Today is not Mardi Gras in France. However we are celebrating the way the French People and also those French People in the City of Lyon celebrate Mardi Gras. Hence the title! Instead of king cakes the special treat of French Mardi Gras is crêpes. These we are of course familiar with however on French fat Tuesday they are eaten with lemon and granulated sugar. We even have a demonstration of how to appropriately prepare the crêpe by our resident French person. Please take note so that the next time you are able to prepare your crêpe the correct way!
Everyone was happy to give it a try and we quickly learned how to prepare the little pancakes, taking note to use our index finger to make the proper fold. It is, of course, inconsiderate to use the middle finger to make the fold and flip someone off at the same time. These were very much enjoyed and it was only regrettable that there were not more but unfortunately a certain husband Nicolas decided to pig out on the pile of crêpes leaving fewer for the group to savor. Fortunately, however, as a few of our usual participants gave up cake hour for Lent there was less demand anyway. (What were they thinking??)
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| Les crepes que Nicolas ne mange pas! |
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| Appropriate technique for addition of lemon after the GRANULATED sugar! |
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| And this is the finished product... |
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| ....that you eat with abandon! |
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| Giving it a try! |
The crêpe scene was fun as one can see but WAIT, that was not all! In the city of Lyon, the second largest in France after Paris, they partake of something more than crêpes! There the Mardi Gras specialty is bugnes. (This is pronounced boon-yeh as opposed to bug-nee as it looks in English.) These are small pieces of dough cut into some not so specific shapes which are then very quickly fried in hot oil. We were told it is a very dangerous and risky procedure. After cooling they are sprinkled with confectioner's, as opposed to granulated, sugar and voilà ...you have a fattening dish for Fat Tuesday. Since it is very easy to eat a lot of these and risk getting fatter it is an appropriate dish to stuff yourself with prior to the self-deinal of the Lenten season. Les Lyonnais know what they are doing!
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| Voilà les bugnes! |
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| Various stages of cook time browned some more than others. |
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| Random shapes with little meaning! |
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| Dusted with POWDERED NOT GRANULATED sugar! |
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| Tasty....just like a beignet only smaller! |
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| I never had one before and now I am hooked! |
Once again cake hour fulfills its unique purpose of enlightening and educating while eating!
I wish I ate more... You're lucky my wife told me to stop.
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