Tomorrow is Pancake Day aka Shrove Tuesday … what better time to ask for your recommendations for Canberra’s best pancakes?
Obviously the very best pikelets, flapjacks, crepes and drop scones are those cooked at home, and we published Diana Lampe’s crepe recipe on Sunday to encourage you all get flipping.
But we’re keen to know which Canberra restaurants and cafes serve up the most delicious pancakes so that the non-chefs can book in for a plateful for Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) breakfast, lunch or dinner tomorrow.
The obvious starting point is that Civic institution, the Pancake Parlour. Their Russian and Jewish Blintzes are scrumptious on the crepes front, but an ordinary short stack with real maple syrup and whipped butter (pictured above) is great too. My favourite dish on the menu has been the cheese and potato pancake since my first visit in the mid-1980s (the Alinga St basement restaurant opened in 1985).
A more recent discovery is Breizh Cafe at Ainslie shops, a creperie with such a Breton flavour you’ll feel as though you’ve stepped into a cafe in north-western France. The name Breizh comes from the Breton word for Bretagne/Brittany, the province where locals have cooked crepes for 2000 years. Traditionally the Breton peasants spread the batter on stones (“les galets”) over the fire.
My picks here are the sweet potato and gruyere galette (buckwheat flour-made crepes as pictured) to start and the Rhubarb “Suzette” – rhubarb baked in a zesty orange syrup, flambéed with Grand Marnier and vanilla ice cream to finish. Menam, menam (as the Bretons would say in their traditional Celtic tongue).
One of my favourite pancake meals ever was a breakfast special at Silo Bakery of crepes with blood plums. If there are crepes on the specials board next time you visit this Kingston favourite, I recommend you order them.
Which Canberra restaurant serves up your favourite pancakes? What makes the dish so special?
We’re also wondering whether all this pancake-eating means anything to Canberrans other than an excuse for a feast. Will you be giving up meat, fish, eggs or dairy for the Christian fasting period of Lent, which starts on Wednesday and continues till Easter? Or temporarily quitting a vice, such as sugar or drinking?
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