Sunday, February 10, 2008

Sapporo: Food Paradise

I love this city. I had Japan's most delicious food there. All the food we had there was satisfying. If you ask me why would I go back to Sapporo beside it's Snow Festival, then it must be the food!!
It has the best farm and dairy products: sweet corn, potato, milk, cheese, butter.
It has the freshest seafood I've ever had in Japan
It also has the best grilled lamb
It has addictive sweets and snacks
And It has one of the most delicious Ramen I've ever had

So let's follow my culinary journey during our last trip to Sapporo (^__^)

Hokkaido's specialty: Kani or King Crab. The meat was so tender and sweet and really really fresh!



Kegani. This smaller hairy crab is somewhat tastier than the King Crab. It just needed more effort to take the meat out of the shells :p. The best part was eating the "Kani Miso": the crab's stomach parts inside the main shells.



Sashimi. God!!! These sashimi were heaven!! They were really really fresh and tasty and soft and tender and delicious and I got multiple food orgasm eating them. There were hotate (scallops), maguro (tuna), sanma (only VERY fresh one could be eaten raw, otherwise it's poisonous), kujira (whale - hmm didn't really fond of it, too hard for me), aji, shrimps, and abalone. Boy my mouth is watering again now. Do I have to go to Sapporo again to eat them or does the famous Tsukiji market in Tokyo offer at least the same freshness level?! :p



Ika no sashimi. Alive Squid. Poor animal. It was still alive when cut into thin slices. The tentakels were still moving when served on our table. The sliced squid were still transparent, showed that it was really sliced when it's still alive. This kind of squid is Hakodate's specialty.



And I got honor to eat the head area!!!! I couldn't believe I ate them (>.<). I must be under beer and Sake's influence :))



Hotate Corn Ramen. We had ramen at Susukino area for lunch. Sapporo's specialty is miso ramen, and because I love hotate (scallop), I chose this ramen. For me it was Japan's second best ramen after Kyushu's Tonkotsu ramen



On the last night we had grilled lamb in Jenghis Kahn style for dinner at the famous Sapporo Bier Garten, former factory of the famous Sapporo Beer



It was an all you can eat style restaurant. Very famous and full of foreigner. The restaurant was highly recommended by Hiro's friend who lives in Sapporo so I believe that local people are also fond of it. The meat came together with a plate full of vegetables. This grilling style reminded me of the similar ones we usually had in Korea. The meat was tender and juicy, and the dipping sauce was a perfect match. This was my early birthday celebration :p



I ordered Hokkaido boiled potato dressed with Hokkaido butter as a side dish. Hmmmphhhh.....it was really really delicious!!!



The next day we had lunch nearby Sapporo tower after scrolled down some statues we haven't seen yet at the Snow Festival. Hiro had this Uni (sea urchin) Gohan. I never liked uni before because I felt some strange smell and taste from it. But Hiro said his uni gohan was really fresh and delicious that I was "seduced" to try a little. I was so surprised that it tasted really good!!! Now I fell in love with uni, but only the very fresh one!



And of course I ordered my favourite ever Ikura gohan



Accompanied with a small plate of pregnant Shisamo fishes



I bought this snack to be brought back to Tokyo. I guess almost everyone visiting Sapporo were bringing back this snack. The famous SHIROI KOIBITO. Thin white chocolate in thin crispy biscuits. We saw everyone at the airport bringing this thing, and when we bought, the man beside us bought 50 packages!!



I also bought the new product from Shiroi Koibito



Hokkaido's butter raisin pie. I love this snack the most!



Dried Hotate (scallop)



And smoked salmon chips



And of course delicious Ikura :p. No photos, they are now safe in a bin inside my refrigerator hehehe

God, I'm drooling....Sapporo is definitely a food paradise!!

10 comments:

a2pl3 said...

WOW!!!

Glad you are having the time of your life!!!

Btw, you've been tagged! :D

Anonymous said...

itu smua dalam 3 hari ya ..... iler ku uda abis netes di post sebelumnya yang tentang snow.ahahhaa
yang ini menakutkan bagiku.

Good you hv a great time.

Anonymous said...

Enak ya org Jepang gak perlu bumbu banyak2... semua dimakan mentah :P
Mut... cumi2 HIDUP??!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Imoet, salam kenal dari Iowa. Thanks for your complete report on Sapporo. Kali2 travel ke sana, jadi tau siapa yang kudu diculik buat wisata kuliner. He heh :)

Mbak'e said...

Uni, Hokkaido emang the best!! Aku dulu "muak" dengan uni, tapi di Hokkaido jadi cintaaa banget.

Carla Chanliau said...

yeh gile. bener2 thorough food discussion! i'm not a big fan of japanese food, but your description made me dying to try all those (minus the head of the squid!!!)

so it worked!

Taufik Al Mubarak said...

hai, salam kenal ya

LadyNoor said...

Damn you for making me drool!!!!

I love seafood, I love Japanese food and those photos are just painfully delicious to my eyes!!!

Ps: I haven't had Ramen in the last 2 years! Not since I've had Ameera... It's overdue now I'm going to find a ramen place :D

Vivi said...

@_@ me want!

imoet said...

apple,
hehehe thanks. iya udha ngintip. makasiiih banget!

enyo,
iya nyo, 3 hari. gimana gak tambah gendut aku?! :p

yun,
hahaha konyol!
i tasted better than the alive octopus i had in korea. at least udah gak menggeliat2 lagi :p

dinysays,
salam kenal juga. wah mo nyulik saya ke sapporo? asik asik!!

mamanya rui,
iyaaaa....duh nyesel gak makan uni gohan banyak2 waktu disana :((
*iri ama kamu yang tinggal di hakodate*

carla,
kalo kau berkunjung kesini, aku siapin semua makanan itu :))

fiek,
hai hai...salam kenal juga. thanks for dropping by

intan,
again...those food tasted so damn good!! :p
waah ajak ameera....si iki fans beratnya ramen tuh!!

vivi,
come to sapporo!! :))