Crêpe vs. Pancake
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CRÊPEs AND PANCAKES comes down to the recipe, giving it that texture.Typically, a crêpe is just a thin pancake, is it not? A European culinary delight: shunning air bubbles, bounce, piled for plating pancake aesthetic. Thin means, also, there’s no Japanese jiggle.
Calling it a pancake in and of itself suggests heft. Pre-Lent Shrove Tuesday in Britain sees a thinner version of the American pancake get made. Are we snobbishly upholding the stereotype that most Europeans are thin or meagre? It’s the day to indulge after all. The French Diet has entered the chat…
Out of every Pancake encountered, I’ve yet to see the layering cake effect of tasty American buttermilk pancakes. Lemon and sugar as pancake toppings are a British classic. Is that where “flat as pancake” comes. British pancake recipe is the same as French crêpe traditional recipe. Both exclude a raising agent. The difference is that English pancakes are not as thin or big as French crêpes.
So outside of France it’s called a French crêpes. In Norway they deliver complication. The Norwegian Sveler looks stackable and much like the fatter stateside pancake of similar batter.
Crêpe vs. Galette
Street food with flair? I do love a plated moment with either, though. The pliable glutinous chew of a crêpe demands your attention like a bowl of hand pulled noodles. You could eat it with chopsticks: the single handed concentration of oral pleasure is doubled. Which is ironic, as this is the sweet version of the thin pancake or crêpe in cone from a street stall, often smothered in Nutella.
The galette or Breton galette cannot be distinguished from the crêpe by sweet and savoury nuances alone.
The Best Galette in Caen Normandie
The rozell is mandatory for the best galette. As a home cook, you don’t need a crêpe maker to make a crêpe; English pancake, or a galette but out of your home, it is a tragedy if neither a billing nor rozell are in the hands of the street vendor or restaurant kitchen.
Rain being a backdrop for Normandy, there is solace in back alleys. The locals are comforting. The streets; inviting, warming to me. There were gifts to be bought and the relief – the sheer relief – of having the last purchases to hand made me giddy.
I went for the La Larzac galette at the Caennaise crêperie La Ficelle – established in 1974. The galette was crispy on the edges. The potatoes rounded off the rocketing roquefort funk that was tamed by the ham and gently balanced by the crême fraiche. The handsomely wrapped galette took it over the edge. Bite, even in the middle and little fermentation flavour in that buckwheat – that can put people off from the “savoury crêpe” – was toothsome and whole. The salad may look like an afterthought but it was not.
What does L’ andouille De Vire taste like?
A typical day in Normandy means it’s raining. A hand held street food crêpe? Or galette (only in London this..) just doesn’t cut it. Nor should it. It takes time to savour. This is the French way. Let’s cut to the point. French butter from Normandy divinely lifted off a plate, like a sauce you need to mop up the crêpe up with, requires a plating moment. In the Vaugueux District of Caen you find that thin doesn’t mean meagre. So if the crêpe needs a plate, what about the galette?
Here we have Andouillette de Vire in a galette. I ordered it several times, alone or with whatever it came with and each restaurant said it sold out.
At Pourquoi Pas in Caen, the waiter was hesitant to serve me this galette.
“Madame, are you sure? It is quite a strong… taste…”
I was sure. It tasted like smoky spaghetti ribbons of stink in the best possible way. The egg and whatever else was inside leant itself to one side. The entire galette tasted of this laborious creation of pork intestine and stomach, smoked over beechwood for God knows how long.
Ratings!
Food – 8.8/10
Value for money 8/10 (I love a Ricard)
Vibes and service – 9/10
Pourquoi Pas Caen
Food – 7/10
Value for money 8/10
Vibes and service – 6.5/10
EuroRevs 
Let me know if you’d like a part 2!