Son of Christ's Coming Up, Got Cakes On The Griddle

[As you will recall, National Pancake Day was back before Lent began. Now, we're at Easter, and I'm purging the interview with Corinne, lover of pancakes. I originally pictured this to be a longer Q&A, but I ran out of pancake-related questions. Feel free to add your own in the comments.]


1. Why do you love pancakes so much? Can you pinpoint a psychological reason for your love of pancakes? I mean, did you have pancakes on special occasions when you were growing up, or did a pancake salesman save your father's life, or something like that?

I have always been a sucker for breakfast food in general, however, my mom would sometimes make breakfast for dinner growing up and I always loved that. However, she would always make oatmeal pancakes and would only make "all-purpose flour" pancakes when us kids had done something incredibly worthy of her praise. So she would slip in a couple "bad" pancakes with the super-healthy oatmeal ones. At one such dinner, I ate a total of 16 pancakes; a record I still have not broken. So there is a family attachment to the pancake. I also think pancakes are amazingly comforting. Wake up late on a Saturday, take your time getting out of bed, head downstairs, and cook up some pancakes....saving a special chocolate chip one as a dessert. Lovely. Pancakes encourage you to slow down, and savor something magnificient... be it the company of loved ones, or the fluffy (sometimes gooey) joy of the round little cakes.

2. Dad would stack said pancakes lumberjack-style, 7 or 8 high, pouring syrup over each as he built his column. In your expert opinion, was this method an absurd way to eat pancakes? How many pancakes do you use to make each stack?

First of all, 7 or 8 pancakes is too many for me...I'm not sure of the physical stature of your father...but damn! He was smart to individually coat each pancake.

My method is as follows: I usually make a stack of 3 pancakes (sometimes 4 if I'm feeling crazy) pour syrup --mapel syrup from Canada, not the imitation 'corn syrup' of Aunt Jemima...although that shit's pretty good--over the top pancake letting it drip down the sides of the other pancakes, and then I make a small pool of syrup away from the stack to dip each individual bite. I find this is the best way, as you still get some of the sogginess of the top pancake in addition to getting each piece freshly coated in syrup. Delicious!

3. Tell me about your Pancake Day breakfast. How many pancakes did you eat? What kinds of pancakes? Which tasted the best? The worst?

I actually had my pancake day celebration midday on Tuesday. We had oatmeal pancakes with chopped pecans, fresh strawberries and bananas and maple syrup. They were amazing... the pecans were a nice touch. We also had beet pancakes. A little non traditional, and I was a little skeptical... but they were really sweet and delicious. They were a beautiful, vibrant fuscia. I ate mine sans syrup, but Corey ate his with. Then we used the remaining oatmeal batter and made chocolate and peanut butter chip pancakes which were also a new creation, but very good. So all the pancakes turned out to be delicious, and none dissapointed.

4. How do the pancakes at Perkins, IHOP, Denny's, Waffle House, etc. stack up (get it)? What restaurant has the best pancakes? The worst?

Let's just go ahead and rule out Denny's first. For a long time, I went to Denny's because it always sounded like a good idea, but my stomach always disagreed. So I don't even bother anymore...it's cheap, but probably because it's shitty. I'm a fan of IHOP, but I haven't been in a while. Their pancakes are what you would expect from a pancake, without much pizazz (sp?). Ummm...I don't go to Perkins. And waffle house...I've only had the waffles. Milton's pancakes are pretty good, but their french toast is the better menu option. The best pancakes I've ever had at a restaurant was in Colorado Springs on a family vacation at a little breakfast nook type place in uptown. That was, um, four years ago...but the taste still lingers.