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THE HISTORY OF THE CREPE....
(The Welsh Connection)

There could be a link between the Breton Crepe and the humble
Welsh Cake (bakestone), according to recent research. The Breton
Onion Sellers, with their berets, stripped T-shirts and bicycles,
used to visit South Wales each year to sell their produce.

According to Welsh Folklore, one onion seller, or Shonny (Johnny)
Onion as they used to be known in Wales, was very impressed by
the Welsh Cakes made by his Cardiff landlady, one infamous
Delores Rose-Cottage, of The Rectory, Bute Street. So impressed
he was that he took a copy of her recipe, and an iron bakestone,
home with him.

One Saturday his wife made up the recipe as a surprise for him
when he came home from the onion fields, but due to dyslexia (the
earliest recorded case) added 2 pints (pts) of milk instead of
two tablespoons (tbs). This, (as you can imagine) led to the
mixture being far too runny, and in her attempts to keep it on
the bakestone spread it around with a spatula.

Hence the first Breton Crepe had been made, and to avoid hurting
his wife's feelings johnny onion said it was the best he had ever
tasted. So his wife went on making them that way, and so did the
rest of Britanny.

This story is corroborated by tales of onion sellers, bicycles
laden with iron griddles, boarding ships at Cardiff Docks for
their return journey to France.

Normandy crepes of course are made in a shallow frying pan, but
then the Normans did not have the same link with the great iron
foundaries of the Welsh Valleys.

The derivation of the word 'crepe' is not known but the french
word 'galette' (a pancake made with buckwheat flour) is believed
to have derived from the word 'gallois' meaning 'welsh' or
'welshman', and the french word 'lettre ', meaning 'something for
the weekend'.

(Based on original research by Professor Uno; Llareggub 1992 ©chris harris 1997)

 

 

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The Upper Cwmbran Temperance League was established as The Upper Cwmbran Thrift and Temperance Society at Circa 1903