A Pile of Pancakes and Ham

This is not even a regional dish of the Alps. It is virtually a unique specialty of the tiny Valley of La Grande Chartreuse. In the local dialect, matefaim means “cut hunger,” and it is the food most often served for a kind of brunch on Sunday or for a simple supper at any time. You make a batch of crêpes and quickly fry each one in very hot walnut oil, so that it puffs up and absorbs the nuttiness. Then you pile up the crêpes (more or less as if they were Mexican tortillas) between