クレープ kureh-pu: crepe (crêpe)
So I fully realize that crepes are, in fact, originally a French food. However, crepes are wildly popular as a street food in Japan (especially among ladies) and somehow, Japan has adopted them and given them their own style. Japanese crepes are quite different than crepes I have eaten elsewhere so they might surprise you; they use almost no butter (if any) and the fillings are not cooked (just rolled and stuffed in). When it is served, it generally looks like an ice cream cone.
The weather is starting to turn nice recently and work is still quiet since school is not back into full swing yet, so I took the opportunity to sneak out and get an afternoon snack.
I went to a little known place called Cafe Waka-waka located in a back neighborhood of Nishihara town. There are only 2-3 cramped parking spaces, but luckily I was able to park.
On the outside it doesn’t look like much, but when you enter… it is quite a cute and trendy cafe. It was quiet, with only 1 other group of girls eating there. At the counter, I ordered a crepe (it was called mango “cheese”), paid, and waited at one of the tables for a few minutes until it came out. The menu consisted of sweet crepes, savory crepes, and cafe drinks… it is even sort of a little in “English,” though some of it might not make much sense unless you can read the katakana below it, or are a really experienced Engrish-reader.
It was really good, packed full with vanilla ice cream, mango chunks and sauce, sweet cream cheese (but not like the kind you spread on bagels, instead more like rare cheesecake), and cinnamon sprinkled on top. The price was 470yen, which ordinarily is near my limit of how much I like to spend on dessert snacks, but compared to places in the mall which charge over 500yen for crepes, I thought this was a very good deal and I left satisfied. So if you are near Nishihara town and craving a Japanese-style crepe, I recommend checking out this local cafe.
address: https://goo.gl/maps/sEAVh23Y3Yz
