A new saint?

[Dave W]

Dutch members, I have questions.

Why do Dutch people wear pancakes on their heads on 29 November?

[Pilgrim]

Trust Dave to keep us aware of the critical issues of our times!

Is Sint Pannecock a good name for a band?

[Basvarken]

Don't you guys celebrate Saint Pancake's day?

You heathens! 

[Dave W]

There was a restaurant chain here for years called Pannekoeken Huis. Now there's only a single location left. Probably because nobody put pancakes on their heads.

[Basvarken]

In the Netherlands there are many Pannekoeken Huizen.
It's the kind of place grandparents take their grandchildren to go eat when they are too young to go to a proper restaurant.
Usually the lead time is very short in a Pannekoeken Huis. You walk in, take a seat, order your pancake and whithin 15 minutes you're out the door again.

[Alanko]

Some Dutch cuisine arguably elicits more joy when worn as a garment rather than being consumed in a conventional manner.


As a kid I was quite enthralled by a fully automated production line pancake restaurant in Zaanse Schans. The pancakes were big, thick and a touch undercooked.

[Chris P.]

My favourite saints are Saint Pancake and ofcourse St. Hubbins, the patron saint of quality footwear.

[uwe]

Some Dutch cuisine arguably elicits more joy when worn as a garment rather than being consumed in a conventional manner.

As a kid I was quite enthralled by a fully automated production line pancake restaurant in Zaanse Schans. The pancakes were big, thick and a touch undercooked.

Coming from a Briton, that is about the most damning statement imaginable, ouch!

[westen44]

I was literally shocked at how good German cuisine was.  The great things done with just pork were unbelievably delicious.  Then when I visited Holland years later, I was also shocked at how much I liked the cuisine.  It's not like I hadn't experienced superior cuisine, since I had lived in New Orleans a few years.  I guess some things are funny, like putting pancakes on your head.  Overall, though, food in Holland is no laughing matter.  I leaned toward the traditional dishes, probably none of which I can spell or pronounce.  But my favorite food from Holland has to be kibbeling with stroopwafels in at a close second place.  Despite liking fish a lot, I have to admit, though, I never developed much of a liking for raw herring. 

[Dave W]

About 1960, the next big franchising idea (in the US) was pancake houses. There were Uncle Van's. Uncle John's, International House of Pancakes, and more. Pannekoeken Huis was a local chain here in the metro area, the others were national. Having 30 different varieties of pancakes and not much else was a nice novelty that didn't last. Most of these chains went out of business within a few years.

International House of Pancakes rebranded as IHop and survived by becoming a general restaurant specializing in food that looks nothing like the photos on its menu. Probably better worn on your head than eaten.

[uwe]

Doesn't Waffle House qualify as well? My son (then in his mid-twenties) loved eating there when we took a trip through the Southern States (the one where no one would serve us possum stew!  ) a few years ago. Perhaps not a saint, but certainly a cultural roadside icon (= Waffle House, not my son!).

I'm not  a great fan of filling my stomach with sweet stuff, doesn't last long with me, but he's always been all sugar rush. He probably suffers greatly under the fact that where he now lives and works (Topanga/Venice, CA), the chain isn't represented at all. But any diner will see him order pancakes/waffles for breakfast.

[Pilgrim]

Doesn't Waffle House qualify as well? My son (then in his mid-twenties) loved eating there when we took a trip through the Southern States (the one where no one would serve us possum stew!  ) a few years ago. Perhaps not a saint, but certainly a cultural roadside icon (= Waffle House, not my son!).

I'm not  a great fan of filling my stomach with sweet stuff, doesn't last long with me, but he's always been all sugar rush. He probably suffers greatly under the fact that where he now lives and works (Topanga/Venice, CA), the chain isn't represented at all. But any diner will see him order pancakes/waffles for breakfast.

For Uwe, one little bit of Americana is that the Waffle Houses are used by disaster agencies to estimate how bad the situation is.  If the local Waffle Houses are closed, then the highest levels of DEFCON are called for, as disaster is indeed imminent.

[Dave W]

Waffle House was always a short order restaurant, not like the specialty pancake houses.

And in Waffle House-related news: Man Tried To Steal A Waffle House Tattoo, Police Allege

SNL, earlier this year.