Crepe or Pancake: Depends on Which Country You're In

Americans and British have always been quite similar. We use the same main language. Our history is tied quite strongly together. Both countries have massive immigration issues. That aside one thing clearly sets the two countries apart.

Pancakes.

In America it is quite simple. A pancake is a fluffy, scrumptious, buttery mix fried exactly right. Delicious... really delicious. Hungry Jack is known by every American (that is if he or she is a real American). Let us not forget the maple syrup either! Oh how wonderful the two taste together.

However, across the pond, they do not know what a real pancake is. Their pancakes, if you can call them that, are crepes. Basically it is a lower quality Hungry Jack mix-using water instead of milk... disgusting-that is spread over the entire pan to be as thin as possible. Yes, thin. Not light and fluffy, but thin and wobbly.

In all fairness a crepe is not really an English food. It is a French pancake, but to England it is the only pancake. Quite a few do not even know what an "American pancake" is. Although some supermarkets do have American pancake mix in the international food isle (thank god for ASDA - part of the Wal-Mart family) it is not the same. Once again the mix uses water instead of milk for a truly awful experience.

Either way the American pancake wins out. When my girlfriend first had the British made American pancake she thought it tasted even worse than I did. Fair enough; it was quite bad. However, after we first got to America my parents took us to I.H.O.P. (International House of Pancakes) for breakfast at 11:00 P.M. E.S.T. She fell in love right there.

Over the course of two weeks we ate there probably about five or six times because she loved the American pancake so much. I blame it on the maple syrup really. In any case it worked and she was hooked. Now every time we go back between the two countries there are two boxes of Hungry Jack with a bottle of maple syrup in the suitcase.

It was not just one person I got hooked either. Her family came over to America a few months ago and, naturally, she got them to eat at I.H.O.P. as well. In total I think about seven out of seven of them got hooked!

So how does the crepe fair with Americans? All of the British seem to love them. Most seem to use a bit of chocolate sauce, which is quite nice actually, in between the crepe (as I dare not call it a pancake) folded over. While it does not taste too bad it takes a wee bit of getting used to.

All in all, though, seven out of seven Britains agree that American pancakes are better than Crepes.