Une Crepe: Fine galette faite a base de lait, de farine de ble, ou de sarrasin et d'oeufs.
Translation: A thin cake made from milk, wheat or buckwheat flour and eggs.
Simple. No mystery there. I could make a regular old pancake with those ingredients, slather on some butter and maple syrup and be done with it.
But, oh, what I'd be missing!
The crispy edges, the delicate flavor, the golden color and the altogether ephemeral nature of a freshly made crepe can be a revelation. Milk, flour and eggs? Something magical must happen in the spreading out of this simple batter that truly transforms it into so much more than a simple pancake. Don't ask too many questions. Just eat.
Perhaps this all sounds like a pretty flimsy basis for the long journey that my husband and I embarked upon about two years ago when we first hatched a plan to open a small crepes restaurant in NW Arkansas. Maybe that's why we could never make it fly. Money (or rather lack thereof) always stopped us in our tracks. Until now...
December 18, 2009: A momentous occasion in the history of crepes in the Ozarks. We signed the paperwork on our home equity line of credit, took a deep breath and wired a good chunk of that money to a woman in Oklahoma City for a big, leaky, creaky, but altogether adorable concession trailer that will become the home of "Crepes Paulette," the slightly deflated version of our "crepevision." If all goes well, we will spend a good part of our lives in this 8' x 16' box in the coming years, and hopefully it will be the catalyst for introducing NW Arkansas to the joys of this French delicacy. Stay tuned...
Here's what future home looks like now. Think we have a little work to do?
