Favorite Food

Ever since I was a little girl, I enjoyed eating Palachinke or thin-Serbian crepes. My mother would stand in the kitchen preparing them one by one while my sister, my dad, and I would sit at the dining room table waiting for her to bring out the hot Palachinke. On the table, we would set up each of the spreads that we liked to eat the crepes with: My father would pour massive amounts of walnuts and powdered sugar on his then fold the circular Palachinka into fourths so that it would look like a pie slice with each layer filled with the nuts and sugar. I liked to eat this too, but I also went through a phase where I would eat them with Nutella, a chocolate- hazelnut spread which is creamy and delicious when placed within the crisp, sweet flavoring of the thinly prepared Palachinka. My sister and mom are polar opposites, however, from my dad and I because neither of them enjoy eating nuts, sugar, or any kind of chocolate. They would spread raspberry or peach jam in a line down the middle of their Palachinka and would then roll it up.

            My mother’s Palachinke are the best I have ever tasted and I have definitely gone through my fair share of tasting crepes. Both of my grandmothers prepare their crepes too thick for my liking while my mother knows that they taste best when they compliment whichever spread they are served with rather than overwhelm its flavor. My dad’s best friend from college in Belgrade is actually the closest to reaching the quality my mom has achieved in her Palachinkas, but still something is off about it. It is hard to tell whether I am biased because I grew up with her crepes and her cooking, or whether it is because they are truly THAT good because I am not the first to have said so. Nevertheless, even fine creperies in Paris or in the south of France have not satisfied me nearly as much as my mother’s crepe can leave my tongue eager to savor more though my stomach may disagree.