Stories

A dear friend of mine asked to see the crêpe  recipe  –   frankly I was hoping that someone would ask  -  so here it is.  First, though, you’ll see I used two different names for the same recipe, one referring to Hemingway the man and the other to his book written about his life in this particular neck of the woods,  i.e., the 5th arrondissimont.  Here’s what the rue Mouffetard looks like:

I mean it really does look and feel like this as this isn’t some corny, staged photo done by the Paris CVB.  This photo, courtesy of  (I hope)  WorldRomper blog,  illustrates the fact that this place is quite a lot about food, so I think it’s appropriate that this great recipe came from a crêpe stand near by this market.

Moveable Feast Crêpes

* 1 1/2 c milk

* 1 c flour

* 2 eggs

* 1 T oil

* 1/4 t salt

· Mix in blender

· (You are supposed to let them sit an hour before cooking, but who has an hour? They are definitely good the next day if you have any batter left)

· Heat up pan -> you know it is hot enough when you toss a little water on it and the water dances. Put an ample amount of butter in the pan (I usually peel off half of the wax on a cube, so I can hold it on the covered part and apply the butter to the hot pan, like ski wax).

· Pour in batter, I usually use a ladle. Disperse it thinly by rotating the pan. Flip it when the edges begin to dry and you see little bubbles.

· Do not despair, the first one is always the worse. Experiment, have fun! they are terrific with everything. My favorite is lemon, butter, sugar and a tall glass of cold milk.

(original recipe online courtesy of Ian Star )

May 2001

One Summer evening in Paris we were walking around after dinner and found ourselves on a charming, cozy street called the rue Mouffetard. “We” is my wife, Karen, our daughter Julia – age 14 – and her friend, Nicole. Don’t get me started about Julia and Nicole because they went kind of crazy in the street, kicking a soccer ball around with some local kids. Anyway, looking at our guide book (which we did in a very-non-touristy- way) we found we were standing in front of the little house where Ernest Hemingway had rented a room on the top floor in 1922, which he later described in his book, A Moveable Feast. Near the little house was a crêpe stand. It looked like a hot dog stand except they made crêpes right there in front of you and you could buy one and put delicious stuff on it, like chocolate sauce, and then stand there and eat it. Well, we all got one and I want to tell you, that was the most delicious crêpe I ever had.

After we got home to Tucson, Arizona, we all thought about those crêpes and how much we wished we could have one. Tucson has really great tortillas, but believe me, the crêpes aren’t so good. So we Googled crêpe recipes with the word “Mouffetard” included and…. I still can’t believe it…. we found the recipe! If you’d like to see it, I’d be happy to post it here.