Baker’s Hours

I’m sure you are wondering why I’m doing another post about the Honolulu Festival. The reason is that the Crepes No Ka Oi booth was by far one of the most popular booths at the Festival.  Yeah, it’s just a crepe, and yeah it’s simple, but sometimes the simplest thing can be the hardest thing to get right, and it is because they got it right that I have decided not to just group them in with the other exhibitors that I reviewed. 

The first thing that caught my eye about this booth in particular is that there was always a line every time I passed it. The name sounded familiar to me, but it wasn’t until I got home that I remembered that their shop is on the same block as Boots & Kimo’s. Granted, this was giving in to the mob mentality, but if people were always lining up at this booth, then I had to try whatever it was that they were serving up. Being a peanut butter fiend, of course I had to try the peanut butter and banana crepe. I put in my order, and quickly found that part of this booth’s appeal wasn’t just the food, but watching them make it. 

Sure, there are naysayers out there who will say, “what is the big deal, it’s just a friggin crepe!” Well, I’m going to guess that those people never had to make 100 crepes before. Anyone can make one perfect crepe, but lets see them try and make 100 perfect crepes in rapid succession. I’ve seen trained cooks tear a crepe to shreds because their timing was a little off. I’ve made a lot of crepes in my time, and I can crank them out as fast as any other guy, but these guys were good! 

My inner foodie was really geeking out as I watched them crank out these crepes. No batter was wasted, and during my  whole time standing there watching them (I must have been there almost an hour) I never saw them break one crepe.

I’ve never had to make a crepe as big as these, so I was eager to see how they would flip them. If you were using a skillet, you could just flip it similar to flipping an egg. The way I prefer to do it is I would use a wooden skewer to lift the edge of the crepe, pick it up with my fingers and flip it that way. However, if you were to try that with these jumbo crepes you would be sure to break it. As I watched with interest, their method was just as simple. Basically a wooden paint stick. Brilliant!

Here, is the crepe that I ordered, a peanut butter banana crepe. I loved it, but after the first bite, I was desperately looking for a glass of milk, which was not to be found at the convention center. I should have chosen more wisely. Live and learn.

Once again, this is an example of my “Simplicity is Beauty” philosophy. It is done well, and it tastes good. That’s all that matters. Crepes No Ka Oi definitely lives up to their name. No Ka Oi… The Best!

Song Stuck in my head at the time of this post: Sex & Candy by Marcy Playground