Yeast-raised doughnuts filled with rose-petal jam, plum jam or vanilla cream, deep-fried in lard and dusted with sugar or glazed. The single-day national obsession on Tłusty Czwartek (Fat Thursday).
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
Pączki are pan-Polish but the Fat Thursday tradition is national. Cukiernia Paradowski in Gdańsk Wrzeszcz, open since spring 1945, runs the city's most-photographed queue every year. The pre-war recipe came with Stefan Paradowski from Warsaw's Ziemiańska pastry shop in 1945.
Common allergens: Gluten, Egg, Dairy
Cukiernia Paradowski in Gdańsk Wrzeszcz is the city's oldest active confectionery, opened spring 1945 by Stefan Paradowski. Son Andrzej still runs the shop; old recipes, no improvers, sourdough bread alongside the cakes.
Tip: On Fat Thursday (Tłusty Czwartek, the last Thursday before Lent), the queue stretches down Wajdeloty.
Worth the queue: Pączki on Fat Thursday
Pellowski in Gdańsk is the family bakery on Długa, with branches across the city. Rye breads, granola rolls, the poppy-seed bread and apple cake the locals reach for at 09:00 sharp.
Tip: The Długa branch fills fast at lunchtime; the larger Słupska Street store is calmer.
Worth the queue: Poppy-seed bread
Le Delice in Gdańsk Wrzeszcz works a tight cukiernia-piekarnia format on Partyzantów. Big French-school croissants, eclairs, the kind of cake-case display Wrzeszcz returns to weekly.
Tip: Croissants out of the oven about 09:30; the chocolate ones go fastest.
Worth the queue: All-butter croissant
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