I·ATE: Naleśniki, crêpes and palačinka. Sweet or savoury?

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Do you prefer sweet or salty food? Are you a sugary sweetheart, or do you have a salty side? Do not worry if you still have some doubts looking at what we have prepared for you this week. We want to introduce you to some international sweet and salty culinary proposals such as naleśniki in Poland, crêpes from France and palačinka from Czech Republic and other European countries. The choice is up to you!

i-ate-crepe

It is not known exactly who was the first who started cooking “pancakes”; it was very probably a long time ago. This international culinary speciality is served in China, Africa, America and in Europe. According to Italians they were invented in Florence, where in the 16th century Catherine de’ Medici brought them to France, where she married a French King.

Naleśniki are are thin crepe-like pancakes filled with various fruits, sweet fillings or even meal and vegetables and has earned a mention in Polish cookbooks. You can find as much versions as you want depending on your preferences: sweet or salty? For sweet-lovers we propose you naleśniki with fruit jam (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, plums or any other fruit that you really like), sliced fruit, chocolate or sweet white cream cheese with cinnamon. You can even sprinkle them with powdered sugar or any sweet sauce. If you are tempted by savoury versions you can easily prepared them with roasted meal, spinach, mushrooms and/or cheese and with many other supplements. The picture below presents a sweet and a savoury version.

polskie-nalesniki

Crêpes are specially popular throughout France. There is a voluptuous variety of savouries which depends on when they are served: fresh vegetables and herbs, seafood, poultry, and meat crêpes can serve as appetizers, first courses, and entrées while filled with seasonal fruit, sweet sauces, sugar, honey, hazelnut-chocolate cream, sorbets, or ice cream, they become splendid desserts.

nalesniki-crepes4

In Central Europe there is a thin pancake comparable to a crêpe called palatschinken in Austria; palacsinta in Hungary; in Ukraine is called млинці, налисники (mlyntsi, nalysnyky); you can find palačinka in so many different European countries such as Czech Republic, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedoniapalacinka in Slovakia while in Romania is called plăcintă. Palačinka is prepared in a sweet or savoury way, it depends which version do you prefer.

nalesniki-crepes

If we travel to the Baltic countries in Lithuania they call it lietiniai blynai, in Latvia pankūka while in Estonia we will find some pannkook, ülepannikook. If we visit the Nordic countries we will for sure taste some ohukainen, lätty, lettu or räiskäle in Finlandpannkaka is the one you will eat in Sweden in southern regions and plättar in the north, in Denmark you will have some pandekager, in Norway they have pannekake while in Iceland the prepare pönnukaka. Travelling back to Greece we will eat κρέπα (krépa) and in Turkey krep or akıtma. As you see variations can be exotic!

How about your country? How do you eat them? Do you cook them in a special way? Take some time and let us know!


Written by Olga Jeczmyk: Translator-Interpreter, Social Media and Content Manager as well as Communication and Terminology Trainee. Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament in Luxembourg.

Sources:

  • Crêpe (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: http://bit.ly/2gDfZl3 (Accessed: 1 December 2016).
  • Like Croatia (2013) A testament to Croatian childhood – the perfect palacinka. Available at: http://bit.ly/2gZ6OyU (Accessed: 1 December 2016).
  • Nalesniki (crepes) – polish recipes served on polish pottery – Polmedia Inc (no date) Available at: http://bit.ly/2gPwHNt (Accessed: 1 December 2016).