2 February 2021

Day of the crêpe

Just when you thought the holidays were finally over, today is the much-anticipated fête of La Chandeleur in France a.k.a. Candlemas in Anglo-Saxon countries. The root of fête is, in fact, "feast": every holiday (Holy Day) is associated with good food and feasting - and le jour des crêpes (packages of ready-made crêpes and boxes of "crêpe mix" have been filling Paris supermarket shelves for days) - is no exception. 

La Chandeleur was a way to use the last of the milled flour from the year before and, some say, the very shape of a crêpe represented the sun, as winter days began to grow lighter. Just two weeks before Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday - it heralded soon-to-begin Lent when eating habits were curtailed for four weeks before Easter... when the feasting cycle begins all over again. - BPJ

Above: cidre accompanied savory sarrasin buckwheat flour crêpes precede froment crêpes, the more familiar white flour dessert crêpes. Their "crêpe-ness" lies in their lacy crispness and these, at the Breizh Café, got it right

No comments: :

Post a Comment