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Digital News Report – Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, or the last day of Mardi Gras before Ash Wednesday which is the start of Lent. Mardi Gras Fat Tuesday is on is March 8, 2011 this year, which is always the day preceding the fasting weeks ahead during the season of Lent. This has created a tradition to party it up before the fasting begins. Here are some of the traditional foods that are eaten on Fat Tuesday.
In the UK, the day before Lent has been called Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday. The reason for calling it Pancake Day is because of the restrictions for eating sugar, fat, and eggs during the fasting weeks. So they eat pancakes in this area in order to enjoy these foods which they won’t eat for quite a while. In Ireland, they may also call it Pancake Tuesday. People in Iceland call the Day Sprengidagur which translates to “Bursting Day” and they tend to eat salt meat and peas until they feel like their stomachs will burst.
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In the US, the Polish Catholics in Chicago and Detroit call it Pączki Day. There have Pączki eating contests and celebrate by eating other ethnic foods from Poland. Pączki is a Polish doughnut which look a lot like the jelly filled doughnuts that most people are familiar with eating. There are several Pączki recipes online showing how to make your own.
In New Orleans, Louisiana, it is traditional to have a King cake. The Louisiana version of the King cake is often decorated with purple, yellow, and green colors for the Mardi Gras celebration. The cake is often a twisted brioche sweet French bread that sometimes has a filling of nuts or fruit and have icing drizzled on top and colored sugar sprinkled on top in the Mardi Gras colors. Sometimes the King cakes are more like a deep fat fried doughnut. There are also many recipes online for baking your own New Orleans Mardi Gras King cake.
So, if you want to eat something special for Mardi Gras Fat Tuesday, you probably will want to have a doughnut, pancakes, and a Brioche King cake. Maybe you won’t have enough room, but you can always have something next year in 2012, when Fat Tuesday will occur on February 21st.
By Victoria Brown