If you're a fan of pierogi, and you're an amateur or professional cook who thinks that you know a thing or two about the traditional Polish dumplings, you won't want to miss the upcoming Buffalo's Best Pierogi Contest. After all, "Buffalo is the Pierogi Capital of America!" - When it comes to hometown pride, this city has got the others beat.
On Saturday August 18 at 4:30pm, Corpus Christi Church* will be on the lookout for the cook with the best recipe, and who can deliver an award-winning entry that will "Wow!" the judges and prove that Buffalo's claim to pierogi fame is well deserved. Last year there were thirty-six contestants who entered in hopes of winning. Christopher Byrd, the contest organizer, says the event "captures Buffalo's love for food and while celebrating our city's rich ethnic heritage with recipes and traditions passed on from one generation to the next. It proves that Buffalo is the pierogi capital of America." Here's all that you need to know to enter... and hopefully win:
Applicants will be judged in one of three categories:
Homemade Traditional - boiled or fried pierogi filled with cheese, cheese/potato or kapusta (pickled or fresh cabbage) with or without mushrooms, carrots, etc.
Homemade Non-Traditional - open to entrant's creativity, keeping in mind that a pierog is a stuffed pocket of dough.
Commercial - open to any business using a traditional recipe.
Deadline for entries is Saturday, August 10.
*The contest will take place during Corpus Christi's 33rd annual Dożynki (pronounced Do-ZHIN-kee) Polish Harvest Festival on August 17, 18 and 19. This joyful commemoration, which dates to the middle ages, is the Polish equivalent of America's Thanksgiving holiday. Corpus Christi Church is located at 199 Clark St. in Buffalo, one block east of the Broadway Market in the heart of Buffalo's Historic Polonia. Applications for the pierogi contest and a complete listing of the Harvest Festival events can be found on the church website at dozynki.corpuschristibuffalo.org.
Hopefully John at The Sterling Tavern enters the contest!