tiger pancakes

In an echo of my own early pancake episode, one of my daughter's favorite books tells the story of a little boy in the jungles of Africa, who outwits hungry tigers by having them chase one another around and around a coconut tree. The striped yellow tigers go so fast that they end up melting, leaving a golden pool of butter. The boy's father scoops it up into a jug and carries it home to the mother, who uses it to make stacks of delicious pancakes. The book's closing image shows the little boy gleefully contemplating a buttery tower of one-hundred and sixty-nine pancakes which he proceeds to devour (he was very hungry).*

Impressed by his enormous apetite, my daughter has been asking for the same. The following is a recipe for a batter runny enough to allow necessarily ultra-thin pancakes, adapted from Alice Water's beautifully illustrated Fruit:

-buttermilk, 2 cups
-eggs, 2
-melted butter, 6 tablespoons
-flour 1 1/2 cups
-sugar, 1 tablespoon
-salt, 1 teaspoon
-baking soda, 2 teaspoons

*This is the story of Chibi Kuro Sambo (little black Sambo) which drew some controversy for its caricatural portrayal of the African family. It was recently re-published in Japan, this time with a slightly Indian cast; in the new edition the butter has been changed to "ghee."