People always ask me if I miss French food—honestly, I don’t. Many foreigners have such an exotic view of French cuisine that it’s hard to explain French don’t always eat (and cook!) fancy stuff. Sure, French value food—but so do Chinese, Japanese, Argentinean, etc. Daily meals do revolve around bread and butter and yes, there are cool pastries everywhere but at the end of the day, nobody is cooking filet mignon and coq au vin for weeknight dinner.
The only meal I miss is crêpes. Yes, it sounds a bit like “crap” but trust me, it’s really good.
Crêpes are Brittany’s specialty. You’ll find crêperies (restaurants that serve crêpes) everywhere in Nantes. These very thin pancakes are made from flour, eggs, milk, butter, and a pinch of salt. Normally, crêpes dough is sweet and galettes dough is savoury—the first one is served as dessert and the second one is the main. Drink of choice would be cider.
Common fillings for galettes include ham, cheese and egg, or even spinach, salmon, cream, artichoke, sausages… combinations and toppings are endless! Traditional dessert crêpes are eaten with butter and sugar, and Nutella (the famous hazelnut spread) is also a favourite.
When I first took Feng to a crêperie, I figured nothing could go wrong. He isn’t very picky and we’ve had more exotic food when travelling—dough plus several familiar toppings like egg, ham and cheese is fine, right?
Oh, wait—the egg. See, French love runny eggs. Add an egg on pizza (another thing French do) or on a crêpe, you can be sure it’s never going to be fully cooked. Feng hates raw food, including runny eggs. It’s a big no-no in Chinese culture.
Oops.
My lady is an especially good cook, so I called her over to look at your photos. She said the crepes are that dark, perhaps, because they are made with buckwheat? … it all looks like breakfast to me, though. 🙂
Looks good to me. I’d pause a little on the eggs being undercooked but I would just plunge ahead and eat’em. Food is cultural. Who’d of thought of being accompanied by cold cider?
I have not tried other fillings beside fruits and creams in the crepes. I will definitely try ham, mushroom,egg…etc. Those look yummy!
My limited experience with French cooking has been very positive. My impression was that the French take food more seriously than most. Not that every meal is fancy but even simple meals can be well prepared and tasty. As for eggs, I can deal with runny yokes but not runny whites. Sue makes perfect eggs. This discussion is making me hungry.
Haven’t (actually) been in your blog for ages, but I always read your stories through Google Reader.
I am a fan of raw yolk as well. I dunno why, whenever I cook egg, I always try to leave the yolk raw 😉
À l’heure du goûter, tu me donnes bien faim!
Very nice crepe! I’ve never taken crepes seriously before, for me, they are just fair food, or street food. I’ve had them in fairs before, and I also had a quick lunch in New York City before. However, I visited this restaurant in Canandaigua before, called Simply Crepes and that was awesome. They also have a branch in Rochester, NY. That’s the first time I saw fancy crepes for a meal. Although I think I should go to Brittany for the original.
Yummmmmmmmmmm!! Looks delicious! When we visited Provence we also enjoyed several visits to local crêperies, all with their own individual style and fillings. It was so delicious, everything from a full meal to a light dessert. My favourite was one which was filled with the most delightful seafood..and I quickly understood that one must eat these in France to really understand what they are!!
I had something similar in Paris and it was delicious.
I’m not an egg person but I’ll have a go at that Zhu, did you make them ?
Oh wow — did you make those Zhu??
Just catching up on your posts. Wonderful pictures, as always! I loved the glimpse of the market in Nantes and the Canada Day festivities in London. What a fun place to celebrate the day! Wonder what they’re doing for Independence Day? LOL.
The undercooked egg is exactly why I ALWAYS order my crepes without an egg! Salmonella, no thank you!
Glad you’re having such a good time!
WHY don’t we have any decent creperies in Ottawa? WHY??
I love half-cooked eggs too! just love the taste and sight of the oozing yolk! Haha~
Crepes are my favorite thing to make and to eat while in Europe. I usually only make breakfast type crepes here. Your photos look amazing and it’s great to remember the culture of where it all came from!