I know they are also in the west - my curiosity is piqued.

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Brilliant and piercingly sweet as a Krispy Kreme doughnut on a Friday morning, and my coffee is hot and dark as the new moon last night, and I'm thankful to have shared a moment in this journey with you.

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Same here, Matt! Can't wait to roll through there again.

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I used to love donuts, especially glazed. Then the health crazed folk around me inspired a love for the humble cake donut, possibly on a particularly lush day, one with a swipe of chocolate around the top. Nothing since my long-ago childhood even comes close, in flavor or nostalgie, as the spudnuts we used to get back in Salt Lake City in the 50s. Made with potato flour. O.M.G! I don't know what in the hell donuts are made from not, but it ain't potatoes ... or anything natural.

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Is that place still around, the potato flour place?

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Leave it to my buddy Paul to curate such amazing array of donut meccas & make it about something (even) more significant & vibe-y than the comforting sugar rush we receive from a road donut. Love this!

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That sugar rush could be a manifestation of some higher entity, El! Thanks and hugs and donuts.

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This piece reminded me of Anthony Bourdain. I've had a lot of health problems over the last 20 years and his show meant a lot to me during the worst of it, being able to travel with him and "eat" delicious food. Since I've somewhat recovered I've read most of his books and it turns out he was a great writer as well. RIP Tony.

As far as Mr. Vlachos is concerned I am really looking forward to his next book. Exit Culture was great. A writer he may be unfamiliar with buy I think he might like is the Canadian author Jim Christy. His best travel book 'Between The Meridians' is highly recommended as are his noirish Gene Castle detective novels set on Vancouver's downtown eastside. I feel like once you start with this author you want to read everything at least that's what happened with me.

Thanks.

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Thank you, Robert! That's high praise!

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coincidently, some of my very best days have started with a large coffee and an apple fritter......thanks for the reminder Paul

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nothing a good donut can't improve. well, maybe not nothing, but close...

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