It’s a Paczki!
Yep. It’s Mardi Gras. Or Fat Tuesday, and it’s the holiday that can be traced to the Romans when Jean Baptise Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville, landed on New Orleans in 1699 and called it “Pointe due Mardi Gras,” as. By the early 1740s, Louisiana’s Governor The Marquis de Vaudreuil established elegant society balls — the model for the New Orleans Mardi Gras balls of today. Eventually it became the trademark celebration of the events of celebration or “Carnivale” before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lent, the 46 days before the beginning of Easter.
Now, the festival boats parades, beads, parties, alcohol, and that Southern food that is not exactly good for you, but tastes heavenly. In that vein, the Paczki (pronounced poonch-key) is a deep fried, cream or fruit-filled donut that is a mainstay for Mardi Gras celebrations. It was brought to the U.S by Polish immigrants and is that perfect mix of doughy, sweet, fried goodness.
It’s around 400 calories, so if you want to splurge, this is the dessert with which you should forgo calories and just focus on the taste and decadence. Even in the midst of these rough Economic times, we all deserve a little Paczki in our lives.
