GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The wait is over West Michigan, because today is Paczki (punch-key) Day!
The popular Polish-American tradition is celebrated by eating very rich donuts filled with anything from cream to fruit and topped with powdered sugar or glaze, on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It's meant to kick off a season of fasting and reflection leading up to Easter.
And I do mean VERY RICH, with a singular paczek (Poon-check) potentially bursting at the seams with between 500-1000 calories.
That's the equivalent of:
- 10 packs of fun size chocolate M&Ms (one fun size M&M pack has 73 calories)
- 3 slices of pepperoni and cheese pizza from Little Caesar’s (one slice has 280 calories)
- 5 cans (12 ounces) of Coke (one 12 ounce can has 140 calories)
- 4-5 tacos from Taco Bell (one hard taco has 170 calories)
- 4 Krispy Kreme original glazed donuts (one donut has 190 calories)
I stopped by Sandy's Donuts on Grand Rapids' West Side, where they have been working around the clock to make sure this Fat Tuesday lives up to the name.
“We have bake staff here around the clock from Saturday through the end of Tuesday, or until we run out of ingredients,” Sandy's Donuts co-owner Lindsy Hoezze told me.
And for the sake of everyone looking to get their hands on a paczki today, let's hope that doesn't happen because they will sell a lot. Due to the chaos of the day, Lindsy and the crew won’t get an accurate count of how many of the calorie-stuffed, belt-busting baked goods she’ll sell until dust has settled, but the number will be in the tens of thousands.
"I don't know if it's because people bring them to work and then they loved them, or if it's just the novelty of it's one day a year. I don't know," Lindsy said. "But I know generations have passed it down, from grandparents to children two now their grandchildren, great grandchildren, and we are seeing younger people now. In the last couple of years, more than ever that are ordering. And it never used to be like that."
Regardless of why, they are ready here at Sandy’s and when Fat Tuesday is over, the team here celebrates accordingly.
"We drink champagne, and we have paczki vodka."
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