Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Click Click Bloody Pancakes!


Yesterday was Free Pancake Day at IHOP. I nearly forgot all about it, until I looked at my calendar, where a generous gnome had written a reminder. Luckily, my neighbor was hungry, so a quick iChat conversation (and some necessary "pre-gaming" on my part) led to an adventure to the heart of the American dream: free flapjacks.

Drizzle some Butter Pecan syrup with us, after the jump!

After spending some quality time with Patches O'Hoolihan I was ready to embark. My neighbor Steve met me outside and we piled into his Mustang; this being LA, there was no way we were walking this vast distance. Roughly 2 minutes later we were in the parking lot. The lot was crowded; the word must've been out.

We sit down and proceed to skim the menu. Moral crossroads: do we order something small and add the free flapjacks as a side, or do we be dicks and just order the pancakes. Since dying children were involved, we decided to order something. Expressing our order to our waiter, Hugo, was difficult due to our varying grasps on the English language. Luckily, there were cards on each of the table, pronouncing the day to be National Pancake Celebration Day. Additionally luckily, we had fingers which we could use to point.

We sit back and wait for our food to arrive. I notice that they've taken down my favorite photograph at the IHOP: it's a picture of the day that very store opened in 1955. There are three or four men in suits standing outside the IHOP, and one guy in a giant pancake costume. The fake smiles are pretty radiant. Steve posits that if he had a time machine he'd go back to 1961 and be the first guy in line for the first White Castle Burger. I state that with my Time Travel ability I'd go back and get the guy in the pancake suit really high. Then, we discussed how epic RPS-25is.

Hugo returns and we tuck into our meals. Honestly, I only wrote that so I could use "tuck" as a verb to describe eating. I've seen it before and, since my only experience tucking anything involves a full-length mirror, I've always wanted to use it. Thanks Mr. Limpet!

The pancakes are delicious, as most food is when it's free. We banter wittily, we discuss the issues of the day, and observe that the donations for the pancakes go to help children with problems. We pay our bill, donate a couple bucks to the kids as a way of saying, "Thanks. Surely what life you have left to live will be better because my hunger was sated," and return to the Mustang in a syrup stupor. All in all, for a Fat Tuesday, it was pretty delicious.

(Ed's note: be weary when Google Image Searching pancakes)