January 24, 2008

Crêpes

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crêpe with sweetened cream, sliced bananas, and chocolate sauce

2 weeks ago I watched the Japanese movie Linda Linda Linda about a High School all-girls rock or J-pop band. The movie is about a tradition in Japanese schools' fall or holly festival where they have a number of food and souvenir booths and the highlight is the performance of several rock bands towards the end of the festival. The drummer of the group is working in a booth that sells crêpes, the most popular are the banana with chocolate sauce on a bed of sweetened whipped cream. It made me crave for the banana chocolate combo which I used to have in Hong Kong in one of the Japanese coffee shops where the coffee machines look like they belong in a laboratory, see photo below. Those machines make really good coffee, btw. That was nearly 20 years ago when I developed a taste for anything Japanese. Our apartment was a few minutes from the Causeway Bay area where there were (I'm not sure if they are still there) 4 Japanese department stores: Sogo, Matsuzakaya, Mitsukoshi, and Daimaru, and several coffee shops. Daimaru was the one I went to regularly because of their bake shop which is located at the entryway on the ground floor. When I was done with the grocery and household shopping (my first santuko knife which I still use, a pair of leather gloves which I still use, and a 3-fold umbrella that, you guessed it, I still use after almost 20 years!), I stopped by the bakeshop watching and waiting for the still warm milk loaves being sliced by a machine and for the buns (kashi-pan) filled with chocolate or vanilla cream and sweet azuki bean paste. In my honest opinion the Japanese bakeries make the creamiest, softest, most delicious breads and buns. I miss those breads, but at least I had my fill of choco-banana crêpes today. Mmmmm.

Photo: Peter DaSilva for The New York Times


Crêpes

7/8 cup flour
¼ cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons cognac
2 tablespoons melted butter
1½ cups milk
  • Sift flour, sugar, and salt into a bowl. Add eggs, one at a time and mix until free of lumps. Mix in lemon zest, cognac, and melted butter. Slowly add milk and mix until batter is consistency of thin cream. Let it stand an hour or two before making crêpes. Heat a crêpe pan or a 10-inch non-stick skillet and rub with a little butter. Pour some batter on the pan and tilting about to let it run over the bottom in a fairly thin layer. When lightly browned at the bottom, turn carefully and brown on the other side. As each crêpe is cooked, remove to a hot platter and keep warm. Re-butter pan as needed.
Filling suggestions:
- sweetened whipped heavy cream, sliced bananas, chocolate sauce
- sweetened cream (or pastry cream), sliced strawberries and Nutella

Crêpe on Foodista

10 comments:

Ruy said...

Wow, you've been living around the world pala.
What a wonderful food tour!

Chibog in Chief said...

this is my favorite crepe combo: banana and chocolate..yummy..the japanese movie your talking about is it new or an old one? i havent seen it yet..its true what you say about them selling stuffs on kiosk ..i did that too when i was a student in tokyo university..we sold banana-que hehehe japanese loved them :-)

Oggi said...

Ruy living in Hong Kong was a wonderful culinary and cultural experience. I loved the 3 years we were there!

Dhanggit the movie was released in 2005 and it's mostly about the band's search for a vocalist (they chose a Korean who hardly spoke Japanese). It's a dramedy combined with HS life and traditions. I loved it, but then again I love Japanese films!
Bananacue, nobody can resist them, specially the Japanese!:) They also love our nata de pina and coco which they believe have qualities that are good for the skin (acne in particular) that the neighboring Asian countries started making them for the large Japanese market, althoguh they still prefer the ones from the Philippines. Wow, ang haba na!

raissa said...

when my sister and I make this during family get-togethers its always a hit. Its such a hit that we have to sort of bribe our younger cousins that they can have crepes if they eat dinner first LOL. I got the basic crepe recipe online, make our own cream, store bought chocolate sauce, nutella, strawberries, bananas, whipped cream and ice cream. Its so sinful but oh so good

Oggi said...

Raissa chocolate sauce, whipped cream, nutella make everything so yummy, and they're even better with these egg-rich french pancakes.:)

I read in David Lebovitz's blog the buckwheat savory ones with ham and an egg cooked on top of the crepes. I'll make those next.

Chibog in Chief said...

hey, im waiting for your weird meme :-)

ps, nope i think the japanese students couldnt resist to my charms LOL just kidding

Oggi said...

Dhanggit I started writing the meme last night which surprised me. I will post it later today.

I do believe those students weren't able to!:D

Anonymous said...

love, love ,love crepes

Oggi said...

Sakai, hi and welcome to the crepes lovers club!

maiylah said...

yummy yummy shots!

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