In honor of Paczki Day, AKA Fat Tuesday, I'm going to treat you to a blog post that is all things paczki. Here in the Detroit area paczki are even this minute being gobbled up in huge quantities. The Polish bakeries in Hamtramck have been hard at work for days now getting ready for the big day. New Orleans has Mardi Gras, but here in Detroit we celebrate Paczki Day! Everybody's Polish on Paczki Day!The city of Hamtramck (suburb of Detroit) is the center of Paczki Day celebrations. For a complete list of events for Paczki Day 2007, including details about the paczki eating contest check out the Hamtramck Star web site. You can even check out video from the 2005 paczki eating event.
The Detroit News has an article today, Paczki aplenty, with some interesting facts. For those of you who read my previous blog post on Michigan's Biggest Paczki, the final result of the competition was a 3 pound 7 ounce paczki. And the current official paczki eating record is held by Joe Menchetti, a regular competitive eater, who ate 11 3/4 paczki in five minutes.
I've also written a blog post about Starbucks featuring paczki in the days leading up to Fat Tuesday. But they are not the only chain in the metro Detroit area that is carrying paczki. In yesterday's Detroit News, Neil Rubin has an article, Farmer Jack baker is the guru of paczki. The article tells about the Farmer Jack grocery store chain selling 900,000 paczki each season. You should check out this article to see a cute picture of a paczki costume from the Hamtramck Paczki Parade.
So enough about the paczki already. Now go out and get yourself one of these gooey, delicious, Polish treats and celebrate Fat Tuesday while you still can... tomorrow we start the "good catholic diet"... 40 days of Lent to come with no sweet treats.
Photo by Clarence Tabb Jr. / Detroit News
