After much debate, the decision to start the 2006 season was settled on Pansy, in South-Eastern Manitoba. Now, the great thing about Pansy it that it's not really a town at all. It's this community center, a church, and a mailbox. (Plus it's called Pansy! How great is that?) Oh, and they have an awesome Pet Cemetary. I have no idea what the story is behind the pet cemetary, but it's a few miles out of 'town', has a well-maintained parking lot, brand new sign, and picturesque paths winding around the bush. No markers as far as we could see, but fascinating nonetheless.
But I digress. The Pansy fall supper was noteworthy for its four-line system (no line-ups despite a packed house) and its fantastic variety of food, not surprising since it was advertised as a Ukrainian Smorg. Here, off the top of my head are some of the treats offered: Fried chicken, two kinds of meatballs, two kinds of cabbage rolls, perogies with a creamy dill sauce (great flavour, but a little gummy), yummy peppery mashed potatoes, amazing sauerkraut with big pieces of ham (so mild, tender and hammy), pickled beets (heavy on the cloves, which is a good thing), sweet Ukrainian crepes stuffed with cottage cheese (Nalysnyky) and piles of other preserves, salads, and jello. There was actually enough non-meat options here for the vegetarian among us to eat her fill too (not always that common on this circuit...)
The dessert table was also impressive - lots of homemade pies, dainties and squares to choose from. A big pitcher of thick cream straight from the dairy accompanied the coffee.
Sounds like heaven, right? The best in the East?
No, sir. Not the best. Although the results are unofficial, the moniker of best in the East may still have to go to Gardenton.
You see, part of the dilemma whilst choosing the supper this weekend was to decide if we wanted to branch away from Gardenton this year. As you have read in the 2005 recap, G. is the traditional kick-off to the supper season for this gang. But we thought we should try to branch out, to experience what else the world of suppers had to offer us. So we went to Pansy.
The gravitational force of Gardenton's perogies sucked us in, though. Yes, friends, we did TWO suppers in ONE afternoon. Disgusting. Over the top. Gluttonous. But we all can categorically now state that we can assert with confidence that Gardenton does have the best perogies ever consumed by any of us, plus it has pumpkin pie that will make you weep. Well, it made Jenny weep, anyway - (seen here in a 2004 photo...)
Even though it was the tail end of the supper and half the food had been taken off the tables already, the perogies maintained their amazing, light texture. No gumminess! Beautiful, thin cream sauce with tiny bits of fried onion. Intense cheddar flavour with the potato filling.
They. Are. Perfect.
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