- Kat Robinson
- FRIED BOLOGNA: It’s what’s for dinner, or breakfast
There are a certain number of dishes I consider to be native to south Arkansas. Most of these never grace a menu at a restaurant — sugared rice, tomato slices, mac-and-tomatoes, butter beans (not lima beans in butter), pintos-and-ham, yellow corn cakes, collard greens, apple smack (baked apples in cinnamon without a crust), blackberries and sweetened condensed milk, bream filets and fried bologna.
That latter item — you can find certain places. My friend Jerry rants and raves about the inch-thick slice on the fried bologna sandwich at Whatta-Burger. But not a whole lot of places. Jerry grew up around Glenwood, so I can see how that might influence his choice there. It’s just a south Arkansas thing, and it’s ingrained in us (such as the desire to consume every deviled egg at a gathering, just happens).
There is a place that does carry a certain south Arkansas meal, though, that I think should be pointed out, even if it is a truck stop. That place is the South Fork Restaurant.
It’s on the Gurdon exit heading south towards Texarkana on I-30. And there’s a particular meal there that just hollers that particular area of culture at it, if you’re willing to listen.