The lowdown: Pancake Day
Oh crepe. Not again.
Yep, that’s right. Originating from the Christian tradition of using up rich foods before the period of fasting over Lent, pancakes come from the mixture made when eggs, fats, milk and flour are combined. Luckily, most people just love the excuse to pour syrup on carbs, so the ingredient list is loosely adhered to, varying in levels of tradition from restaurant to restaurant.
Let me guess, someone’s come up with a luxury pancake.
Yep.
And it’s got caviar on it?
How did you know? The Rise at The Grand Hotel & Spa in York has created a £50 pancake (that comes with a glass of bubbles on the side, obvs) stuffed with ‘lobster, caviar, champagne, smoked salmon mousse and fennel’. It’s described as ‘extraordinary’, but we feel like we’ve seen these ingredients used in the same way before…
OK, what about at the other end of the spectrum?
Bishopsgate’s 24-hour Polo Bar Café is putting on a ‘Pancake Tower Challenge’, offering diners the chance to tackle a stack of 12 American-style pancakes, filled with fresh berries, vanilla ice cream and strawberry sauce. Instagram shows the monstrosity topped with cream and a slice of red velvet cake, although that isn’t listed in the challenge description - and there’s no word either of what happens if anyone manages to complete it.
Flipping heck… is there a middle ground?
The Breakfast Club, pancake purveyors since 2005, has pretty much everyone covered with its 2018 Pancake Club. The group is teaming up with a host of its foodie friends, who just so happen to comprise some of the capital’s favourite bakers, traders and producers, for its limited edition Pancake Dreams menu. Dishes on the menu include pizza pancakes, boozy pancakes and chicken pancakes, in collaboration with Coqfighter fried chicken, Pizza Pilgrims and Bulleit Whiskey (you can tell who has collaborated on what).
It really is just an excuse to eat all the unhealthy foods we love, isn’t it?
Pretty much. That said, for the Gwyneth Paltrows among us, there is a vegan option on offer at Covent Garden’s American diner, Christopher’s. Beetroot and sunflower seed pancakes are stacked alongside rainbow chard and spirulina, and pumpkin and turmeric ones. Topped with pomegranate seeds, bee pollen and coconut yoghurt, it’s basically the Planet Organic of pancakes.
Sounds… healthy.
Oh, we forgot to mention: they’re rainbow coloured.
Of course they are.
