Pancake Travels

I found myself visiting the country of Bolivia last Sunday, and on this visit, I had at last arrived in a country where it was relatively easy to find a pancake recipe.  Initially I found one that called for flour and eggs, but the proportions seemed to be off on this recipe for a pancake, as it looked more like a quiche in the picture that I saw.   I opted for making the Bolivian rice pancake called a torreja.  I found two separate websites that described how they got these recipes either from visiting Bolivia or from someone who was from Bolivia, so I felt pretty confident that torrejas were an actual Bolivian pancake.  As I looked at the pictures of torrejas, they reminded Me A LOT of latkes; however, the taste and texture were much different once I bit into them. So here we go with my Bolivian pancake journey.  To make torrejas you'll need: 1 cup rice (make sure it's freshly cooked rice and not rice leftover from dinner the night before) 1 large carrot,...

I find myself now traveling on to southeast Asia as I arrive in Bhutan.  This was another tough country to find a pancake recipe for.  I found information on what they use to make their pancakes, buckwheat, but it was a challenge finding out much more than that. I did learn that Bhutan is a landlocked country that has arid areas where rice can't be grown.  It is in these areas that buckwheat is grown.  I also found many yummy sounding recipes from the country, but none of them were for pancakes.  I also learned the name for Bhutan pancakes, they are called khuli.  However, like with the last country, having the name of the pancake didn't help me find a recipe for it. Most of what I learned about buckwheat agriculture and use in Bhutan came from an article published by the Bhutan Ministry of Agriculture.  If you want to read up on it, check it out here .  If you don't want to read up on it, I'll copy and paste the part I used to try to make khuli....