Thursday, March 29, 2012

Taste This, Slappy!


My taste buds have shifted considerably in the last 15 years. At some point, the same set of receptors which craved endless quarts of chocolate Yoo-Hoo and heaping bowls full of Lucky Charms slowly crept towards consumables with far more complex palates. Chocolate drinks and marshmallow cereal lost their appeal against a growing appreciation of robust red wines and delicately prepared bouillabaisse.

Even the sugar in my coffee began to ease up, until a steady diet of café espresso led to simple bold, black coffee. A monolithic sweet tooth had eroded to silt, perfectly sated by a fun-sized York Peppermint Patty or a Hershey's Kiss.

Yet, the single thought of batter-driven breakfast foods accompanied by maple syrup will bring me to a halt. French Toast? Oui, s'il-vous-plaît. Waffles? Want 'em. Pancakes? Grab a spatula. Best part is: nowadays, most everywhere you can order them offers an option of whole wheat batter/breads.

Two other things I really enjoy are travel and kitsch. Many trips (business and pleasure) have comprised of long drives to witness and taste some great, out of the ordinary stuff. A beanery I just found out about yesterday combines pancakes, travel and kitsch all in one: Slappy Cakes in Portland, OR

How's this for fun? You can order from a menu of made-from-scratch pancake batter and add-ins. These are are brought to your table, which is equipped with a built-in griddle, to begin preparing your very own pancakes as you like them. Observe the young lady's demonstration below on location at Slappy Cakes...

Photo © and courtesy of Anthony Rush Ledbetter

Note: she actually doesn't work there. That's Janey Ellis, proprietor of the "Atomic Redhead" blog. Janey is a very lovely, creative proponent of things vintage. As you can see from the pic, she's quite enthusiastic about mid-century fashion (and modern-day pancakes).

So now I gotta put together a trek to the great Northwest. So far, I know in Washington, it's coffee and seafood in Seattle, and a trek to Mt. Rainier. Then onto Oregon for Slappy Cakes pancakes in Portland, followed by a visit to Grants Pass to honor Carl Barks (who I understand also liked his pancakes). Carl might enjoy it if I could visit his resting place after imitating our mutual friend pictured below.

"Breakfast of Tycoons" by Carl Barks
 Image © 1996 The Walt Disney Company

1 comment:

mfeige said...

I'd never seen this Barks before and I'm in love with it.