It's all about the Idaho!

There are a lot of reasons why I am enjoying living in Mantua and tonight I was reminded of this fact as I was eating an Idaho baked potato. While I was at Wal-mart the other day I noticed the only potatoes avaliable were "true" Idaho potatoes, I was in seventh heaven let me tell you, the big decision was do I buy a five or 10 pound bag. When we lived in Big Water, we did most of our shopping in Page, Arizona and Idaho potatoes were few and far between and when the store did have them they charged an arm and a leg for them, but believe me it was well worth the extra money. Let me explain:

Growing up in Salt Lake City, I thought all potatoes were the same. It's true we only bought Idaho potatoes but 20 years ago in Salt Lake I don't know if there was anything else available. It wasn't until I was in my late 20's or maybe even my early 30's that I realized that there was a difference between Idaho potatoes and the "other" potatoes.

The truth is that one very cold night in Toronto, Canada I was invited to eat dinner with the Jazz coaching staff. We made our way across the street from our hotel to Coach Sloan's favorite steak place in Toronto (he has a favorite steak house in every state I've since learned). When the waiter came to take our order I proceeded to order a baked potato with my steak and the waiter asked if I'd like an Idaho potato for a $1.50 more. Being my usual quiet self (insert laugh here) I said no thank you. And Coach Johnson piped up and said, wait a minute Cindy are you sure? The only true potato is an Idaho spud, and the fact is that Coach Phil, as I like to call him, is a native of Grace, Idaho so I knew he would know something about potatoes. He told the waiter to "upgrade" my potato to an Idaho spud knowing how disappointed I would be if I were to get one of the "other" potatoes. So that night I continued on my journey of only eating Idaho potatoes, still not believing there was a big difference.

It wasn't until I moved to Big Water that I really took notice that a potato is not a potato. When I was forced to buy an Oregon potato or a potato with no claim to a state, it was then that I realized the Coach Phil was right, the only true potato is an Idaho spud.