Festival celebrates Polish pouches

Pierogi are so revered in northwest Indiana, which also has a large enclave of Eastern Europeans, that it hosts Pierogi Fest each July.

"It's always been a popular festival," says Mary Hassen, executive director of the Whiting Chamber of Commerce, the organization sponsoring the fest, now in its 14th year. "But we were picked by Oprah.com as one of the top seven events in the country so it was even more popular."

The first year, the organizers ordered 1,800 pierogi and sold out almost immediately. This year, visitors ate hundreds of thousands of pierogi.

Indeed to help make the 160,000 pierogi and 40,000 stuffed cabbages that he sold at the fest, Jesus Alvarez had his parents travel from his home state of Michoacán, Mexico, to Whiting where he owns and runs Lynethe's Deli, which specializes in pierogi. Alvarez, named "the Pierogi King" at the 2007 fest, says that the secret to making great pierogi is in the dough.

"I learned how to make dough from three Italian guys, and you can't learn how to make better dough than from Italians," he says.

But don't ask him for the recipe because it's a secret.

"Make that a top secret," says Alvarez who does mention that he creates pierogi using old Polish recipes.

Luckily, Daniese Sprague was willing to share her mother's pierogi recipe. Here it is.

- Jane Ammeson