Crystal, waitress at Charlie Parker's, shows off a giant pancake.

"How do you flip them?" was my first question when I saw waitress Crystal bringing a giant pancake to may table for breakfast the other day. The answer is: a pizza peel. While Charlie Parker's quonset hut diner in Springfield, Illinois, offers normal-size pancakes as well as the capital city's famous horseshoe (more about those later!), the giant pancake, at $3.50, is one of the great calories-for-dollars deals you'll ever find. If you are a real bargain hunter with an insatiable appetite, note that the menu offers a four-stack for a mere $8.00, and if you eat all of them, they are on the house. Crystal assured me that no one ever has been able to accomplish this feat. I completely understand, for not only is this pancake ridiculously broad, it's substantial. I mean that in a good way. It tastes just like one you'd make from scratch at home, its surface slightly crisp, the inside steamy and rich. Its capacity to absorb butter and syrup is incalculable. My appetite was seriously humbled.