A Controversial Topic...

Since this is the time of year that we seem to have a lot of controversy, I thought I would throw out a controversial topic myself.

Anyone who knows me knows that one of my favorite things in the world is doughnuts. My go to doughnut is chocolate covered with a cream filling. I do like others such as the standard glazed, a glazed with chocolate icing and doughnut holes. When I got out of town, I’ll visit whatever doughnut shop is ranked the highest for a particular area. For the purpose of this post, I am going to center on what I feel are the two controversies in the doughnut world that I am directly involved in.

Krispy Kreme vs. Dunkin’ Donuts – I feel like this comes down to whether you are a cake donut or yeast donut person. I’ve found that people from the north seem to prefer cake and people from the south prefer yeast. If you’ve ever had a fresh glazed donut from Krispy Kreme when “the hot light” is on, I think it’s no contest. I’ve been known to cut across multiple lanes of traffic putting my passengers in danger to pull in to a Krispy Kreme when the hot light is in. I have an app on my phone that tells me when the hot light is on at a particular location. When we go to Nashville, I will stop at the one in Clarksville and when I am heading north on I-57, I’ll stop at the one in Marion Illinois. The only things a Dunkin’ Donuts have over KKD is there are more of them (including one actually in Paducah – the closest KKD to me is in Marion) and they have breakfast sandwiches. I’ve gone to a Dunkin’ Donuts in desperation when I need a donut and I’m always disappointed.

Red’s vs Munals – These are the two big donut shops in the Paducah area. I’ve gone to Reds for over thirty years. One of favorite things to do in my youth was play a couple of rounds of mini golf at the South Side course (behind Hardees) and then go grab some soft tacos at the South Side Taco Johns and chocolate covered cream filled donuts from the original Red’s location on Bridge Street. I knew of Munals and I think I stopped there in desperation once when the Red’s Bridge Street location was closed but I wasn’t impressed. Donna’s family are big Munals fans and she couldn’t believe I went to Red’s. Then, Red’s moved to Jackson Street and I had to pass by it all the time so I had to pop in there quite a bit. However, over the past year, I’ve started what is an unbelievable change. I now prefer the chocolate covered cream filled at Munals. They are what I want in a cream filled donut – the cream is supposed to burst out of the donut so that you have to watch out for getting it all over you. The Red’s version while still really good, simply doesn’t hold up to that standard. Munals also has enormous cinnamon rolls and fritters. Red’s has their famous fried pies. Munals tends to run out of my go to doughnut sooner than Red’s though, I went after I ran the Iron Mom half marathon and they were out at 10am on a Saturday.

I have no doubt some will agree with me and some will think “that guy has no idea what he’s talking about”. Feel free to comment ;-)