I should think about renaming this series “Eating Our Way Through Japan” because that’s pretty much what we did. The food scene of Japan is world-famous, justifiably so, and we tried our best to be worthy of it. The first day in Sapporo saw breakfast at the fish market, lunch at a grill-your-own place in the Sapporo brewery, followed by like a twenty course meal at a very high-end tiny seven-seat dinner spot.
But first we had to get through the night… Day One of an eleven-hour time change is always pretty crazy. I first woke up at 3:55AM but managed to nap on and off till nearly 5:30AM, by which time the sun was already up?? Matt joined us at 6:45 so we could get our delicious breakfast of dead raw fish and cold beers 😀
At first blush, Sapporo is kind of generic and boringly modernThey do have this though 😀But even better, a fish market!!!!!Crabs are kind of a big deal hereAnd other goodies lolThis was the hole-in-the-wall place we found for breakfastAnd this was insideThey had a cool map of the island, apparently showing where certain fish are likely to be foundAnd of course there were breakfast beers!! (Hey it’s literally evening for us East Coast time)The first sushi breakfast of the trip, just amazingly goodI guess this was Robert’s?Maybe this was Matt’s?Even the miso soup here was terrificThere were like 30 different breakfast bowls to choose from, amazingHere’s the grand overview of where we are on the island of HokkaidoAfter our early breakfast, we wandered around through parks and long streets, until we stopped for coffee and accidentally discovered Underground Sapporo!I think half of the city is to be found underground!It just goes on and on endlesslyFinally it was time for the famous Sapporo Brewery!So what do you do when you are in town with a couple of twenty-something guys? You head for beer!It’s pretty cool insideBut no goose-stepping allowed here!!They make a big deal about the three vastly different beer varieties that they painstakingly brew here–wow how to choose between three such wildly different beers?!? Spoiler alert: they are all the same 😀The huge tasting hall is pretty coolBut now, it’s finally lunchtime!! We ate in a great place right inside the breweryI love these grill placesHere comes one of the robotic servers, I called it the Rice DalekAnd there goes the Rice Dalek! This was the first time we’d seen one of these crazy things in actionScene on the walk home
We made it back to the hotel in time to put our feet up for a while and digest, because one of the big ones was coming up next for dinner! Well maybe I should say “one of the small ones” because this elegant restaurant seats all of seven people, max. And they have only one seating each night. The chef chooses in the Keiseki manner, meaning absolutely everything has to be really local. It’s a whole mix of everything: fish, plants, meats, whatever is fresh, good, and from the area. Just think of it as having the proudest Hokkaido residents serving up the best local produce of the day!
After an eighteen-block hike, we found it: it’s down some small stairs, into a hidden basement.
Apparently this is the place? It is really stylishThe people were very friendly and welcoming… that’s the very first sake of the evening looming over usOne of the first courses is being prepped!The staff noticed Robert was left-handed and they changed his area all around for him lolAnd this was the beginning of us starting to actually like sake! Turns out that the super-cheap stuff is pretty nasty, but as you climb up the price ladder, they really improve–who’d’a thunk?Asparagus is in season this week apparentlyOh dear…. any guesses on this one? It’s whale… didn’t catch which kind, hope it wasn’t an endangered species. It was very rich and very nice actually but I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to have it again… never tried whale before! Very bizarre and unexpected. Welcome to Japan haha. Edit: Robert reports that it’s Minke, apparently a species of “least concern” globallyThe Signature Dish of the house…. a lone potato. Since 1957 they’ve been serving this dish, I guess they are very proud of their spuds here in Hokkaido! I laugh, but it really was excellentOMG the asparagus done in tempura style was amazing. I have never really liked tempura as it’s done in the US, basically tons of batter all deep-fried with a tiny bit of actual food hidden somewhere in the middle, but this gentle light touch was a revelation. They do all the prep work right in front of you which is pretty interesting. As I enjoyed this dish, I suddenly recalled that a buddy of mine from Japan had told me to be sure and try some of the fresh vegetable tempura! I had no idea what he was on about, but now we know: superb Check out that two-inch gas line to the stove!!! When they crank up the burners, it looks and sounds like being on the receiving end of a jet engineTime for some red meat! I wanna say this was local venison?Lightly blanched, it was just perfectOh look, more courses haha that last one was the inevitable noodle dishThat stone bowl is holding the current sake… with each new sake, they bring out a different sometimes wacky glass for it. This one might have been number ten?Finally, hours later, dessert and tea. Dessert is the dead blob thing sitting on the stone, it was some rice-based sweetish finisher. It was actually nice but oh so weird!One last look back on the entire restaurantAfter all that, I was due for some quality time with the crazy toilet 😀Turns out that Sapporo at night gets pretty Asian after allAnd finally, the nighttime view from our room, wow what a day
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