I enjoy celebrating Fat Tuesday every year for many reasons. It reminds me of my Polish heritage and how different my life is today compared to how my family lived just three short generations ago. Secondly, It also allows me an entire day to eat donuts and have a legitimate reason why I need to enjoy another. Because, in all honesty, most years this is the only day I eat an actual donut, so lay off! Lastly, the Mardi Gras celebrations are just too fun! Someday, I hope to travel to New Orleans for the festivities.
This year, I bought the half-dozen pastries that you see above - 2 lemon, 2 bavarian cream, 1 raspberry, 1 blueberry. Yum.
So, as you enjoy your delicious paczki, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia with a little history of these tasty treats..
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In Poland, they are eaten especially on Fat Thursday (the last Thursday before Lent). Many Polish Americans celebrate Paczki Day on Fat Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday). Traditionally, the reason for making pączki was to use up all the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the house, which are forbidden during Lent.
In the large Polish community of Chicago, and other large cities across the Midwest, Paczki Day is also celebrated annually by immigrants and locals alike. In Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Hamtramck, Windsor, Milwaukee,Pulaski and South Bend, Paczki Day is more commonly celebrated on Fat Tuesday instead of Fat Thursday. Chicago celebrated and Fat Tuesday, due to its sizable Polish population.
In Hamtramck, an enclave in Detroit, there is an annual Paczki Day (Fat Tuesday) Parade, and lines at bakeries can be seen up to 24 hours before the deep-fried delights go on sale Tuesday morning. This happens especially in Parma, Ohio at Europa Deli & Imports, Colozza's Bakery and Rudy's Strudel and Bakery. Europa Deli & Imports keeps to its Polish tradition by celebrating Fat Thursday as well. People will wait in lines, or in their cars that run up and down Ridge Road; Parma Police have regulated traffic in past years. In Toledo, Ohio, people will start waiting in lines at 4 AM to get fresh paczki for Fat Tuesday. A local Polish grocery store called Stanley's, located on the north end of town, makes them homemade. The same thing happens also in Buffalo, NY, Cleveland or Garfield Heights, Ohio, outside the Charles Peters Bakery, which is near the border of both cities (at the triple intersection of Turney Road, Grand Division and Sladden Avenue). According to Garfield Heights police, one year 3,000 people waited for pączki. Police had to close Sladden Avenue, and Rybicki and Son Funeral Home had to delay funerals due to this. Many bars in town open early in the morning and provide free entertainment, a party atmosphere, pączki-clad mascots and, in at least one bar, pączki filled with Jagermeister. The Paczki Day celebration in these areas are even larger than many celebrations for St. Patrick's Day.
2 comments:
Have you ever been to the Polish Market in Troy? There is also one in Hamtramck, but I've heard the one in Troy is better. They have tons of Polish and German foods-pickles, cheeses, deli meats, really excellent looking cakes and tortes in the bakery case, breads, pierogis, the whole 9 yards. And it's not very expensive, it's for Polish people in the Detroit area, not for schicki-mickis who want to buy Eurofood.
I haven't visited the market in Troy, but my family does occasionally go to Hamtramck. We usually just bum around and stop in to one of the local restaurants for lunch - there are two we like, the Polish Cafe and the Polonia. We do still make pierogis every year for Christmas. Do you and Conrad like them? I should make some and have you two for dinner!
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