Les Crepes...in London

    While Paris may not be known for its street food, this little French Creperie trailer, that can be found in a small corner of the street, parked outside a British pub in Hampstead, can out-do many of the the chi-chi food trucks that crowd the American metropolitan cities.  And this Creperie even manages to do it, without some quirky name, or a ridiculously-colored truck, or even a Twitter account.  Which just goes to prove that when there is good food, customers will find it.  (For those of you that are unfamiliar, Hampstead is a beautifully quaint area of London just outside of the massively popular Hampstead Heath park.) 

  

The Hampstead Creperie serves simple savory and sweet crepes, and they whip them up constantly- one after the other, while smiling and chatting with customers the whole time.  However, even at their professional speed, the line of customers always seems to be no shorter than 10 people long.

  

Their menu consists mostly of the traditional combinations of mushrooms, ham, spinach, etc. for the savory; and Nutella, chocolate, banana, coconut flakes, etc. for the sweet.  

The real beauty is in the execution.  The large crepes are cooked up hot and crispy in a small pat of butter.  They are then left to bake on the hot grill, only briefly, as the filling slowly melts inside the crispy folds of the pancake. 

 I ordered the spinach and cheese and after a long walk in the Hampstead Health on such a blustery Spring day, it was the perfect recharge.  A buttery, flavorful, soft crepe, wrapped around hot melted cheese and spinach.  Since it seems that everything I do is motivated by the availablity of delicious food nearby, I guess this means I'll be coming back to the hike the Heath again, just so that I have an excuse to eat another crepe.