Today is Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day. Traditionally making pancakes served the practical purpose of using up all the eggs and fat in the house before the austerity of Lent, the 40 days of fasting before Easter. Not being of a religious persuasion, I don’t keep Lent but I find Pancake Day a charming tradition. Will you be celebrating Pancake Day in your house?

Are you looking for a recipe? Try this recipe for buttermilk pancakes - if you don’t have buttermilk, just use normal milk instead for thick American-style pancakes. Or my personal favourite is Scandinavian pancake, which is baked not fried and is lovely and puffy with a crisp topping. Or you could make crepes instead - there is even a helpful video on the All Recipes site.

If you are in London, you might want to check out Marylebone Creperie, a new crepe house near Bond Street Tube station (71a Marylebone Lane). It was recommended in last week’s Time Out and I visited on the weekend. As well as white crepes, they also serve traditional Breton ‘galettes’ - buckwheat pancakes - and you can have a Breton cider as an accompaniment. They make the crepes and galettes fresh to order, which sounds obvious but a lot of crepe establishments have them pre-prepared and simply reheat to order, which lessens the quality. At the Marylebone Creperie savoury fillings range from mushroom, cheese and tarragon to seafood and white wine. The dessert list was mouthwatering but I didn’t have the appetite for it after my enormous main course so I shall have to return for a sweet crepe another time.