Take Your Tops Off: A Mardi Gras Alternative
OK, actually maybe leave your tops on, because this one's gonna be a little cold. But Mardi Gras isn't just for peeps lucky enough to make it to the balmy French Quarter. One of the longest standing Fat Tuesday celebration goes down tomorrow in bone-shattering Detroit.
In most Polish-American communities, Fat Tuesday is well known as Paczki (poonch-key) Day, and even better known as the "Polish St. Patrick's Day," when the raucous parties revolve not around strings of beads but paczki--deep-fried mini-cakes filled with Bavarian crème, lemon custard and other sweet treats--OK fine, they're donuts, but special holiday donuts, traditionally the last treats eaten before the start of Lent.
And in Polish pubs and bakeries throughout the Upper Northwest, Paczki Day means free reign for a day off work and eating as many donuts—er—paczkis as you can handle. You can find paczki on sale tomorrow all over cities like Chicago, Cleveland and Buffalo, but the biggest party goes down in the Detroit suburb of Hamtramck, where thousands of revelers will brace the cold for Tuesday's paczki parade, paczki eating contest and lots of festive Polish dancing.
You might not get any beads, but you'll probably have a lot fewer regrets (except for a couple thousand extra of calories).
Related Stories:
· Hamtramck Paczki Day [Official Site]
· Mardi Gras travel coverage [Jaunted]
Photo: [Detroit Derek]
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