The Pancake Boom is Here!


Recently lots of pancake shops are popping up in Japan. During the busier times at some of the most popular shops, customers form looong queues, sometimes waiting an hour for their turns. The pancake trend started, as most trends do, in Tokyo. In 2010 a well-known Hawaiian restaurant, Eggs’n Things opened their first overseas shop in Harajuku.

 

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As you know, Hawaii attracts people from all over the world. And it is particularly special to us Japanese. I can’t explain why, but we just LOVE Hawaii. “Made in Hawaii” is kind of like a magical phrase. We quickly fall in love with things originating in Hawaii. Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but I would say that our fascination with Hawaii triggered this pancake boom ;P Eggs’n Things is not strictly a pancake shop; they serve a variety of egg related dishes. So, a trip there is enjoyable even if you are not a big fan of sweets. I regularly visited their original shop when I lived in Hawaii a long, long time ago. I always ordered one of their egg dishes and loved their omelets especially! But now I deeply regret not sampling one of their pancakes, topped with a mountain of whipped cream…lol

An Australian restaurant, Bills is also one of the driving forces of the pancake trend in Japan. It is said that they serve the ‘No.1 breakfast in the world’ (Wow!) which includes extremely puffy and airy ricotta cheese pancakes.

I am personally curious about a pancake called Dutch baby from The Original Pancake House. This restaurant originated in Oregon, America. Their first shop in Japan (Kichijoji, Tokyo) just opened in June of this year. Dutch baby is a sweet popover pancake baked in a dutch oven.

 

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Looks good, doesn’t it? 😀

I currently live in America, but there is neither an Eggs n’ Things nor a The Original Pancake House in my state. And unfortunately we lack such a gorgeous (the world’s best breakfast!) foreign restaurant like Bills here… So sad!! (>_<)

 

-Junko
http://helemalie.tumblr.com/ 

 

This is JAPAN Style!