I'm about to write a post about fried dough.

But not just any fried dough.

It's Paczki day -- Fat Tuesday -- and this Polish girl was on a mini-mission. I get pretty picky when it comes to my Polish pastry and this is probably the biggest day of the year for that sort of business.

[Ann Arbor as center of paczki Google searches?]

It all started a couple weeks ago when Zingerman's deli sent me an email saying they decided they would make paczki this year. Now, I have a love/hate relationship with Zingerman's (because of their insanely overpriced but delicious wares) and I wasn't about to call ahead and place an order weeks in advance, nor fall prey to their claims of "authentic" for $30 a dozen (yes, you read that right) and a pound of flesh, when I know of a perfectly wonderful Polish bakery in Livonia, MI, that makes the best paczki ever at half the price.

But first, I thought I'd start with the local Polish deli in Ann Arbor, Copernicus. With homemade kielbasa, pierogi, golabki (aka stuffed cabbage) in their deli case, I figured they either made their own paczki or got them from a decent Polish bakery in the metro Detroit area. Turns out they imported their pastries -- from Canada! Windsor, to be exact. Maybe that explains why I was so disappointed with them. I found the paczki to be very dark in color, chewy, and the dough lacking in flavor. And mortal sin -- it looks like they cheated in the construction of them! These paczki were formed like sandwiches, two halves smushed together, then deep fried and filled. Oh, the horror. [As a joyful aside, I was able to pick up a six pack of Zywiec beer, which isn't too easy to find. Score 1 for the Polish deli! Oh wait - subtract 1 for the crappy paczki. And that equals 0. But we still came out ahead somehow with that awesome beer that my hubby likens to Grolsch or Heineken. I just plain liken it. heh heh]

It was a sad night as this was to be the only paczki I planned to get my hands on this year. I'd vowed not to spend the $30 at Zingerman's and I wasn't going to be making the trip to Livonia (about 30 miles from Ann Arbor).

Then I got a call from my niece, who *was* going to make the trip (bless her heart) and would I like to place an order? Why yes, I would! Paczki day is saved!! She was headed to GM Paris Bakery, where I would go with my parents every Sunday after church while I was growing up to get a few loaves of rye bread, lunchmeat, and if we were lucky, a couple paczki (they make 'em all year round but I reserve my indulgence to once a year) to share amongst us.

Zingerman's prune paczek

Armed with the knowledge that I would, after all, be eating my favorite paczki, I decided to relent to Zingerman's and cough up $3 (against all my principles) to try one for research and comparison purposes. Prune was my choice because that's all that was left. Ick. However, it did look lovely. It was so nicely fried.Zingerman's prune paczek

So I tasted it. And it was good. Really quite good. Despite my distaste for the prune filling, I noticed it was freshly made and that was a plus. The dough tasted different than I was accustomed to, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. But I wasn't sure it was going to win over the tried and true gut bombs I've loved since I was a child. And the price tag on this guy left a bad taste in my mouth.

GMP raspberry on the left - Zing's on
the right. Note the enormous amount of jelly
in the GMP.

Cut to the GM Paris Bakery version (btw, $1.25 or $12/dozen) -- about 1/3 larger than Zingerman's, and way more filling, which is too much of a good thing. Really. Even the custard, which I love. And the dough, while tasty, I was expecting it to be a little sweeter than it was -- was it really not as sweet as I remember? I'll keep biting until it gets better -- oh no...the paczek is gone and it never got sweeter. Not even a little bit. And the fillings, I can tell, aren't freshly made. My heart sank. Do I really have to admit that the Zingerman's paczek was better? They say that you can never go home again, and I guess that applies here.

Ouch.

And so, I have to be honest and say that overall, the Zingerman's paczek beats the GM Paris Bakery paczek in the flavor department. But I just cannot abide the price. Pure and simple, $3 is too much for fried dough stuffed with sticky flavored goo. I mean, really? And so I say, I will go home again, because home is good enough, especially at half the cost.

Til next year.