The week of Thanksgiving is obviously one full of food, albeit with that entire week’s worth of calories pretty much all crammed into one day (plus a weekend’s worth of leftovers in soup and sandwiches). There are also the boatloads of buckeyes and maize-and-blue chips you’ll eat during The Game (defending champ Michigan vs. Ohio State, for the uninitiated).
But I think this week is the biggest, best-est one of them all. Truly, I do.
Because we’ve got — drum roll — Paczki Day, aka Mardi Gras, aka, Carnival, aka Fastnacht Day, aka Shrove or Pancake Tuesday. So we’ll get paczki (which are not just glorified jelly doughnuts, thank you very much), king cakes and beignets, German-style doughnuts, pancakes, obviously, and crepes. And that’s just Tuesday’s fare!
We’ve also got the first fish fries of the season on Friday, hosted by area churches. (Check with your favorite one to see if they’re holding in-person or drive-thru events, or postponing or canceling this year.)
And starting on Monday and running through March 6, we have Restaurant Week Toledo, benefiting Leadership Toledo and its youth programs with a percentage of your meal tab being donated to the good cause.
Go look for those stretchy pants when you’ve finished reading this, so you’ll be ready. You’re gonna need ‘em.
Now, this part has been about the feasting that benefits local businesses, religious institutions and school groups, and programs for teenagers. It’s a mitzvah (translated from Hebrew as a commandment) to partake of the partying.
But there’s also fasting: In the midst of it all comes Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent and the season of spiritual preparation for Easter.
In the Roman Catholic Church, that means you’re not only abstaining from meat on Wednesday, as is also required on Lenten Fridays; but you’re eating just one small meal and two others which, when combined, would not equal a full meal.
Now, you can still support Restaurant Week that day, if you look over each restaurant’s menu carefully. There are items which would qualify for a light lunch or dinner, as well as nutritious snacks to help sustain you from, say, a participating coffee shop.
And on Friday, you can enjoy a seafood dinner or a vegetarian or vegan meal at a RWT-designated establishment, too. (The Catholic definition of “meatless” only prohibits traditional meats such as beef, pork, chicken, lamb, etc., rather than fish and shellfish.) Whether you go to one of those spots or to a church fish fry, you’re investing in the community.
Don’t @ me, as they say in the Twitterverse, about this week’s calories and carbs and all of that. Paczki Day is one day of gleeful gluttony, and fish fries are something I look forward to all year long. And Restaurant Week is such a joy — a way to sample different cuisines, different dishes, and different establishments, all for a good cause.
Making friends and having fun over food. That’s what my job — and this week — are all about.
First Published February 27, 2022, 2:00 p.m.
