Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday, which is the day before Ash Wednesday, and signifies the last day of indulgence before entering into a period of fasting during Lent. In America, we usually call it Fat Tuesday and hold Mardi Gras celebrations which don't really have much religious implication. But as I learned this week, apparently in the UK and Australia they have Pancake Day.
Now, upon first hearing this, I thought, "what a great idea! Pancake Day instead of drunken-crazy-sinful-disgusting-mardi-gras day." But Pancake Day wasn't quite what I expected.
You know all the other 'different' things other Western cultures do that I sometimes use this little forum to rant about or highlight how odd I think they are? Well, Pancake Day blows them all away.
Our team got together to celebrate this day before Lent's beginning, and a pancake spread was put before us. But imagine my and the other few Americans' total confusion when we are told to put sour cream, lettuce, tuna salad, and green peppers on our pancakes. On our PANCAKES! It ... was .... WEIRD. Christy, another American, and I were trying our best to try something new, but it was just WEIRD. We had an Australian girl explain why we were participating in this abomination, and she was shocked that we'd never had savoury pancakes. Apparently there are sweet and there are savoury pancakes (they tasted the same to me ... and FYI they refer to crepes as pancakes, too). So the savoury were the ones we were loading with chicken and sour cream and whatnot. But pancakes just do not go with taco fixings. It's just not right.
We then got to have 'dessert' pancakes, which were a little more regular though no sign of syrup, which again is unfathomable if you are an American. It's an unspoken standard that you have syrup with pancakes. But instead we had mandarin oranges and chocolate sauce to pour over the crepes. (They also think it's really weird that we have donuts for breakfast, since essentially it's cake for breakfast which isn't necessarily the healthiest or easiest thing to put in your tummy early in the morning.)
All I can say is, my pancake world was severely rocked tonight. I think I'll stick with my good ol' thick, buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup, thank you.
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2 comments:
Yesterday was Pancake Day here too. People really didn't know about it I guess (everyday I something day now) but there were free Pancakes at IHOP. I didn't partake (pancakes make me sleepy. I only like to eat them for dinner really). Anyways, about the doughnuts. It's so true! They are desserts! For breakfast!? Not good.
They were putting tuna on pancakes (yes yes. crepes)??? Ok - I'm an Australian and even I think that's wrong. ewww!
But yes - there is such a thing as savoury - but the type I do is more like a ham/pineapple savoury, not tuna. Plus, my family always have the option of syrup (as well as lemon+sugar) for the sweet.
Poor suzanne! I would've thought with North Americans on team they'd throw in some flapjacks (your pancakes) for you guys.
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