Upon consuming a delicious sugar crepe in front of Notre Dame I pondered where the name came from? How many creperies were there in Paris? How many kinds of crepes are there? And what was that cool little gadget that so perfectly distributes that batter into a wheel on the skillet? I found myself diverging away from the beauty of the stained glass windows of Notre Dame and somehow diving into the delectable treat I was currently munching on. I glanced over towards my boyfriend, Mick, who was savoring every bite of his as well, and with a mouthful said, “Belgium may be known for its waffles, but France has certainly perfected the pancake.”
He was absolutely right; crepes technically were pancakes. When I thought pancake I automatically thought of Bisquik and the All-American stack of 4 pancakes with syrup dripping off of it at the local diner. These were quite different tasting and looking, but still in the same category by default. It seems crepe was derived from the Latin word “crispa” which means curled; implying all of the crepe fillings are perfectly wrapped up inside of the thin wheat flour pancake, which is referred to as one of France’s national dishes.
This was Mick’s first time to France, and Europe in general and he was blown away by the delicious Parisian cuisine. I may have been minimally jaded by French culture from my previous eight years of studying it, having tasted years worth of mock crepes from French teachers and “wanna-be” French cuisine restaurants this was finally the real deal. The first time I went to France was this past September and I tasted many a crepes then as well and was baffled by their deliciousness, but for whatever reason this time instead of just devouring the crepes I contemplated their existence in the French culture.
The previous day I had treated myself to a nutella and banana crepe and my boyfriend a ham and cheese crepe. What different fillings: one a substantial part to a meal, the other a nice little dessert or snack though both wrapped in the perfect curled, thin pancake shell. Evidently, I wasn’t the only person who recognized the difference. Crepes are broken down into two different categories: crepe sucres (sugary crepes) and glaettes (unsweetened, savory crepes). The dessert crepes are made with sugar in the batter, while the savory more substantial or omlette like crepes are made with buckwheat. I must have starred at the menu for at least five minutes reading all of the crepe options: ham, cheese, mushrooms, asparagus, spinach, onions, not to mention the sugar ones which included pineapple, nutella, sugar, whipped cream, powdered sugar, bananas, strawberries, cinnamon, or syrup.
Not only was I counting the types of crepes, but also after I made my decision and consumed my treat I counted the vast number of crepe stands within the city. Just between two metro stops I counted 17 and that is saying I didn’t miss any, which I most certainly did while taking in the sights and being pestered by those annoying men selling five Eiffel tower key chains for one euro. Who needs 5 Eiffel Tower key chains when they can buy a crepe with that one-euro, honestly? Then it dawned on me, crepes weren’t just served at creperies but in the finest of restaurants as well, so my 17 places where crepes were served in a one-block radius could probably be quadrupled.
Though I could find no definitive answer as to how many creperies there actually are in Paris, I double-checked my findings by Google mapping creperies in the Paris region and the entire map was jam-packed with little stars of locations of creperies. They are on every street corner, in every stand, and at every restaurant. I decided to run my only personal test to see if they were just as popular and delicious as my boyfriend and I had found. I asked my 63 huis mates in a facebook survey when you think of the word French food what is the next word that comes to mind- 54 answered crepes. The other responses were escargot, baguettes, and wine. I wouldn’t count wine as French food but it sure does go well with it. I rest my case that crepes are directly associated and at the top of the list of French foods. In fact, everyday there are 2 new French cuisine books published in France and just about everyone of them includes some sort of crepe involved recipe. That is a lot of recipes, and a lot of crepes!
After this test was run my housemate and good friend Justin and I researched a crepe recipe. Though we did not have the correct carbon steel crepe pan or crepe spatula (the one that resembles a mallet and so precisely spreads the batter evenly throughout the pan) we were rather successful with a non-stick pan on the stove and your old fashioned plastic spatula. We went for the dessert crepes and added sugar, and even cocoa to make the crepe have a chocolaty taste to it before even adding any filling. My one complaint would be the consistency of the crepe; it wasn’t as even as it would’ve been with the genuine crepe making tools. I hope to get my hands on an original French crepe spatula one day so I can make them even closer tasting to the authentic Parisian crepe when I am not lucky enough to be able to gallivant over to France for the weekend for a real crepe.
No comments:
Post a Comment