No, this is not about Gus Van Sant's dreary teen paean to "Henry IV, nor a gratitous, ass-kissing review of blogger Steve Graham's cookbook "Eat What You Want & Die Like A Man" to cage traffic... it's a word play on potato flour and a full bore, unabashed plug.
While Steve deserves kudos for a great read chock full of wry humor, bon mots such as Strategic Grease Reserve (you do have a Bell jar of bacon grease in the fridge, don't you?) and irreverent cracking-wise, "God: '...I love corn on the cob' ", Rubens tossing doughnuts imagery and very un-PC effrontery we've come to love and expect from Steve, it's the recipes that make EWYWADLAM a must-have for anyone who cooks or eats. My copy already bears witness to his genius with greasy fingerprints, dog-eared pages and a cracked spine from wedging it under a heavy flour cannister.
While I admire Steve's shamless embrace of lard, extole his fluffy biscuits, exhault over Ribs from Hell and go all goosebumpy over his silky flan, it is his masterly doughnuts that made the price worth while for me (and it's ridiculously cheap, friends).
You see in my mis-spent yute, a local doughnut shop called Spudnuts was Valhalla. As soon as the parental eagle screamed, we'd pump our little legs off biking over to blow our allowance on maple bars, custard filled *spit* french *spit* crullers, dark crispy cinnamon-pecan twists coated with a heavy vanilla glaze that covered your tee-shirt in sugar snowflakes... but it was their lighter-than-air raised doughnuts that made children cheer, women swoon and strong men weep.
In the days when anything with a hole in it was judged by how many you could wedge onto your pudgie fingers, Spudnuts were taller than our digits were long and so light they almost floated into your waiting maw, the thinnest of glazes crackling onto your chin. Forget Crispy Cremes, flat, overly-sweet imitations of the beloved Spudnuts. I never thought I'd taste those lovelies again, I was wrong.
Now I can die happy and I've made myself hungry.
UPDATE: An original recipe Spudnut shop still thrives, near Richland, WA, if you're lucky enough to live nearby, go and eat one or two for me.
Posted by feste at July 29, 2004 10:32 AM | TrackBack