Over the holidays, my nephew from Iowa posed a question that I was ashamed to answer truthfully, "Do you know how to make crepes?" After a short and brief pause, my simple answer was no and we moved on to the next subject. What I didn't tell him was that this actually bothered me. In order to enhance my culinary abilities I made myself a promise to learn how to make crepes- if not for me, then at least for my nephew.
After doing some research on crepes, I learned how versatile this dish could be. Crepes can be filled with not only sweet dessert fillings but savory meats, as well. The more I thought about it, I realized that a crepe is nothing more than another serving vessel such as tortillas, rice paper, etc. Okay, maybe it's a little fancier than the two mentioned but it pretty much serves the same purpose.
On that note, before attempting to make crepes I decided our next stop on Project Austin Food Trailer Tour should be Crepes Mille off of S. Congress.
Upon our arrival to Crepes Mille, I noticed that there were several familiar items on the menu. Foods that I'm used to seeing because of my ethnicity; Thai dishes, such as Panang Curry (chicken curry), and sweet-sticky rice dessert crepes. I didn't choose those dishes because they would have needed to be more than spectacular to earn a great review from me. I tried my best to not be subjective from the get-go, so I took a different route. I chose one savory crepe, barbecue pulled brisket, and one sweet crepe, caramelized pear. Between my friends, they ordered the rotisserie chicken crepe, the berry delight, and a Nutella filled crepe topped with ice cream. I managed to sample all of these except the rotisserie chicken, but for the purpose of this review I'll focus on the two dishes I ordered.
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| BBQ Beef Brisket |
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| Caramelized Pear |
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| Berry Delight |
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| Rotisserie Chicken |
Crepes Mille did a great job on presentation; all of the dishes above were served on thin paper plates and looked very appetizing. They would look even better on white ceramic plates if given the opportunity. On that note, it’s also important to have your flavors well-balanced to compliment the plating. With that aspect in mind, Crepes Mille was mediocre at best.
The barbecue beef brisket was a great idea for a savory crepe, however, the execution of the dish was slightly disappointing. The meat inside the crepe did have some flavor but it was masked by the dryness of the meat. The sauce on top of the crepe tasted like your standard barbecue sauce and it probably would have served a better purpose inside the crepe to help give it a little moisture. Cutting into the crepe and trying to get a decent bite size also became a challenge because of the fibrous meat. In this case I think that a finely chopped beef or thin slices of brisket would've served as a better filling than the pulled beef. The actual crepe that wrapped the beef lacked flavor and could have easily been fixed with maybe a little more salt and sugar in the batter. As I stated earlier, the idea behind this dish was a great one but the execution of it needs a little tweaking. A little more barbecue sauce on the side would have greatly been appreciated and needed.
The next dish I tried was the caramelized pear crepe. I love caramelized fruits such as pears, peaches, and apples. The cooking of these fruits brings out their natural sweetness that balances well with a slight acidity tone. After all, who doesn't enjoy a bit of sweet and sour together. This crepe was topped off with a caramel sauce and whipped cream sprinkled with inklings of corn flake. My first bite surprised me a little with its sweetness. I made sure not to get any caramel sauce the second time to see if it was the caramelized pears inside the crepe that were overpoweringly sweet; indeed they were. The next couple of bites I incorporated the whipped cream with the pears and it helped tone down the sweetness a bit. Some might enjoy this and even make a case that a dessert is supposed to be super sweet but I'm going to make a case that a little acidity and a little bit less sweetness would've made this dish almost perfect. The caramel sauce looked great on the plate but I didn't need anymore sweets to add to this dish so I could have done without it. The whipped cream was too small of a serving for me since I needed a lot of it to try to tone down the sweetness. The corn flakes on top of the whipped cream added visual appeal but nothing constructive, taste-wise, to the dish.
To recap our visit to Crepes Mille I want to start off by saying that these dishes we tried weren't too bad. Each of them could use a little tweaking or maybe even tasting prior to being served. These are all easy fixes that can be done, if made aware. Now that I've thought about it, maybe I should have tried some of the Thai flavored crepes. I might do that on our next visit but that probably isn't going to be anytime soon.
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