Pancake Anyone?

Today the most exciting thing that happend to me was that I cooked and ate my very own Japanese pancake. This proved to be a not altogether straight forward experience, and i don't mean just the pancake part.

Firsty, when i entered the restaurant, I saw two Japanese girls putting their shoes on; when they saw me walk in, they bowed their heads and giggled, and it wasn't because my arms are hairy; they clearly knew something that i didn't. Anyway, I just stood there till a waitress told me, in broken English, to take my shoes off and put them in a plastic bag; this i did, but i wasn't sure where i was supposed to leave the bag; apparently i was supposed to take it with me. She led me to a low Japanese table which had a hot-plate in the middle; that's when i realised why there were a box of plastic fans at the entrance; things could clearly hot up.

I sat on a cushion beside the table, which for an inflexible 32 year old with a history of knee trouble is not as easy as it sounds. As i needed clarification on a couple of the ingredients, I asked the waitress a couple of questions, but unfortunately we were totally lost in translation. Thankfully a Japanese man in the next table offered to translate and after a few English to Japanases to English exchanges, a decision was reached on a suitable pancake.

Eventually i was brought a bowl which contained various ingredients and the waitress just said "Mix!", so i mixed. When she returned she gestured for me to pour the mixture on the hotplate, which i did carefully, but obviously not well enough as she rearraged the mixture so that it was the proper Japanese Pancake shape. After a few minutes of sweating i was told to flip it, at which point the waitress said "4 Minutes".

All i can say is, 4 sweaty minutes later, I understood why this pancake was worth two aching knees, a neck ache and severe over-heating; perfect with a cold Sapporo beer; delicious!