I don't know if paczki are eaten around the country today or just in our area. Paczki are kind of Polish donuts. Locally they have become popular the days before lent. Even though I'm Polish, I don't have many memories of paczki as a child. I do remember my aunt making them once, they were like a large donut hole with raisins. Not something I found exciting. The ones they sell locally are more like a extra sweet bismarks with a variety of fillings. Unfortunately I really like the modern version.
Krzysiak's House, a Polish restaurant in Bay City, sell thousands of paczki on Shrove Tuesday. They have a polka band playing and local radio and TV stations are there for the festivities.
Our paczki had a much less exciting origin, we bought them at Meijers.
The box we bought had raspberry filling, but there are a variety of fillings, cherry, custard, blueberry, apple, lemon, etc.
Ang lives in the Polish section of Brooklyn. When I talked to her last night, I suggest she buy an authentic paczki today. I doubt they are like the MI version.
P.S. Ang just emailed to say that the lady at the Polish bakery told her that in Poland they celebrate Fat Thursday, not Fat Tuesday. So she missed out on the paczki.
P.S.S. So Jenny is correct in her comment :)
6 comments:
Happy Fat Tuesday to you also. I learned something new. I didn't know it was called "Shrove Tuesday". Is shrove Polish for fat?
the shrove relates to the religious content of the day, about absolution of one's sins.
Poles outside of Michigan tend to eat their paczki on Fat Thursday (last Thursday) so you could have probably started in on the paczki last week.
And no, you can't really get paczki anywhere else reliably. I decided I wanted paczki last night, so I researched recipes. And after realizing how time consuming the recipes are, I researched bakeries. From what I can tell, there *might* be one place 40 minutes away that sells them. I wonder if I could just buy some bismarks and call them paczki?
also, tell Dad that a little pickled herring would also be customary to have today.
Where I grew up in Pennsylvania we had fastnacht day. Sort of the same idea I think. My dad was 100%slovak but because we lived in PA Dutch country it became our tradition, too. My dad was catholic until his 50s when he converted to our religion so we celebrated lots of things. Tons of polish folks lived around us, too. I miss these little holidays in Utah. We don't celebrate anything like that here.
So that's what I saw in Kroger yesterday. I was just wondering if they packaged their donuts differently. I didn't read the box. It's the first I've ever seen it. Thanks!
As a native Detroiter now living in central NY I miss (terribly) paczki. Sometimes you can find them at a local grocery store but they just cannot compare....every year we'd get some from a great bakery in Hamtramck.
Man, I miss home.....
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