13 Reasons Why Pancakes are a Global Force to Be Reckoned With

Do you want to know what a truly international house of pancakes looks like? It doesn’t limit itself to flapjacks, that’s for sure. No, it lives up to its name by taking a spring breaker’s tour through Europe, picking up Irish boxty and French socca as souvenirs. But it doesn’t stop there—it gains a worldly air by spending a semester in Asia, learning the ways of Korean jeon, Japanese okonomiyaki, and Chinese bing. Feeling a little homesick, it brings it back to the States, spending the weekends seeking out under-the-radar specialties like Rhode Island’s johnnycakes and the German-American Dutch baby. That, my friends, is what a well-traveled, fully globalized house of pancakes is.

In an ideal world, the 24/7 breakfast chain in my neighborhood would serve all of the above pancakes in addition to their menu of bacon ‘n eggs combo meals. Until then, here are 13 recipes that make it possible to travel across continents from the comfort of your kitchen, one pancake at a time.

1. Basic Pancakes

Chowhound

Before we go hopping around the world, let’s start with the fundamentals. Everyone should learn how to make basic pancakes—your weekend mornings will be all the better for it. Get our Basic Pancakes recipe.

2. Dutch Baby Pancake

Chowhound

Dutch baby pancakes are actually a descendant of Germany’s pfannkuchen—legend has it that their name came about through a mangling of the word “Deutsch.” Wide and thin, they resemble a big popover, puffing up in the oven as they bake inside the skillet. Get our Dutch Baby Pancake recipe.

3. Johnny Cakes

Framed Cooks

Johnnycakes are a dense, cornmeal pancake that take incredibly well to a smothering of butter and syrup. Although they were a staple food during colonial times up and down the Atlantic coast and across the Caribbean, nowadays, they’re known as a specialty in Rhode Island. Get the Johnny Cakes recipe.

4. Kaiserschmarrn

Dramatic Pancake

Think of these as deconstructed fruit pancakes put through the shredder. Hailing from Austria, Kaiserschmarrn involve cooking a pancake the usual way, then tearing it to pieces and serving it with fruit and/or preserves. Get the Kaiserschmarrn recipe.

5. Blini

Red Star to Lone Star

These famed Russian pancakes (also spelled bliny) are a great topped with sour cream and caviar, for sure, but they can do so much more. Try them with farmer’s cheese, honey, or preserves. Get the Blini recipe.

6. Latkes (Potato Pancakes)

Chowhound

Latkes are traditionally eaten during Hanukkah, but they do something for potatoes that makes them craveable year round. Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, they’re pretty much the ideal of what any potato should be. Get our Latkes recipe.

7. Boxty (Irish Potato Pancake)

Chowhound

If you’ve never heard of boxty before, allow me to sum them up: mashed potato pancakes. They’re enough to make any spud lover seriously weak at the knees. Get our Boxty (Irish Potato Pancake) recipe.

8. Socca (Farinata)

Chowhound

In southern France these pancakes are known as socca. In Italy, they’re called farinata. Either way, they’re plain delicious. Made from chickpea flour, they have an intense earthiness that tastes best straight from the griddle. Get our Socca recipe.

9. Korean Seafood and Green Onion Pancakes (Haemul Pajeon)

My Korean Kitchen

Korea actually has a pancake repertoire that runs deep, encompassing the both the sweet and the savory. But the greatest Korean pancake of them all might just be haemul pajeon, a scallion and seafood pancake that can include shrimp, scallops, or squid. It doesn’t embrace the phrase “flat as a pancake.” Rather it lets its chunky fillings take it into the third dimension. Get the Korean Seafood and Green Onion Pancakes (Haemul Pajeon) recipe.

10. Okonomiyaki

Chopstick Chronicles

Savory Japanese okonomiyaki literally translates to “as you like it”—you can throw in toppings as you please. If you ever wanted an excuse to eat pancakes for dinner, this is it. Get the Okonomiyaki recipe.

11. Scallion Pancakes

Omnivore’s Cookbook

Scallion pancakes are the most famous form of bing—a general Chinese term for cakes made from wheat. The best ones are rolled into a coil and then flattened out, resulting in flaky layers that just beg to be torn apart. Get the Scallion Pancakes recipe.

12. Coconut Rice Custard Pancakes (Khanom Krok)

Rachel Cooks Thai

Kanom krok lure you in with their beautifully browned, crispy exterior. But it’s the pudding-like insides made with coconut cream and rice flour that take you to creamy, custardy heaven. Get the Coconut Rice Custard Pancakes (Khanom Krok) recipe.

13. Shredded Beef and Black Bean Arepas

The Candid Appetite

Arepas, the South American cornmeal pancakes, can be a vehicle for numerous fillings and mix ins. But ultimately it’s about the cake itself: crackly on the outside, slightly airy on the inside, and rich with corn flavor throughout. Get the Shredded Beef and Black Bean Arepas recipe.

Related Video: How to Make Easy Pancakes

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What Is the Difference Between Butter and Margarine?

9 Savory Pancakes from Around the World

Pancakes and crêpes are a universal symbol of deliciousness: Just about every culture around the world has its own take on a flatbread made with batter that’s been griddled until warm and crisp-edged. But while there’ll always be a place for banana pancakes and strawberry blintzes, we think the world’s best versions turn up in the form of savory variations. From Vietnamese banh xeo to Russian blini, here are some of our favorite sugar-free pancakes.

1. Banh Xeo

Hungry Huy

Perfect banh xeo, or Vietnamese rice crêpes, should be impossibly thin and shatteringly crisp. They’re made with a combination of rice flour, water, and turmeric, filled with shrimp or pork and bean sprouts, and wrapped in lettuce or mustard leaf. Serve them with a sweet-and-sour fish-based sauce for dipping. Get the Banh Xeo recipe.

2. Galettes Bretonnes

Strawberry Plum

The French crêpes we’ve come to know well—round flour, egg, and milk sheets that are filled then folded into quarters—come from the southern part of Brittany. But in the north there’s the galette, made with buckwheat, filled with ham, cheese, spinach, or ratatouille, and folded into a square. For a true galette complete, crack an egg on top. Get the Galettes Bretonnes recipe.

3. Cong You Bing (Scallion Pancakes)

Rasa Malaysia

Legend has it that pizza evolved out of the scallion pancake, which was brought to Italy from China by Marco Polo. We can’t corroborate this, but we can confirm that the humble flatbread makes for an ideal breakfast alongside soy milk or rice porridge. Get the Scallion Pancakes recipe.

4. Socca (Farinata)

Chowhound

Take a trip to the Ligurian coast with this humble pancake that’s prepared with nothing more than chickpea flour, water, and olive oil. It’s a fixture in Genoa, Italy, where it’s referred to as farinata and infused with rosemary, as well as in Nice, France, where it’s called socca, and often served on the street in paper cones and washed down with cold rosé. Get our Socca recipe.

5. Injera

Immaculate Bites

If you’ve ever had Ethiopian or Eritrean food, then you’ll know injera, the uniquely spongy and sour flatbread made of teff flour that serves the triple function of plate, utensil, and sustenance. It can be tricky to make because of its obscure ingredients and fermenting process, but this entry-level recipe from Chef Marcus Samuelsson makes the flatbread more accessible. Get the Injera recipe.

6. Latkes

Chowhound

Potato pancakes aren’t merely a Hanukkah specialty; in addition to their significance in Jewish culture (where they’re known as latkes), they also hold a historical place in most Central and Eastern European cuisines. Enjoy the grated potato flapjacks simply with sour cream, or gussy them up as hors d’oeuvres with smoked salmon, crème fraîche, and caviar. Get the Latkes recipe.

7. Dosa

The Spruce

Dosa, the fermented crêpe that’s a specialty of South India, comes in many forms. One of our favorite variations is the rava dosa, which is made with semolina in addition to rice flour, but the standard version is also great. Serve either kind plain alongside chutney, or top it with a variety of vegetables, like potato and chickpea masala. Get the Dosa recipe.

8. Okonomiyaki

Just One Cookbook

Unlike the standard American pancake, this Japanese food is composed of savory ingredients such as eggs, dashi, and shredded cabbage, and the batter gets mixed with the likes of shrimp, squid, octopus, and/or pork belly before griddling (really, any protein you have on hand, so it’s great for using leftovers). It’s topped with bonito flakes, Kewpie mayonnaise, and a sweet okonomiyaki sauce. Get the Okonomiyaki recipe.

9. Blini

Synergee/E+/Getty Images

Unlike most pancakes and crêpes, Russian blini are prepared from a batter that’s been leavened with yeast. Although wheat flour is most popular, blini can be made with all kinds of flour, including buckwheat, millet, oatmeal, and our favorite, cornmeal. Caviar is the traditional topper. Get our Cornmeal Blini recipe.

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What Is the Difference Between Pozole and Menudo?

What is the difference between pozole and menudo? One has a stomach-churning past, the other is actually made with stomach. But they’re both a pair of soul-satisfying soups that also happen to be two of Mexico’s most iconic dishes.

When it comes to pozole (also spelled posole), a hearty combination of rich broth, meat, corn, and spices, its cultural significance has especially deep roots that date all the way back to the Aztecs. The soup’s name derives from the Nahuatl word for its signature ingredient: hominy, which is dried corn treated with an alkaline solution resulting in chubby, chewy kernels.

Hominy’s importance in the dish wasn’t simply a matter of flavor and texture. Corn was considered a sacred crop by the Aztecs and pozole was largely reserved for special occasions, which brings us to that stomach-churning portion of its history. The Aztecs were known to engage in human sacrifice and pozole would often play an integral part in the ritual. I think you know where I’m going this. If not, let’s just say they did not want to let any meat go to waste. (Pozole was prepared with human flesh, just to be clear.)

Of course, the recipe has evolved since its ancient origins. When the Spanish introduced pigs to Mexico, pork became the primary meat found in pozole. (Some claim that pork was a welcome substitute to human because they’re similar in taste—I’ll take those people at their word.)

Today, the preparation of pozole varies from region to region and even household to household (some people swear by pig’s head; others prefer the shoulder; then there are those who opt for chicken). Generally, the soup is divided into three varieties broken down by the colors of the Mexican flag: the standard white pozole; a version prepared with green ingredients such as tomatillos, cilantro, and jalapeño; and a chile-infused red version.

Though pozole is now enjoyed any day of the year, it remains a staple for special occasions and is a particular favorite on New Year’s Eve.

Time-intensive menudo is also served during major celebrations but it’s most famously known as a dish that is served the day after the party. Though there’s no scientific proof to back it up, the soup is renowned as a hangover killer which is why it’s such a popular daytime option on Saturdays and Sundays. If you find yourself at a Mexican restaurant for weekend breakfast or lunch, it’s almost a guarantee you’ll find someone slumped over a bowl of menudo, eager to wash away the pain (and regret) that lingers from the previous evening.

Like pozole, menudo is prepared with hominy, but its main source of protein is cow. The stomach lining, more commonly known as tripe, is the star of the dish, which often features a supporting cast of other cuts including beef tendon and feet of both the cow and pig variety. Here in the United States, eating tripe, like most innards, is often considered a hard pass, but a spoonful of menudo can change the mind of the skeptics. As the tripe simmers for hours in a fiery red broth redolent of chiles (if you can’t take the heat, seek out the white version), garlic, and spices, it becomes tender like calamari while sponging up all the flavors that envelop it. The finished product is spicy, complex, and packed with flavor.

While pozole and menudo are sufficiently slurpable on their own, an assortment of additions such as Mexican oregano, sliced radishes, chopped onion, cabbage, tortillas or tortilla chips, avocado, and a squirt of lime juice provide the exclamation points for these intoxicating bowls of homey goodness.

Juanita's Foods Mexican Style Hominy, $3.34 at Walmart

Whichever soup you're making, you're going to need hominy, and plenty of it.

Try It

Mexican Menudo

Tablespoon

Dried hominy is traditional, but canned hominy is convenient, and tastes great in this spicy broth infused with dried chile peppers and plenty of garlic. Get the Mexican Menudo recipe.

White Menudo

Mexico in My Kitchen

This white menudo includes a tiny bit of mint, but most of the flavor is from garlic, onion, and the slightly earthy tripe itself. Get the White Menudo recipe.

Pozole Rojo

Daring Gourmet

This rich red pozole is packed with tender pork shoulder and hominy, and gets a flavor boost from a homemade enchilada sauce. Pile on as many toppings as you like. Get the Pozole Rojo recipe.

Chicken Pozole Verde

Isabel Eats

Tomatillos, jalapeños, and cilantro make a flavorful green broth, and this version uses shredded chicken instead of pork, but of course includes hominy. Get the Chicken Pozole Verde recipe.

Pozole Blanco

Chicano Eats

The standard white pozole is less spicy but just as satisfying, and just as suited to garnishing with lots of fresh, crunchy, and creamy additions. Get the Pozole Blanco recipe.

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Char Siu Chicken

Warning: This Char Siu Chicken is highly addictive! You'll wonder how you ever grilled chicken thighs without this mix of honey, hoisin, garlic, soy sauce, and Chinese five-spice powder. It's a take-out staple that's easy to make at home!

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White Bean and Ham Soup

Hearty White Bean and Ham Soup, perfect for cold winter days! White beans, ham shanks, onions, celery, carrots, garlic, Tabasco, and herbs make this delicious ham and bean soup a cool weather classic.

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