Fat Tuesday

There are certain days when I miss being in the US. Fat Tuesday is one of them. I miss being in the US because I can't get paczki (pronounced POONCH key) here. Ground zero for paczki lovers is the Detroit suburb of Hamtramck with its old Polish bakeries. Those bakeries still produce prodigious quantities of paczki every Fat Tuesday, and the lines are still around the block at 6AM to buy them.

The lines are the same, but the people in the lines have changed. Hamtramck is no longer a Polish suburb, but is a Muslim area, like Dearborn. The Hamtramck Muslims have adopted Fat Tuesday for the sake of the paczki, and that's who you find standing in line to buy paczki now. Paczki transcend religion because they are that good. They are like a filled doughnut, but with a richer dough that seems to melt in your mouth.

I am making do today with Dunkin' Donuts filled doughnuts. Not the same, but the best I can do here.