A Lazy Afternoon Of Crepes

I have been in love with crepes for a long time. Or rather with the idea of making my own crepes.

When I think of crepes, I don't think of France, home of this little creation. Rather, memories of munching on savoury or sweet crepes with curry chicken filling or just strawberry jam along Harajuku, made by kawaii Japanese girls in the little kiosks dotting those cobblestone lanes, come to me. The Japanese, with their adulation of the French, with many a little French tea-shop, stylish pastisserie and classy restaurant inTokyo, have taken this to a higher level, with their own interpretation and value added to French cuisine.

And so I've been lusting after a crepe-maker for years, one of those idiot-proof contraptions where you ladle batter onto the maker and sandwich the lid down and in no time, have a pretty picture-perfect crepe. Except that I've been talked out of getting one by many more rational, less crepe-loving folks, along the lines of "How many crepes can you possibly eat, by yourself, to make it worth the while? You will be sick of eating crepes in no time!"

Fast forward many years to the present. After one cooking show where the celebrity chef (French of course) opined that in every good kitchen, there were 4 essential equipments, of which, a good crepe pan was one of them, G decided that we needed to get a crepe pan. But of course. Finally, a man after my own heart, I had no objections! I was going to get my crepe pan after all these years.

However, I was soon to find out that G had his eye on a fancy $200 Swiss designer crepe pan with diamond flecks (which will improve the performance of the crepe pan) with some jagged edge running on one small side of the rim. Luckily, there was no immediate commitment and by the time we were ready to get it, that design no longer seemed to be in production. As such, we reverted to a regularly-designed crepe pan which did not warrant parting $200 for. And I bought my $30 heavy-iron crepe pan which was put to the test this weekend.

We had a girls' lunch with savoury crepes with ham, tuna, cheese, tomatoes, and G's homemade pesto accompanied by the Taiwanese Oolong tea, which was much lighter and more fragrant than the usual Oolong blend. For dessert, we brought out Keith's jams and some other equally yummy jams and purees, slapped on the cream and bananas and had the crepes with Earl grey tea.

It wasn't quite Harajuku, but it was a nice, wet, lazy afternoon in Sydney.