Shrove Tuesday" tasties"

 A year ago I was in South Bend, Indiana for Shrove Tuesday and it was as unexpected as most things tied to the University of Notre Dame have been. There weren't the usual krapfen, pancakes or hojuelas of the several other places where I have celebrated Shrove Tuesday instead I was invited to a Mardi Gras New Orleans style party where I tasted gumbo (I hope I remember that name correctly) and king cake amongst several other sweet deserts more typical of what one associates with the US, like cupcakes. 

This year I went Vegan at least in terms of sweets, I made some chickpea flour chocolate chip cookies from the Indian cook Vegan Richa. They really are quite tasty as much as the ingredients are unusual. I really love using gram flour, it is so easy to use and lends itself  to both sweet and savoury. 

You may wonder what I would prefer. I don't really know. A delicious pflammkuchen (flatbread pizza Belgian style sold typically in Aachen, Germany) and a krapfen would at this moment really hit the spot. If you are wondering what a krafpen is, well it's a jam filled donut eaten in most German speaking parts of the world in the weeks leading up to Ash Wednesday. They have different names depending where in German-lands you are. From Berliner to Krapfen to Pfannkuchen to the Polish Paczki. I knew them best as krapfen, which is the Austrian name for them.

The Austrians also use peach jam (Marille), which is so much tastier than the plum jam of the rest of the German lands. 

If you go further south and even if you cross the Atlantic you find the hojuela, which is fried dough dipped in honey. Given my Latin origins you would think this would be my favourite but I never quite took to it. 

You can't be in England and not eat Pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, but don't expect fluffy ones as you might get in German-lands and the US. These are not the Austrian Palatschinken. Nein, they are French crepes, which have their attraction if you are expecting the thin tastiness but not if you hear pancakes and expect US style or Austrian style Palatschinken. 

So why eat on Shrove Tuesday? It is in theory in preparation for prolonged fasting of the serious kind, as they used to do in medieval and baroque times and is still practiced amongst Eastern Christians. The Germans around the Rhein region commemorate things quite well, at least the pre-fasting partying bit, by having carnival and dressing up. I remember one particular year, I was interning at an IT company and they went all out. Not only did they provide us with abundant amounts of krapfen in all its forms and sizes but from the bosses down to the janitor, people were in costumes, very creative ones at that. Now this does not mean that all of Germany then fasts for 40 days. That of course is where the commemoration fails a bit. This has been lost for while people do stuff themselves their fasting is not necessarily happening, it is difficult now then when it was more inbuilt into society back in the day. Back in the day monks would go those 40 days surviving on liquid diets, usually beer. At least in German-lands where the old monk fastenbier can still be found. The best I have tried was at the Augustinerbrauerie in Salzburg. 

 May you all have a stimulating 40 days to come whatever you fasting style may be. And possibly see you at Easter. 

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