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Back in January or so, during a typical Twitter stream dedicated to the subject of food, pancakes piqued our interest. Globetrotter Diaries, OMG! Yummy and Chow & Chatter and I found ourselves consumed by them. It sparked a conversation of sorts and lead to the idea of collectively presenting pancakes.  Although I whipped up a Lemon-Ricotta version, considered covering Matzo Brie and Latkes or Potato Pancakes to pull recipes from my heritage, I decided to dive into a brief history of the pancake instead. But true to art-form, I’m happy to present my talented food-blogging friends delectable posts. But be careful, I assure you, you'll be craving these pancakes:

Strawberries and Cream Pancakes

 (photo and post by  Rebecca Subbiah / Chow & Chatter)  

Chinese Scallion Pancakes: Pancakes Gone Global 

(photo and post by  Karen / Globetrotter Diaries)

Bubbe’s Bubula – Recreating my Grandma’s Puffy Matzo Meal Pancake

(photo and post by Beth Lee / OMG! Yummy)

Sure enough we weren’t, or I should say aren’t, the only ones with a penchant for pancakes. In fact there's an entire week dedicated to the food! Here's more to bite into: Get Pancaking for National Pancake Week and Celebrating Pancake Week: Pancakes an American Creation? You thought wrong!

Not just around pancakes, the food-blogging community has delightfully connected and welcomed me into the conversation. Artists at their craft, I admire their work, and they’re a warm community to cozy up and connect to.They blog, I occasionally share food, wine or relevant thoughts here and certainly share via Twitter; yumivore has given me a great handle on and feeds my voracious appetite for just that! Catch more yum on Twitter and be sure to follow @globetrottings, @omgyummyblog and @chowandchatter!

Do you by the way have a penchant for pancakes?

Pancakes. The mere mention of the word and watch as eyes light up. Pancakes are the epitome of comfort food. Whether you’re eating them while wearing cozy slippers and lounging late one morning, or enjoying them as a fulfilling dinner, pancakes are a universal feel-good food. It’s perhaps the one meal that easily appeals to all ages, and can be found across the globe. Sweet or savory, and regardless of what you call them, this thin round flat delightful disc musters up memories and easily gets our stomachs grumbling.

So if in fact pancakes can be sweet or savory, what makes a pancake well, a pancake? By definition:

•  The ingredients may vary, but all pancakes are foremost composed of starchy batter.
• For it to be considered a pancake the batter is poured onto a flat hot surface.
• The batter is then cooked - or proper terminology baked - in a pan or on anything flat.

“Thus a pan does not the pancake make”.1

It’s unclear exactly how far back in our ancient history pancakes became a staple dish in our diet. Archeologists though have been able to track examples of grain-based cakes back to the Stone Age. Historians thus began discussing the presence of a form of pancakes in our early culinary repertoire around the cultivation of grains, with flat rocks serving at the time as primeval griddles. Pancakes continued to evolve in Biblical times with references found in the Old Testament as well as in Roman and Greek records.2

Onward to more modern times, in Europe we find the pancake serving both commoners and nobles alike, though it would be the presence of rich ingredients, butter as an example, which would distinguish the plate. Pancake A Global History by Ken Albala notes the first recipe for a crêpes  was found in Livre fort excellent in the 1540s, and Good Huswifes Handmaids for the Kitchen had the first English recipe printed in 1588. From there on, we can flip through text, but according to Albala, it’s the Dutch in the seventeenth-century that may lay claim to our modern mouthwatering recipe. (Side note, we also must credit the Dutch for wondrous waffles and aebleskivers, a real treat).  Pancakes populated the New World by this time and had become widely popular in British cookbooks. By the eighteenth century E.Smith’s The Compleat Houswife, the first cookbook printed in America, comes complete with a recipe for the protagonist of this story. Albala notes the most popular English cookbook of the century on both sides of the Atlantica The Art of Cookery by Hannah Glasse 1747 had five pancake recipes listed. It’s in 1796 though, the first all-American cookbook American Cookery, by Amelia Simmons, that the pancake is given true glory and essentially put on a pedestal.3

It’s the versatility of this dish, and it’s lenience with the range of ingredients mixed together, that makes the pancake perhaps the most popular food of all time across generations and continents. Whether it’s served up as a street food, or doled up for fine dining, there’s great comfort in knowing this comforting dish will let you leave the table smiling and satisfied.  From a historical perspective there’s still much on the plate to cover. It’s a challenge though to condense all of the pancake’s true global history into one page (certainly impossible to do so without building up an appetite). But it’s clear, throughout history, and importantly across cultures, the pancake clearly has a role to play and why so many people have a penchant for pancakes. 

Many thanks to Globetrotter Diaries (@globetrottings), OMG! Yummy (@omgyummyblog) and Chow & Chatter (@chowandchatter) for the inspiration behind dishing up a brief history of the pancake. Be sure not to miss a taste of their delectable pancake dishes:

Simply Perfect Pancake Recipes   

 

For additional details into the history behind pancakes (and books referenced in this post): 

Pancake A Global History by Ken Albala 1,3

A History of Food by Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat 2  

Apicus –a recipe for ova sfongia ex lacte (egg sponge with milk) in the oldest Latin cookbook 

Pancakes  

Even the Ancient Romans Ate Pancakes

 

 

Somewhere along the road to Santa Fe I stopped in the last hours of daylight to capture the colorful landscape before me with my lens. I had only earlier in the year discovered yet another way to view the world and pause a moment in time with the click of a camera. I was now eager to find those moments.

I stood on the off-beaten path and looked at my surroundings. What captivated me most were several mailboxes. As I approached them, I noticed each had a personality of its own. It was the mailbox though with a hand-drawn heart on it that seemed to speak to me. I knew what the inscription on the image would be well before my shutter had even opened and closed.

The photograph instantly became one of my favorites. On the path to exploring the wonders of photography, mainly through my own trial and error, I’ve discovered that the heart plays a significant role in composition. To me, as simple as the image may be, it was a moment of visual poetry. For often we see things first with our heart, and indeed, the heart often has a message.

With well over 16,500 blogs on FoodBuzz alone, and the endless amazing  sites dedicated to the art of all the delicacies we consume, or even dives we visit and rave or not about, is there room for one more blog? Or am I joining a party that’s winding down? The Daily Dish inquired whether folks are feeling food fatigue altogether; did the kitchen close?

I’ve been tapping social media for some time, for companies ranging from small businesses to startups, to large Internet brands. Not to mention for my own social outlet as well; consuming and dishing out content via Twitter, Facebook, or blogs (although admittedly I haven’t been avidly committed to the latter for my own personal use). I have been committed to food though for a long, long time. And lately I’ve found myself in an even more serious relationship with food.

Two years ago an eclectic group of friends and I kicked-off a monthly “foodie friends” soiree. Each month we gather in my kitchen. My friends appear at the door toting bags and baskets that are filled with things such as farm delivered produce, partially prepped package wonders, or oddities that are then pulled out and whipped into delectable dishes. We sometimes crank up the oven and sometimes nibble on cheese. But we always cook, sip on wine and laugh together. If you’ve ever watched the show Chopped, you’ll have a sense of what some episodes or rather the food baskets might look. It’s the most appealing organized chaos my kitchen has seen. I dearly look forward to these gatherings for both a true social outlet and as nourishment. For during these rendezvous, tidbits about chefs, restaurants, produce, products-  all these morsels are tossed about during conversation. But I’m left craving more.

All too often I’ve talked about carrots and watched my laissez-faire-food-loving friends eyes glaze over. With a handle on marketing, branding and the tech world (and for anyone who uses Twitter, that would be literally), I wanted a dedicated way to inhale and dole out more around my passion. So here I am. I launched @yumivore just before the New Year and knowing my schedule, struck up a relationship with Posterous. My hope: occasionally, perhaps on a whim, whip up an enticing post, share a taste of je ne sais quoi, maybe just share a moment I captured through my lens. And certainly share the art and talent of the seasoned foodies, the wine enthusiasts or oenophiles, the chefs, the writers and editors – all of you who I’ll have the pleasure of acquainting along the way. I look forward to you nourishing me with your wisdom and satisfying my insatiable appetite. In return, I will be a gracious guest and do my best to contribute to the conversation. Maybe I’ll even play host. So I do hope there’s room for one more, and there’s a place for me at the table.

SFMOMA: How Wine Became Modern. This beautiful exhibit was inspired by the Fibonacci sequence.

More photos and the full exhibit on flickr.

I was excited to step inside the small bistro. My mood was jovial. How could it not be? Warm sun rays and bright blue skies after a couple weeks of grey and gloom, the weather seemed to put everyone in a sunny state of mind. I had dined at this bistro before over a business lunch and had had a delightful meal.  Three courses (plus I nibbled a taste here or there from across the table) all of which left a favorable impression. So much so, that I determined it a place to surely visit again.

I was graciously greeted at the door. The setting was as I had remembered- a combined cozy and a laid-back business casual. I decided on an early lunch, 11:40 a.m. , so a choice of seating was mine to be made.  The waiter lavished me with wine, as though I was an old friend, placing several bottles at my table so we could taste and determine which wine would be joining me for the meal.

My first dish, a red and golden beet salad with organic arugula greens and a California Chevre cheese was arranged nicely on the plate. I remembered being impressed by the first course from my prior visit, and I was admittedly hungry, so I looked forward to my salad. I took a bite waiting to be dazzled. I took another, and winced. I moved away from the beets and attacked the greens and cheese, and found the satisfaction I was looking for. But another bite of the beets, and I had to inquire into how they were prepared. I’ve made roasted beets on many occasions, none ever tasted as though they were soaked in a salt bath before serving.  The waiter noticed the grimace on my face, picked up the plate and assured me I would just love the soup (I had debated between salad and the corn and potato bisque earlier).

My spoon flew into the bowl before it really settled on the table.  The spoon ricocheted right back into my mouth - and I waited.  I first noticed the soup was just warm. But I ignored that detail as I was too busy trying to determine the flavors hiding in the bowl, and suddenly found myself looking for a salt shaker (or a beet). I was about to give the soup another shot when I looked down, caught the sides of the bowl were dirty, but then my eyes widened as I intently studied the green scallion slices dancing on top of the murky white concoction. The ultimate faux pas stared back. A small coarse black hair was in the middle. Lunch was over.

I cancelled my main course and asked for the check. I couldn’t get past the last blunder to continue with my meal. As I was leaving, I noticed the bistro was still empty at 12:15 p.m. except for two gentlemen in business suits across the room, otherwise- empty.

Would I write a review in Yelp? No. Critiquing a restaurant is much different than venting about a poor experience and often that’s what you’ll find in online reviews. Sometimes you’ll find glowing feedback, and then you might discover the poster will note it’s their first experience at the location.  It’s not to say I don’t consult Yelp. I do. There are exceptions to every rule, but a truly solid recommendation regarding a restaurant stems from several visits before extending feedback. Issues you might encounter at a location should always be taken up with management first before doling out damning details in writing. After all, we all have our bad days and it could have been an off one for the chef. The name of the location I won't share. The service was lovely though, and the waiter insisted I come back and try it again. Unfortunately in this bistro’s case, I don’t think I can bring myself to go back anytime soon.

Would you go back?

"Longest night of this year. This full moon is above us all. Here below it are sleeping grapevines rooted in our earth. Wines, also sleeping, in their casks. A lot of sleeping going on. Hibernation." -Frick

The note posted by B. Frick, struck me as a lullaby while reading it before heading to bed and thus I captured it and added the title. If you listen, poetry often flows from the vineyards.