Za hotcake shop in Kutchan Town!

 by Kazu

I was so impressed by the delicious pancakes baked in this hole-in-the-wall specialized in hotcakes and pancakes arranged in various way. Of course, the plain pancakes and hotcakes are superb and it may be the first time for me to experience the hotcakes better than that made by my wife.
  The name of the hole does not begin with "the" but "Za" followed by "hotcake shop". It has three tables for four persons and a table for two. The counter table can be used in case the tables are full of people but it may be too narrow to set dishes on it. I am not sure if the shop (cafe?) has the popularity to make a line of people waiting for a table in front of itself or not. But despite my low expectation before being taken to this cafe by my wife, I was so impressed by the art of flour.
Frequent users of this cafe were at the table facing the window. White wall is made of boards of wood chips.
 It might have foolish of my wife to ask the chef what was the difference between pancake and hotcake. "Have you had real pancakes in some specialty shop or cafe?" the chef replied to my wife. "It may be difficult to explain the difference. It is like vin rouge and vin blanc!" 
I was a little bit upset  but when I politely asked him a permission to take photos of the cafe except for the customers inside, "You might as well take photo of this beautiful female!", pointing out to my wife and flattered.

It may be impolite to ask about the difference between hotcakes and pancakes without homework. My wife regretted what she had asked to the chef but flattered by him, she hanged her mind and felt more comfortable in the cafe.
This is what we ordered. Pancakes with yogurt and ice cream vanilla-flavoured. The chef kindly asked if we were starved to death or hungry, and recommended just one order considering our answer. In fact, this dish was enough for us two. With smoked
maple syrup and honey, we really enjoy and remember the Canadian taste.

I heard that my wife had found this cafe surfing on the web. The cafe was real game changer in Kutchan Town. Is it right use of the words, Kathleen and Alan? Norm, where are you now? Please check my English as you did before!

It seemed that my wife was also satisfied with the taste of pancake dish but could not recognized the difference between pancakes and hotcakes. I hope the articles and photos sell like pancakes to call the attention of the world to Hokkaido in Japan!