Comedian and commentator Mo Rocca traveled to Hamtramck last year for CBS Sunday Morning to get this report on Pazcki Day 2008.

Hamtramck's Pazcki Day page gives you all kinds of lore and legend on these traditional Polish doughnuts which are also known as Bismarcks or plain old jelly doughnuts. They explain:

Pączki is the plural form of the word pączek in Polish, but many English speakers use paczki as singular and paczkis as plural. A pączek is a deep-fried piece of dough shaped into a flattened sphere and filled with Plums or other sweet filling...

Pączki have been known in Poland at least since the Middle Ages. Jędrzej Kitowicz has described that during the reign of the August III under influence of French cooks who came to Poland at that time, pączki dough baked in Poland has been improved, so that pączki became lighter, spongier, and more resilient Pączki Day Traditionally, the reason for making paczki has been to use up all the lard, sugar and fruit in the house, which are forbidden during Lent.

I guess that if you're facing 40 days without sugar & fruit, a plateful of paczki makes a lot more sense. Dig in with the links below!

• The photo to the right comes from Wikipedia's Pączki entry.
• Forgot to buy your paczkis? Vina at recipezaar has an Authentic Polish Paczki recipe that she found handwritten in her Polish grandmother's cookbook!
• The Paczki Headquarters at the Hamtramck Star is packed with paczki goodness including photos of paczki as big as your head!
• Your Diet Is About To Meet It’s Nemesis (or why it’s called Fat Tuesday in Detroit) by Detroit Derek on Michigan in Pictures got this big ball of dough rolling!
• You can get even more photos at Flickr Hive Mind: Paczki
• There's a bunch more Pazcki Day info at Kitchen Chick including audio of the correct pronunciation of paczki and the story of  THE FAMOUS PACZKI THAT SAVED EUROPE!
• If you need a sound track to get going, head over to paczkiday.com.
• ArborWiki has a Paczki entry that includes a list of the best bakeries in Hamtramck.
• Absolute Michigan has more Hamtramck links for you to snack on.
  
• The Freep is supposed to be posting the results of their Paczki Limerick Contest this morning but haven't ... maybe they're in a food coma.
• What kid can resist Paczki Pals & Bobbleheads?