Arkansas Little Rock Mission

My favorite food would definitely have to be the fried catfish and fried okra and the hush puppies. There's a lot of barbecue there and that was definitely my favorite food. I love fried anything and so it was just, oh, food absolutely there. The fried chicken, just the fried mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, just barbecue is just amazing.

Catfish was good there, fried green tomatoes. Oh, one of the best meals I ever had was a member family had us over for dinner and they did like a Louisiana-style crab bake. And that was some of the best food I ever had. It was so good.

A member did take us to a place where, I don't think it's there anymore, it's been years, but it was a place they served hubcap hamburgers, and they had hamburgers the size of a hubcap. And they were like really huge, but man they were really good.

Since I started Spanish speaking, I got to try a whole other range of food that I was not used to, and I came to love tacos, and taquitos, and beans, meat, and other rice and such. I didn't really like beans or rice before my mission. I grew to love them because of the way that they prepared them. They were so delicious. But one of my favorites would be pupusas. One of my favorite things to do with pupusas was this restaurant in Russellville, where they sold dollar pupusas on Tuesday. It was perfect. So we would go to a district meeting, and afterwards, you're hungry, you want to go to lunch, so me and my companion would go. Sometimes the other elders in my district would go as well, and we'd get dollar pupusas. You'd get four of them for four bucks, and you also have chips, and you just get water as a drink. It would fill you up, and it would be amazing. It would be really delicious.

Serving all over the southern states, there were a variety of good foods to eat, but I think, surprisingly enough, the greatest gem that I ever came across was, it's kind of surprising, was when I was serving in Quitman, Arkansas. We, as the missionaries, lived in Heber Springs, and they have a drive-thru. It's called Kataro International, and it's right off the main street. They do hibachi, and it's a little bit more expensive, but they give you a lot of food, and it's amazing. Some of the best that I've ever tasted, which is really surprising for, like, the middle of nowhere in Arkansas, but it is fantastic. Would highly recommend.

Barbecue, barbecue, and barbecue. I served my most of my time on the Memphis side of the river, so I was able to have a lot of good barbecue, but for all of you who will be serving up by Mumford and Covington, you're gonna have an area called Mason. It's a little small town, but there's a barbecue place called Bozo's Barbecue. It's delicious. You always have to go to the rendezvous, eat that barbecue. Nobody does barbecue the same. Corky's is, um, it's all right, but it's not the best. And in Walnut Grove, and I don't remember what it's called, Walnut Grove is right outside of Memphis, but man, there is a really, really, really good Chinese buffet.

Everything in Arkansas is fried. So, of course, one of my favorite foods is also fried. It's actually fried catfish. They do have that everywhere. Everyone has fried catfish, and it is delightful. If you are okay with fish. If not, then I steer clear of it. It's a pretty fishy fish. But yeah, I really like that. I also loved one of my favorite dishes that were served to me. It was called cantaloupe pie, which is like a cream pie, but made of cantaloupe. It was wonderful. They have some really good Cajun food. So if you want to burn your tail end off, let me tell you, their Cajun was fantastic. But yeah, all my favorite foods were fried because everything there is fried. French fries, and like I said, the okra, fried okra is really good.

Some of my favorite food in the south was pecan pie or pecan pie as they say with their southern accent. So good down there. A food I'd never had before but is so good is called chicken spaghetti and you just have to have someone make that for you. It's really good. In Arkansas, I noticed they really like queso. They really like cheese dip and they like chocolate gravy is a thing. So yeah, definitely immerse yourself in the culture. Try lots of different foods. Try to step out of your comfort zone because you're only there for not too long.