Just before Ash Wednesday my Mom showed up here with paczki. What the heck are paczki, I can hear you asking... well in a word, donuts. Yeast donuts filled with jelly and rolled in sugar. Traditionally they were served on Fat Tuesday. Why? Well it was a way to use up all the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the house because you couldn't eat those things during the Lenten fast.
Growing up there was a bakery in the East End you could get paczki during the appropriate time of the year, but I haven't had one in years and years. I was really surprised that Fortinos (a large chain grocery store) was not only selling them, but also had them on the front page of their flyer. This led to a conversation with a friend who had seen the paczki in the store, but didn't know what they were besides obviously being donuts, about how popular ethnic foods are these days. Like I said, when I was a kid if you wanted paczki you had to know where to get it. My grandparents frequented a little store down near their favourite Polish church where they could get the proper kielbasa and now you can get it at the grocery store. Progress, huh?
With so much available now at the local grocery store, it's opened up a whole new world wide menu to those adventurous enough to try it out, and some of my favourites are....
1. Tikka Masala - This is one of Mike's favourite things to eat. Hat tip to Uncle Dave for this one.
2. Rice noodles in peanut sauce - Oh my word, so yummy!
3. Tamale Pie - I've tried to make it myself, but it paled in comparison to the version at my favourite restaurant.
4. Perogies - of course! Also cabbage rolls and paska. I never could get into borscht, but maybe I should try it again now that I'm older.
5. Chinese bbq pork - We don't do Chinese.. ever, but when we do this is my favourite.
What are your favourites?
5 comments:
em, borscht is still yucky as an adult. ;)
Thanks lot for this useful article, nice post
I grew up in a big hispanic area of Los Angeles, so for me it's Mexican food. Yum! Chicken Mole ( chicken in a chocolate sauce) screams party to me. I learned to make flour tortillas when I was 8 and there isn't anything better than homemade tortillas. I could go and on...nopales (catus), chirzo and of course tamales.
Shannon, the things you posted sound yummy too. I don't think I've ever had any Polish foods, I'll have to look into it.
Thanks for the post and have a great weekend.
Cathy
Shan, do you have your Grandpa's Borscht recipe? Something Fred always talks about about. I guess when Grandpa would make it, Gord and Fred would go up to the farm house for lunch!! I keep telling him I'm going to try making it but I don't have the recipe!! I'll make it and we can all try it!!
I love Indian curries and poppadums as snack food.
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