So a couple weeks ago I mentioned ployes. Most of my friends know what they are. If they didn't already, I made sure they heard about them, and tried them. But a lot of people have never had them.

I love them for breakfast, but considered a flatbread, they’re really for any time.

Ployes are simple: They come in a package, and are a dry blend of buckwheat flour, wheat flour, baking powder and salt that you mix with water and cook like a pancake in a dry (cast iron is best) frying pan. You only cook on one side. Takes a few seconds. They’re fat- and cholesterol-free, and three of them only contain 100 calories.

Sound boring don't they. They're not. Ask Sarah Morley or Margaret Salt McLellan. Margaret is a chef and knows good food. Sarah can't boil an egg, but she, too, knows good food.

The only ploye mix I've ever seen, or had, comes from the Bouchard family in Fort Kent http://ployes.com/. I spoke with a fifth-generation member of that family on the phone. Janice Bouchard was manning the store in Fort Kent last Wednesday. She describes ployes as a cross between a pancake and a crepe.

I told her I like them for their sponginess. “Oh, yes,” she said. “We describe them to kids as kind of like SpongeBob SquarePants, only round!” I love that. I’ll think of SpongeBob every time I have ployes now.

“Naked ployes are fat-free,” she said. “But they’re very hole-y. We make them that way so they’ll hold a lot of butter.”

Naked round SpongeBob SquarePants :-)

That’s my problem. I love them with butter. A hot ploye rolled up with butter melting inside is ridiculous. And if the butter defeats the purpose (eating them for health’s sake), oh well. I’m sorry.

No I’m not. They’re also good with syrup or some great jam. I got some French blackberry preserves at Morse’s in Waldoboro, and that on a buttered ploye ... just trust me.

I wish I could share the story about the first time I had ployes — on a boat with a notorious well-known Boothbay Harbor native, sailing to the Azores — but I can’t. Not because it’s x-rated or anything. It’s just that I have no idea when I really had them for the first time. It was probably in my little low-rent apartment in Winthrop back in the ’80s. Whenever and wherever I was, I can say with assurance I liked them.

The Bouchard Family Farms website states: “Ployes are as elegant as a fine crepe, as hearty as a breakfast pancake and as versatile as any bread. Ployes are creating their own identity. From appetizers to main course to desserts and snacks, they keep finding new ways to make meals interesting ... The first-ever original French Acadian buckwheat pancake mix farm produced in northern Maine since 1983.”

Ployes really ARE elegant. And they’re heart healthy, and simple to make. If you’ve never tried them, get a package of the mix and just do it. If you HAVE tried them, try them again. Unless of course you didn’t like them. Duh.

And by all means, email me and tell me what you think. About anything.

See ya next week!