As a child I read everything I could get my hands on and it seems that many of those childhood stories took place in England. The only one I can recall the title of is "Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. But in all those books the children sat by the nursery fire and ate crumpets. Crumpets were not part of my world, but I created an image of a muffin like cake with butter and jam. I guess I never thought to ask anyone or look it up in the Encyclopedia Brittanica. When I was 17 my best friend Arlene and I took what we called our "maiden voyage", surely the beginning of lives traveling the world. We took our first airplane flight from Portland, OR, to Vancouver, BC, and then the ferry to Victoria. We dressed in nice suits, heels, hats and gloves, as was the fashion in the 1950s. The high point was tea at the Empress Hotel, an experience that we had anticipated for months. We ordered, of course, tea and crumpets. When the oh-so-proper waitress delivered our order I was aghast. I said, "Excuse me, we ordered crumpets with our tea." She looked at my plate and said "Those ARE crumpets, my dear." There on the plate were two fat pancakes, they looked nothing like the muffins of my imagination. Arlene didn't have any preconceptions and dug right in. After I got over my disappointment I did to and found they were okay, just not what I had dreamed of.
Since then I have eaten crumpets in Canada, England, Wales, and the USA. And I do like them. Trader Joe's sells them sometimes and I indulge. just recently I have finished the six in the package. The final two with avocado mashed on top. Instead of avocado toast it was avocado crumpets. Delicious.
Just a fat pancake with butter.
Avocado crumpet.
Not found in an English novel!
6 comments:
Huh, I imagined cakelike too. I didn't know they were more like pancakes.
They look wonderful to me...and I love them with just butter drizzling all over....and sometimes with a spoonful of blueberry jam! Life is great!
I always thought cupcakes also. Better than Bubble and Squeak which is cabbage and potatoes. Downton Abbey fare!
honey and butter lightly toasted under the toaster oven which we didn't have back in the day 1950's and 1960's
Crumpets are made with yeast. They stay fresh longer than pancakes.
I don't remember what I thought crumpets were, but I think I recall being disappointed when I first saw one, also! I believe it was at Pike Place Market (which makes me smile in remembrance). Afterward, I regarded it as a large English muffin!
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