What do pancakes look like in your country?
When you hear the word pancake, what’s the first image that comes to mind? I would imagine it to be a fried, circular piece of dough accompanied by butter and maple syrup, which would be your “standard” sweet Western pancakes.
However, did you know that the word “pancake” actually stands for quite varied food items in different parts of the world? While they all share the three defining characteristics across the board, which are being circular in shape, comprising mainly of dough, and being fried in a pan, we’re here to present to you a sampling of pancakes all over the spectrum, all the way to some “alternate” savory ones from Asian cultures.
American Pancakes
Much of the English-speaking world is familiar with these pancakes. They are disc-shaped, a warm honey brown in color, and drizzled over generously with maple syrup. Best served stacked like a tower on your plate.
For condiments, your choices are as wide as fruit jam, cream, avocado, bacon and honey. While both versions are a popular breakfast food, the former is also popular choice of dessert after meals.
Japanese Pancakes
Have you ever come across a gif of thick, soft looking pancakes wiggling on somebody’s plate? If so, you were probably looking at Japanese pancakes. There are two kinds that the Japanese are known for. One is called hotcakes (ホットケーキ). Their consistency is like cake and they wobble less compared to the second kind, and while the rest of us calls them soufflé pancakes for their fluffy textures, they’re just known as regular pancakes(パンケーキ) in Japan. Both kinds are at least an inch tall, and are served with freshly whipped cream and an assortment of flavoured syrups.
In Japan, you can expect to queue for up to an hour (or even more!) just to get a taste of them!
Korean Pancakes
South Korea is famous for two kinds of delicious pancakes. The first is called hotteok (호떡), a form of street food meaning sweet pancakes that contains brown sugar syrup filling in its hollow center. Served hot, the syrup leaks out immediately after you take a bite, and frankly speaking it could get quite messy if you’re not careful.
Onto the savory realm! The other famous Korean pancakes are known as pajeon (파전), meaning scallion pancakes. It comes with a soy vinegar mix dipping sauce, and can be flavored to contain other ingredients like seafood or spicy kimchi within the pancake itself.
Chinese Pancakes
The following two Chinese style pancakes you’re about to read differ most dramatically from the rest of the pancakes mentioned in the previous sections. Both types are savory. The first kind is called dan bing (蛋餅), which is Pancake with Egg. Egg and spring onion is mixed into the pancake batter, producing flaky fried dough that is wrapped around fillings like ham, canned beef, pork floss, cheese, and more. You’ll see at least one stall selling this in Taiwanese night markets.
The other kind is known as Peking Duck Pancake, or bei jing ya (北京鴨). These pancakes are paper thin and moist. To eat them, you would place roasted duck meat, raw carrot and spring onion, as well as sweet and spicy sauce in the middle of the pancake, wrap it up, and eat it. This kind of pancake is proper fine dining, and is served in restaurants. In both of these examples, the pancakes function similar in a way to Western crepes.
We don’t know about you, but writing this article has made us very hungry indeed! Learn all these languages with FluentUp, and eat all the pancakes in the world!