Thursday, August 6, 2009
Foods Full of Crêpes: Whole Foods Launches Weekend Crêpe Station
Posted by Carrington Fox on Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 6:42 AM
Before I go any farther with this post about the Green Hills Whole Foods' new crêpe service, can we please set a ground rule? Can we please, please, please pronounce the name of the thin French pancake "crep," as in rhymes with "step?" I'm not trying to be all faux-froggy about it. I agree it's annoying to force a French accent onto a word that operates just as well with an American pronunciation. I mean, I'm not saying we need to go around talking about "Paree" just because that's how Parisians says it. Leave that to Christopher Walken's Continental and his "Shampahnya."
But "crape?" That doesn't even make sense. It's neither the French pronunciation nor a reasonable American bastardization of the French spelling. It's almost like calling a crème brûlée a "Crame brulay," or worse, a "crame brulette." That makes about as much sense as "crape."
Anyway, Whole Foods has introduced a crêpe station on Saturdays and Sundays from 8 to 10:30 a.m., with someone on hand to prepare gorgeous swaths of lacey-thin griddle-kissed pancakes, folded into pocket-squares with fresh fruits, whipped cream and nuts. Priced at $7.99 a pound, the average crêpe weighs in at about $4. Peaches with ricotta, banana-hazelnut, cherry-orange, strawberries and cream...every combination we sampled was delicious, no matter how you pronounced it.
With that in mind, can we please all say "crêpe," as in rhymes with "step?"
Comments (11)
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I've said it before and I'll say it again: Two jars of Nutella in one month took me from being a cute tween to a fat highschooler. F'ing Nutella.
Fox, any blog post which makes reference to my role-model-for-all-things-awesome makes me feel all warm n'fuzzy.
BTW, did you know that The Continental was fo' realsies? It starred an Italian proto-douche named Renzo Cezanna, and he pretended to seduce lonely TV watching dames with his debonaire romancing skillz.
PS; I vote for Chris C to dress up like him for H'ween, he already has the 'stache.
Vive Le Champaña
But do you say "crep" (rhymes with "step") myrtle?
Sorry to be a contrarian . . . I occasionally pronounce "crepe" in the way you advocate, but "crape" is just so much easier for my lazy Southern mouth muscles to say. Also "crape" is the only pronunciation in Merriam-Webster's.
ElZ: Walken was hilarious enough, but seeing a clip from the original just about put me in the hospital. The only thing goofier is that string of Brawny commercials a few years back that attempted the same thing.
Pink:
Where did you find a clip? I'm too busy going Krogering with alarming regularity to do a proper search
I saw a clip a long time ago on some kind of compilation program. I had no idea the original even existed until then. Metafilter says that Internet clips basically don't exist, but sound clips are available.
What is available on YouTube: Walken's astonishing dance number to "Let's Misbehave" in the 1981 Steve Martin remake of Dennis Potter's Pennies from Heaven. No joke: Walken's sleazy snake-charming pimp-dance come-hither to Bernadette Peters is something everybody needs to watch, like, immediately. It's practically a history of pop choreography from the Nicholas Brothers to Bob Fosse. You will not believe how good the guy really is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7rseCwM9mU
Don't forget that there's a crepe place downtown on 4th - alas, called Krayp - which despite the dumb name puts out really good crepes, both sweet and savory.
The upside is? They're not Whole Foods! Seriously guys, give it a rest. It's just a grocery store.
