Paulie's Sweet Sweet Batter

I’ve got two words for you. Unlimited. Flap jacks.  Rote counting aside, if I can’t have breaded pork tenderloins for breakfast, brunch, lunch, supper, and dinner, unlimited pancakes is next on my list.  That and dinosaur eggs, but I digress.   If you’re going to eat like a lumberjack, I think you should do it in a milieu fitting of a lumberjack: Paul Bunyan’s Cook Shanty, a family-style all you can eat restaurant with attached gift shop.  Think of it as the bastard child of a Cracker Barrel and Buca di Beppo.

Who is this pancake –loving virtuoso Paul Bunyan, you may ask.   Well, allow me to educate you.  Paul Bunyan was a lumber jack who toured the country in the early 1900s with his trusty companion, Babe (a blue ox).  His last name, Bunyan, is rumored to come from the French-Canadian word, “bonyenne,” which means “good grief.”  Red flag #1- Charlie Brown didn’t even discover the phrase “good grief” until the 1950’s.  (Take that, Wikipedia!).  Red flag #2 is, of course, that his last name could be derived from a sissy French word.  Everyone knows that ole Paulie was a God-fearing American.   Real patriots know that his last name is a common misspelling of the word “bunion,” or footie ouchies, as my Libby calls them.   And it’s understandable that Paulie would have footie ouchies. Have you seen how tall he is?!?! You know what they say… big guy… big bunions.   Or so I’m told.  Also, there are statues of him in states spanning from Maine to California so he clearly walked a lot.  

So that’s the story of Paul Bunyan and why he likes pancakes.   I don’t get up to Wisconsin often enough to quell my cravings for Paul’s sweet sweet batter, but sometimes, if I’m an extra good boy, my Libby makes me Mickey Mouse pancakes, which are almost as good as Paul’s… but not really… and she only let’s me have two because I have to fit into a stupid tux soon.

The end.