Paczkis!

If there's a plus side to the predominance of religion and their various superstitions, it's in all the specific religion-related food you get to sample. Case in point: paczkis.

Paczkis are basically glorified donuts sold by some bakeries on Fat Tuesday, and only Fat Tuesday. The first time I came across them it was accidentally. I bought one, thinking it was just an everyday Polish variation on the donut, and was disappointed to find them gone the next day. The past two years, however, I've been better prepared. Yesterday I bough two fresh strawberry, one lemon, two raspberry and one apricot.

I didn't eat them all, of course. The picture in this post, which I stole from Chicagoist doesn't do these things justice. They're the size of huge burger! Two handers, really, or fork and knife if you're a neat-freak. They're also great: sweet, fruity and lardarific.