The forgotten flapjack

By Ashley Ann Mentley

 

Many people in Windsor are snubbing tradition and celebrating an ancient holiday by choosing deep-fried and jelly-filled over the classic pancake.

Feb. 17 was Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as Fat Tuesday or Pancake Day.  It is a day celebrated around the world in various cultures as one when it is okay to eat excessive amounts of food, most commonly pancakes, and dates as far back as the medieval ages.

More recently, however, Windsorites have been known to forego the plain old pancake for something cool, hip and European – the paczki.

A paczki, pronounced POONCH-key, is a Polish dessert, according to Blak’s Bakery in Windsor.

“It’s basically a jelly-filled pastry, but also a doughnut,” said Kaitlyn Pindus, who works at the century-old bakery.  “The paczki dough is very rich and it’s powdered and has filling in the middle.”

While making the two foods is similar – using up all the eggs, butter and sugar before the start of Lent, a Catholic season which historically involves fasting – locals seem to have lost sight of the namesake of Pancake Day.

A recent Facebook poll showed that 70 per cent of Windsorites prefer a paczki over a pancake.

“You can have a pancake any day of the year,” said Jessica Cameron, a Windsor native.

And it’s true.  Even though there are pancake dinners held at various locations around the city to celebrate, it is the authentic European bakeries that really ramp up the paczki production in advance of Fat Tuesday.

Pindus said Blak’s starts baking paczkis the Thursday before Shrove Tuesday.  On Feb. 17 alone, she estimated they sold almost 30,000 of the powdery Polish pastries.  With each paczki averaging 700 calories, Windsorites ate over 21 million extra calories on Fat Tuesday.

And for those who have moved away from Windsor?  They just might have to settle for Aunt Jemima and maple syrup.  The popularity of the paczki seems to be focused in areas with higher Polish populations,  Windsor and Metro Detroit being one of them, with people from out of town asking, “What’s a ‘patch-key?’”

It is difficult to not be bombarded by paczkis when grocery stores start stocking them three weeks ahead of time and the iconically Canadian Tim Hortons also sells them on Feb. 17.  On the windsorite.ca website, there is even a tab at the top called “Where to get paczki in Windsor.”  But what about the forlorn flapjack?

Emmanuel United Church was one of the few local establishments offering a traditional pancake dinner.  As a volunteer and member of the congregation, Mary Dajenais is a proud supporter of the tradition.

“Even as a kid, I remember having pancakes on Shrove Tuesday,” Dajenais said.  “Whereas the paczkis, I don’t know, I feel like that’s been the last eight or 10 years.”

And although Dajenais said pancakes should always be the winner, even she admitted to eating a paczki for breakfast on Tuesday.

With more people now referring to it as Paczki Day, the future of the pancake in Windsor seems a dismal one.  Shelves at the grocery stores remained fully stocked with the ingredients while locals had to pre-order their Polish doughnuts just to ensure their availability.