Filloas? Oh yes, those Galician crêpes MIMIMIMIMIIII
Surely you have heard something similar more than once. But before the statement provokes a diplomatic incident of unforeseeable consequences with your acquaintances in the Northwest, let me explain. why is it false and where you can try some of the best pancakes that will make you discover a whole universe and that you will never mention crêpes again in the presence of a Galician.
WHY IS A FILLOA NOT A CRÊPE?
For the same reasons that a bean stew is not a cassoulet either an atascaburras is not a brandade de morue . They can be similar, yes; they can belong to the same family of recipes, it is true. but there are differences . The first one is that one of the recipes is French and the other is not.
The second is that there are ingredients that appear only in one of the versions , different ways of elaborating that make the difference. It is true that this recipe thing seems relative and if you do a search on Google you will find everything -if you want to laugh for a while, google “Paella recipe” or “Spanish Omelette”.
A pancake is not a crêpe
It will be clear to you that, no matter how much we relativize, not everything is valid in recipes either and that the Internet, in this matter of recipes, is capable of the best and the worst - but in the pancakes, as with the Gremlins, there are some commandments that you should not skip if you want your recipe to continue to bear that name without being embarrassed.
NO BUTTER
The pancakes do not have butter . It is true that in some restaurants they add it to prevent them from sticking when cooking – sometimes cooking at that rate requires shortcuts – but that is, in fact, one of the big differences with crepes. They usually have fat, although not always, but we will talk about that in the next section.
SOME PORK HAS TO BE INVOLVED IN THE PROCESSING
Although currently they are usually consumed mostly as a sweet, c so all the pancakes have some pork in their preparation.
can be only the bacon that is spread in the pan or in the filloeira so they don't stick, but it can also be the base broth of the elaboration.
Because pancakes are a cream that curdles on a hot surface until you achieve a fine and delicate cake. and that cream It has flour, eggs and some liquid element.
It can be milk, it can be pig blood -although you will hardly find them in restaurants- it can be a pork broth or it can be just water . And that is what makes there so many different types.
Forget the butter and give the pig: this is a pancake
** THERE ARE AS MANY TYPES OF PANCAKES AS THE REGION OF GALICIA **
It's not just the liquids we use that make the difference. Also flours have a lot to say . Although pancakes are currently usually made from wheat, in areas of the Rías Baixas it was common to make them from native white corn flour , further north than rye and sometimes even used oatmeal.
So you can meet huge pancakes, brittle like parchment , such as the famous filloas da pedra from ** A Baña (A Coruña) **, which only have water, flour and egg but also with thicker, more elastic and fluffy ones.
You will find them full of holes or uniform, almost white or toasted, with or without an almost crunchy lace. Each cook has her formula . And the best thing is that almost all of them are good.
Here, in this idyllic setting, you will taste a delicious pancake
PANCAKES ARE NOT (JUST) A DESSERT
In fact, in many cases, in the past, they came to make bread in houses where there was no oven or money to frequently buy a fresh loaf. And so you will find them, on occasion, **accompanying the stew**.
Anyway, like this from the geography of pancake can be a bit dense, the best thing is that we go into practice through a series of premises that are a good example of all this diversity.
WHERE TO EAT PADDLES
The classic sweet pancakes
There are many places where you will find them. Almost any Galician restaurant in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao or Valencia offers them. But if you want to try them on the spot, you can do so at ** Nito (Viveiro, Lugo) **, one of the best fish and seafood restaurants in the Galician Bay of Biscay, or at Casa Rosita , a seafood classic in **Cambados ( Pontevedra) **, where they are served with cream and honey.
In ** La Penela (A Coruña) **, which also has stores in Madrid and Barcelona, they offer them caramelized while ** A Horta d'Obradoiro **, a nice place a stone's throw from the Compostela cathedral, fills them with cream and mirabelles and in the Ferrol Parador they flambé them with brandy.
Warehouse 5 of the Plaza de Abastos in Santiago de Compostela
with savory filling
In ** Nave 5 of the Plaza de Abastos in Santiago de Compostela **, in the historic center, Amoado -it is the name of the cream that curdles to make them- dedicates its menu to pancakes.
Here the strong point is in the pancakes with a savory filling : bonito from the north with guacamole, baked vegetables with romesco sauce, fried squid, octopus with cheese… The last one I ate was stuffed with lobster monkfish medallions and roasted garlic cream.
In **Bacelo Taberna Vinaria (Ourense) ** they serve proposal as the pancake with avocado cream, O Cebreiro cheese and smoked herring . And in the ** Rectoral de Castillón (Pantón, Lugo) **, an 18th century mansion converted into rural accommodation with a restaurant on the Ribeira Sacra , they have in the filloa stuffed with lacón with turnip top sauce, one of its great classics.
** A Casa dos Martínez (Padrón, A Coruña) ** offers a pancake stuffed with lobster, boletus and monkfish and in the restaurant of the ** Hotel La Villa (Ribadeo, Lugo) ** they fill them with shellfish. Although in this section we must highlight the pancake-fajita that the chef Pepe Solla offered in his restaurant in ** Poio (Pontevedra) **, stuffed with smoked raxo -pork loin- and various sauces.
the ancient version
Served as an accompaniment to stew you will find them in many traditional food houses. One of the classics that does not require traveling by car to get there is the Rodeiro , a small tavern in the neighborhood of Saint Peter of Santiago , where you will have to ask for them when ordering your stew.
Alternatives for dessert
The world of sweet pancakes does not end with cream or cream fillings and admits endless alternatives.
A good example is the **filloas stuffed with rice pudding at the restaurant A Cabana** (Bergondo, A Coruña) and at the **Filigrana**, the restaurant at the h Hotel A Quinta da Auga (Santiago), while the grill old meadow (Moaña, Pontevedra) serves some cheese stuffed burnt pancakes and accompanied with a green apple sorbet.
Or, in a version further from the norm but equally tasty, the restaurant's pancake cake Edreira (Vimianzo, A Coruna), a roadside eating house in the middle of Death Coast who has managed to make this dessert –a kind of mille-feuille of pancakes- one of its emblematic dishes.
A stack of pancakes: the tower of happiness