Saveurs’ Fact Checker Checks In about Pancakes
Today is another busy day at the cafe, with the weather heating up and the people streaming in for smoothies, ice coffee and to use the computers. I was in a meeting with a web designer from Greenfield named Maria when I got a call from Saveur Magazine.
It was Grace Nguyen, calling from the fact-checking division on the west coast, and she wanted to confirm some facts in a story. I was flattered that GoNOMAD is now the place to call when you have questions about Laos, or Cyprus, so I took some time to speak with her.
The writer said that banana pancakes were an American Favorite, and that they were served throughout his trip in guesthouses in Laos. I thought about it, and told her that only once in Malaysia were we served pancakes, and they didn’t have any bananas in them. But then I found a story by one of our writers, Marie Javins, that appeared on another website back in 2000, where she said that every place she went tried to feed her awful fried banana pancakes. She hated them wherever she found them.
This confirms that yes, banana pancakes are popular, but I suggested we change the wording since pancakes, not banana pancakes qualify as an American Favorite.
You never know who might be calling here at GoNOMAD–CNN, Saveur, Yahoo Travel, or the Valley Advocate–we love hearing from them all.
July 28, 2006 @ 9:57 pm
Banana pancakes are indeed served in backpackers’ haunts from Nepal to East Timor, though mostly in SE Asia and even as far north as Yangshuo, China. I have had some pretty good ones, but often they are fried in so much oil that they are gooey or crispy–YUCK! Anyway, my theory is that someone must have explained how to make them at some point, because it’s easy to make banana pancakes with local ingredients. I’d tell the fact checker that no way did this trend come from America–heck, a quick count of the number of American backpackers wandering through versus British and Australian would confirm that–but they certainly evolved on the budget travel circuit. One day I’m going to write an article on this, but there’s so many other articles on my (breakfast) plate first. I believe I owe GoNOMAD.com one on Kuwait camel races right now.