What is a Paczki?

How is it possible that the community that gave the world halfmoons and tomato pie is not drowning in paczkis on Fat Tuesday?  The fried donuts are popular in many northern industrial cities, but not in Utica.

Paczkis are Polish donuts filled with cream or fruit fillings.  Paczkis are filled with common fruit flavors like lemon or strawberry and some not so common like prune.

Lots of northern industrial cities like Chicago, South Bend, Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo serve paczkis on Marti Gras.

A variant on the paczki is the style shown below.  The donut is sliced in half and a strawberry and cream mixture is placed in between the donut halves to be eaten like a sandwich.

Watch Paczkis being made at a bakery in Ann Arbor, Michigan: