Rambling about Ployes

Our gracious hosts on Cross Lake introduced us to Ployes, the Acadian specialty made from buckwheat, grown locally in Aroostook County. 

We came home with packages to try out and I made my first (successful) batch, which were totally yummy, just like our hosts served.

It's a blend of an American pancake and a crepe in that the 'cakes' are made with a batter thick enough to form the size of a pancake, but rolled up like a crepe when served. Another unique feature of these flatbreads, is that only one side is cooked on the pan surface - they are never turned. As the batter cooks, it releases gases (just like lake sediments, yes!) and the bubbles pop at the surface, creating a lovely substrate for pools of butter to melt into! Add a little maple syrup and ooh, boy is that delicious.

I was intrigued that Ployes were offered as a side dish to a dinner meal at the restaurant we visited - it seemed like a breakfast or afternoon tea offering to me, but I ate it at dinner, anyway: when in Rome, ...

I was curious about the name used for these flatbreads, as the spelling and local pronunciation didn't seem pure French to me. Here's what I found on Wikipedia:

Inherited from Middle French ployer; variant of plier (which later underwent further modification), both from Old French pleier, ploiier, from Latin plicāre, from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- (“to plait, to weave”) [from 13th century].

So the 's' would be silent in French. I then realized that the original word plier (to bend, fold) could be conjugated to the ballet term plié (to bend the knees outwards).

Of course, the Maine town of Calais is pronounced Callus in our state, and not Calay, as in France, so French pronunciation is not generally observed.

I think I've just plié-d myself into a series of ramblings - it's fun to play with words and speculate, though. 😀