Aug 22, 2010

Galettes et crêpes bretonnes

Today's menu: galettes and crêpes!

Theses two are specialties of the Bretagne region. Galettes are made with buckwheat flour served with salty ingredients (as main dishes). Crêpes are made with wheat flour and served with sweet things inside (as desserts). You eat them with cider served in a little cup-mug.

Lots of cafés would set up stalls in front of their door during the summer to sell crêpes, especially near the tourist attractions. Don't think that they're just thin pancakes! They are commonly too thick, spongy and greasy. It's really difficult to find a place to eat real ones.
The best ones I've eaten are of course in a restaurant well hidden in a little town near the Quiberon shore. But sadly, the place's owner retired, sold the place to some other guy, and it became a total mess.

So, not long ago, I finally found this place "Le Cap Breton", just a bit off the main avenue of Opéra, where both kinds of galettes and crêpes are good. It's the best I've tried in Paris so far. The menu list is not very long but they keep the basics and change 2,3 items along the seasons. And I guess that's how they manage to have fair prices for the area.

The place is tiny, there are about 25 seats on the main floor, I think they also have a tiny mezzanine but I've never been up there.
Therefore, on weekdays, at lunch hours, I'd not even try to get here unless you can come before noon.

My main was the "Brunchy" = bacon, egg, potatoes and cheese.

Dessert was the basic butter and sugar.

I think that sampling the more basic thing in the menu is always the best way to judge. I find it particularly true when testing Chinese restaurant. I'd always try their fried rice and I would fairly know how I'd like or not the place. So here, for a crêperie, the basic "beurre-sucre" should be done properly.
There wasn't too much butter so it'd become oily, sugar was a bit on the plus side, but overall, it was good enough. The galette was also nice, the pancake itself had a perfect texture, not too thick, and was grilled just enough to get it crispy and not burned. The different ingredients inside were well balanced, no one flavor took over the other ones. I'd like the egg more runny though but that's just my personal preference.
I do make them sometime myself at home. And I realized the difficulty lies in how to measure the right heat and cooking time so that the pancake and the ingredients inside are cooked perfectly. And of course, depending on the ingredients you put in, cooking time of each one is different. So let's not look at these as simple French pancakes anymore! ;)

5 comments:

Danidan said...

Et une adresse de plus à tester, une!
Et par rapport à la crêperie de Kervignac?
En plus grâce à tes post je progresse en anglais, cool!

Au passage je note qu'Estelle toute occupée à s'occuper de ses pieds et de ses mollets oublie de penser à son estomac hahaha.
Ce serait bien de faire des haltes crêpe/cidre tous les 5 miles, non?

MerveillesbyEstelle said...

Haha, Daniel j'ai lu le post hier quand elle l'a mis mais j'ai pas repondut, trop occuppee avec mes pieds. Hmm c'est une bonne idee, haltes de crepes et cidre! J'en connais qui aimeront bien ca aussi!

David Tredler said...

Oh mais c'est la crêperie juste à côté de chez moi ça... ^_^

yumesan said...

ça suffit, David, on a compris que tu habites dans le meilleur coin possible en ce qui concerne la bouffe

David Tredler said...

Mais euuuuh, c'est même pas pour ça que je faisais la réflexion !!!

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