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| Excerpt from Breakfast in Helsinki by Susan Koefod, originally published in Literary Bohemian, Issue 5, June 2009
We came to the crêpe stand and found a table under the striped tarp which offered some protection from the hungry gulls. Ryan ordered two crêpes and I handed over a couple of Euros. Two teenaged girls were just finishing preparing the orders ahead of ours, and I watched as the crêpe batter bubbled on the griddle. The younger girl – yet another of the many beautiful Finns I’d grown used to seeing – expertly flipped the crêpe and I saw the lacy brown texture on the done side. A sweet aroma of cream and sugar wafted off the griddle. A few minutes later she folded up the finished crêpe and handed it to a waiting customer. Now it was our turn.
With a practiced hand she ladled batter onto two griddles and quickly spread it over each hot surface. There was an art to determining the correct amount of batter to create the wafer thin pancake and then turning the fragile crêpe at just the right time. Here again, the Finns demonstrated their perfection: they were effortlessly agile, relaxed and handsome at the same time in any occupation they took up, whether that was designing furniture, vases, Nokia cell phones, textiles, or turning out crêpes. |
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