April 11, 2025

95 thoughts on “FOOD FIGHT!”

  2. I considered putting crepes somewhere on the list, but their dichotomous sweet versus savory identify crisis made them too hard to place.Report

    1. It’s tricky – if you’re standing on top of a waffle, you might not notice them unless you crane your neck waaaaaay back. So high you wouldn’t realize the awesome scale reached that far up from where you are.Report

      2. You’ve obviously not had good pancakes. I have a fabulous southern recipe, and I’ve had “world famous” midwestern pancakes.

        Southern are fluffy, a bit browned, light as a feather….
        Midwestern style are like crepes — except far far less eggy. Crispy edges, thin, oooh, I could go for some now!Report

      6. I will be eating waffles tomorrow, and I have now resolved to make faces on them and take pictures of them. I suppose this will be my contribution to the food symposium (I was working on something on food and place, but this seems more relevant).

        Also, Dave Chapelle’s Prince remains the one thing I truly love about that show. The Charlie Murphy Prince story, along with the Chapelle reenactment, remains one of the funniest things I have ever seen.Report

      7. That’s the “one thing”? Man, I loved a lot of that show.

        The best part is the repeated “pancakes”, and Murphy’s 1000-yard stare. Like after all these years, that’s the detail he still can’t believe.Report

      8. Yeah, I feel like a lot of the show has been tainted, or was always tainted, in a lot of ways. If nothing else, then because what it did to Chapelle personally. But that Prince skit, dear god it’s funny.Report

  4. Hmm… I’d take pancakes almost every time, followed by French toast. Don’t dislike waffles, but can probably count on my hands the number of times I’ve gone with them over pancakes or French toast.

    Also, the crisp thing isn’t really a selling point for me. I actually like my pancakes a little under-cooked; therefore, extra doughy.Report

    1. You should come try some good Liege waffles.
      For one thing, they’re sour-bread, and with a light carmelized sugar on the outside?
      Pure heaven.Report

      2. @tod-kelly

        I’ll confess to not even really knowing what corned beef hash is. I think my stepfather used to eat it but he has some midwest roots in him and I always assumed that was why. I think I ate it cold out of a can on an ill-fated camping trip one time. It tasted like someone had eaten something rather delicious, threw it back up, washed up 80% of the vomit taste and retained 50% of the original taste. In other words, not bad, but not something I’d get internet-angry about. What am I missing?Report

      5. @kazzy “I’ll confess to not even really knowing what corned beef hash is.”

        Russell is right, that’s just sad.

        Also, you should know that what your stepfather ate out of a can is *not* corned beef hash. I’m pretty sure that the stuff they sell in a can and call corned beef hash is repurposed dog food. In fact, when you see hash in a restaurant you need to ask if theirs is from a can. If it is, you’ll get this kind of flat grilled patty of goo. If you can eat all of it, you’ve a stronger digestive system than I.

        But if you get *real* corned beef hash, Kazzy, this is what you get:

        The cook starts by frying chopped onions in a cast iron skillet until they are just becoming golden brown. He then throws in already cooked pieces of potatoes and chopped corn beef, and fries the lot until everything in the pan has a crispy, browned outside skin covering soft and moist insides. He then puts that on a plate, and — right before he serves it — tops it off with an over easy egg that drips yolk into the greasy heaven that sits before you the moment your fork first hits the plate.

        *That* is corned beef hash.Report

      6. @tod-kelly

        What you describe, I can get on board with. Especially if it’s cooked real crisp and topped with a dash or two of Tabasco. Seems like my description of the cold canned stuff was fair.

        But can others weigh in on this being a decidedly non-NYC food?Report

      7. Oh, absolutely on the Tabasco sauce.

        Others would have to weigh in on the NY piece, but fwiw all of the “New York-style” delis on the west coast that I’ve ever been to serve CBH. Which might have more to do with what west-coasters think NYers are like than it does about what NYers are like.Report

      8. Tod,

        (While I said I liked “fresh” corned beef hash, it’s probably the case that what I consider “fresh” is from a can and I just don’t realize it.)

        I’ve never made corned beef hash but have wanted to. How do you suggest pre-cooking the potatoes? Fry them ahead of time? Boil and then dice? Dice and then boil?

        I also think garlic, and maybe some parsley, might taste good in CBH, too. But I’ve never tried it.Report

  7. French toast is great because you can make it with spiced-up banana or pumpkin bread. Last weekend our friends had us over for pancakes, and we sliced up some pear and sautéed it (sans oil) before putting it on top of the pancakes with some chopped walnuts — highly recommended!Report

  8. French toast and waffles run neck-and-neck for me, but the possibility of chicken and waffles gives the latter a slight edge.

    Fuck pancakes.Report

      8. Cold makes people crazy?

        Says someone who eat fried chicken (instead of maple syrup and bacon) with his waffles? Seriously?

        One of my first taste memories is of bacon. My grandparents, who we lived with at the time I was beginning to eat real food on a regular basis, grew a couple of pigs each summer, and come fall, my grandfather would slaughter them and smoke most of the meat. He also made his own maple syrup. My grandmother raised chickens, so there were fresh eggs. And bacon. And pancakes. And strong-perked coffee which he’d pour like a black syrup from his cup and slurp out of the saucer, to cool it off to drinking temperature. I would have milk to drink, we also had dairy cows.

        I still love tapping the trees at the beginning of sap season; it’s been earlier and earlier the last few years. Some years, over before the time I’d expect it to run from childhood. (Sap season ends when the leaves begin to bud, and the chemistry of the tree changes; the sap gets bitter tasting.)Report

  9. This is so true that there may in fact be a physical law that describes it. Pancakes are basically dense, filling, uninteresting syrup and butter holders.Report

  10. I love all three of them.

    French toast is best if you have bread that’s starting to go stale and needs to be used up; it seems wasteful to use fresh bread for it.

    Waffles are great but far more work than pancakes (at least for me, because I have a Belgian waffle maker and a recipe that involves separating the eggs).

    Pancakes are quick, easy, and enjoyable.

    All of the above are better with white flour rather than whole-wheat; whole wheat makes them too dense and not fluffy enough.Report

    1. I’ll quibble slightly with your last para, but only on store-bought Eggo waffles. I find the whole wheat ones more satisfying, the standard ones just evaporate in your stomach in seconds and you are hungry again.

      Never get the low-fat ones though. That’s like eating packing material.Report

  11. Something I’ve come to note is that basically no place uses actual maple syrup. Even 4-star hotels give you some maple-flavored concoction. Granted, a bottle of real maple syrup is priced like a bottle of single-malt scotch, but I think it’s worth it.Report

      2. I can’t vouch for Nova Scotia, but I do think maple syrup has to come from the northeastern parts of North America. Michigan maple syrup is bleh.

        And crepes are far far above waffles @kazzy. You’ve obviously never studied breadology.Report

      3. ” Its thin, runny and not all that sweet.”

        Strangely enough, that’s one reason why I prefer real maple. I don’t like a lot of syrup on my pancakes to begin with, and while I like sweet, I don’t like the ueber sweetness of pseudo-maple syrup.Report

      4. Not to get all maple nerd on you, but since it’s made through distillation, maple syrup is available in a lot of different grades (just like diesel is different from jet fuel and from gasoline even though all are made from oil).

        From the sound of it, you’d probably want one of the grades labeled as “fancy”. They tend to be sweeter, more clear, and have less of a maple flavor. Many of the other grades are intended for cooking even though the seller might not mention that.Report

      7. Fancy isn’t as sweet.

        The different grades generally come from different time periods through the sap season; fancy being the very first runs, when the roots aren’t releasing as much sugar and minerals yet. It isn’t as sweet; it’s more ‘delicate.’ The later runs, as the trees begin to start their leaf-buds, are the Grade A and Grade B runs; and have more flavor, more color, more minerals, and taste sweeter. (The grading has nothing to do with ‘distillation,’ btw; all syrup is made the same way — boiling it down until the sugar concentration is great enough to act as a preservative.)Report

  12. Panatone French Toast. Add almond extract to your egg/cream wash.

    It’s the bomb biatches!

    THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE
    (and it’s this)Report

  13. 1. Pancakes, made with a fermented batter;
    2. French toast, made with home-made bread;
    3. Waffles, also made with a fermented batter.

    All of the above served with real maple syrup; none of that sugar-syrup and corn syrup flavored with fenugreek and colored with caramel. Or whatever.

    And the reason waffles are #3 is because they require specialized equipment that serves no other purpose. I pretty much despise those types of gadgets taking up space in my kitchen. But I do have a non-electric waffle iron; just hinged waffle plates that you use over a hot burner.

    And your forgot popovers and crepes. Popovers, (ratio is 1 cup flour to 1 egg to 1/2 cup of milk) are practically perfect. Crepes, essentially super-thin pancakes, are ideal for foods from savory to sweet.

    When I’ve got leftover turkey around, I’ll often make crepes. Fill them with a mixture of chopped turkey, apple, celery, maybe an onion, a few raisins bound with a small amount of gravy, roll ’em up, put in a baking dish, and top with a bit more gravy, bake until heated through. My kids loved this when they were small. We did a 3-course crepe dinner once; a salad crepe, filled with fresh veggies, served cold with a dressing; chicken (not turkey crepes) and apple crepes with ice cream for desert.

    And waffles, pancakes, and french toast are best as supper foods, not breakfast.Report

    1. Ooh, I’ve never had that crepe filling, but it sounds delicious. I’m remembering that for Christmas leftovers (basically equals turkey + dressing in a crepe).Report

  15. Pancakes beat waffles. Pancakes beat French toast. And while an ordinary French toast beats an ordinary waffle or an ordinary pancake, I’ve never had a French toast that beat a good pancake or a good waffle.Report

    1. @russell-saunders

      Goddamnit, people! This is not a comprehensive ranking of every breakfast food ever! It is a purely objective and scientifically -arrived-at ordering of these three particular breakfast items.Report

      1. There’s a place in Seattle called Serious Biscuit that we kind of randomly found on vacation the summer before last, which (obviously) rocks a mean array of fantastic biscuit-based breakfasts.

        We went back to Seattle as part of vacation again this past summer, and made a point of returning.Report

      3. @gabriel-conroy Thanks, man. I’ve gotten side-tracked by other demands over the past several months. But those demands seem to be tapering off, and I’m hoping to spend more time back here so as to remind myself why I liked writing on the Internet to begin with.Report

Comments are closed.

Related Stories

Abundance, Up To A Point

From Freddie de Boer: Abundance, Up To A Point

OT Editors April 10, 2025 6
infaltion

AOC and Hakeem Jeffries both call for ending government insider trading

Jaybird April 10, 2025
960px-Il_cratere_del_Vulcano_-_panoramio.jpg

Open Mic for the Week of 4/7/2025

Jaybird April 7, 2025 120

You may have missed

SHH

Golf and War Will Not Mix

Clare Briggs April 10, 2025
Oliver St. John Gogarty

POETS Day! The Admirable Oliver St. John Gogarty

Ben Sears April 10, 2025
Trump is losing the Trade War

Why Trump is Losing the Trade War

David Thornton April 10, 2025
1000000991

Weekend Plans Post: The Escape Room

Jaybird April 10, 2025 2