PACZKI DAY IN SOUTH RENO

Paczki Day 2014 falls on Tuesday, March 4.  If you’re not Polish and/or not from the Midwest, you probably just mumbled, “Whaaat?”

Paczki (pronounced POONCH-kee) are dense, deep-fried Polish pastries filled with fruity jelly or buttercream and often sprinkled with powdered sugar.  They’re gobbled up with gusto on Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) in cities and towns with large Polish populations.  You know, it's the last day to indulge in treats before the beginning of Lent. 

In my hometown of Chicago, everyone is Polish on Paczki Day — just as all of Chicago becomes Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.

Long lines form outside of Chicago bakeries, which sell thousands of paczki packed with blueberry, strawberry, peach, prune, lemon, apricot, any fruit you can name — as well as custard or chocolate cream and sometimes poppyseed.  Note: The singular form of paczki is paczek (pronounced like pooncheck).

Displaced Midwesterners won’t find Paczki Day extravaganzas at the South Reno casinos.  Wouldn’t it be fun to see “Paczki at the Peppermill” become the winter equivalent of Hot August Nights?

Yet imagine my amazement this past weekend, almost a month before Paczki Day, as I walked into the local Smith’s  (750 S. Meadows Pkwy.) and spotted — right in the doorway, next to the shopping carts — a display of paczki. 

They were even labeled PACZKI, not jelly doughnuts or bismarcks as they’d be called in most supermarkets.  My husband teased me, “They must have heard you were in town.”

At Smith’s, the paczki choices  (in containers of four for $2.39) were lemon, strawberry, blueberry, Bavarian Cream and apple.  I bought strawberry paczki but was peeved to find out that the package actually contained apple paczki.  

Smith's apple paczek (mislabeled as strawberry)

It wasn’t a crisis but sort of like asking for Dr. Pepper and getting Pepsi instead.

This morning at Doughboys Donuts  (57 Damonte Ranch Pkwy.), jelly-filled varieties included lemon, strawberry, blueberry, Bavarian Cream and raspberry.  Items here are sold a la carte and I ordered (and received!) one with lemon filling ($1.10). 

Lemon-filled paczek from Doughboys Donuts

In a taste test, I think the Doughboys Donuts version won, not only because I prefer lemon over apple filling, but also because the texture of the dough was lighter.

Do I anticipate that mobs will storm Smith’s or Doughboys on the morning of March 4, chanting, “PACZKI …. PACKZI … PACZKI …?”  

Not really, but both of these South Reno stores are clean, bright and friendly. A safer bet than the grungy-looking Jelly Donut Coin Laundry in Midtown Reno. 

Jelly donuts at a laundromat?  Why?

UPDATE!  Are you fearless enough to try making your own paczki at home?  Here's a link to a video demonstration from Bogna Solak of Chicago's Oak Mill Bakery.  The video is part of the "Poland On A Plate" series that airs on Chicago's Polvision and is sponsored by Krakus Ham.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBLO-flHt5M