Jake from Colorado has never had paczki. He's from Colorado. But on a cold March morning in honor of Fat Tuesday, he braved the winter temperatures to get a taste of his first-ever polish pastry.
And while a Jefferson Park bakery fries them up year-round, they’re especially in high demand on Fat Tuesday, appropriately referred to by some as Paczki Day.
Paczki, the fried Polish donut treat served on Fat Tuesday are a pleasure to eat. Whether you re from Hamtramk, Michigan or not, you want to get your vernacular correct. Here are the rules you need to know.
Paczki is plural, meaning two or more jelly filled donuts. So it is incorrect to say you ve eaten a dozen paczkis in the last week.
Surprisingly, here is the singular form of paczki: Paczek.
So it s one paczek and two or more paczki.
You know the pronunciation of paczki:
poanch-key
poanch-eck
There are those who would argue it doesn t matter if you call them paczkis as long as you stuff those fatboys with plenty of filling.
Do You Know The Difference Between Paczki And Paczek?
First off, let s learn how to pronounce both of those words.
Paczki - POONCH-kee
Paczek - POON-check
What s the difference other than the pronunciation? Well, one of those words is the singular name of that yummy cream filled, fried donut and the other is its plural form.
So, when you are at the store and you want to buy a dozen paczki, you say can I have a dozen paczki? You don t say paczkis because that isn t a word and you would only say paczek if you were buying one.
And then when you are enjoying a paczek, you should never refer to it as a paczki because that means you have more than one. Unless of course, you are double fisting paczki because they are so darn good, it s a waste not to have one in each hand.