otaru-sapporo-osaka

Our last day in Hokkaido started off with the Authent's breakfast buffet.

This was fabulous. Lots of different items to choose from made from local ingredients. We enjoyed their beef stew too, nice and rich. As well as their homemade breads.

From Otaru it is about 30 minutes by train to Sapporo.

It was snowing quite hard at this point, so we took the underground walkway to a nearby shopping area called ESTA.

We stood in line to have lunch at Lavi, which is known for their soup curry, a popular item in Sapporo.

I chose their curry with kakuni (simmered pork belly) while Satoshi chose their vegetable curry.

Our curries came with a free drink, so I chose a lassi and Satoshi chose coffee.

The unusual thing about this restaurant was that they serve Thai beer but play Hawaiian music.

The curries were delicious and a nice way to warm up on such a cold day.

After lunch, we walked around a bit and window shopped.

I was intrigued by these New Year sweets called "kuchitori", they are dumplings filled with sweet bean paste in the shape of things like tai (snapper), ebi (shrimp), and other good luck things.

We bought some tokibi tea made by Itoen and this yogurt drink by Bocca which we tried the next day.

The corn tea was different with a very strong corn taste. And the yogurt drink was very thick and not too sweet.

We also tried jaga-pokkuru which we have in Honshu called "Jagabee" it is a fried potato that looks like a french fry. And Royce's chocolate covered chips which uses a mild dark chocolate.

A lot of different sights and things that we tried, and even though the weather was really cold (in the minuses), we still did lots of walking!

I hope you enjoyed our trip as much as we did.

Soup Curry Lavi
ESTA 10F
Sapporo, Hokkaido
Phone: 011.232.2020

otaru day 3

Day 3 started with the Hotel Nord's breakfast buffet which I wasn't too impressed with, not many "Hokkaido" ingredients used.

Though, I did like their special pudding, nice and creamy.

After checking-out, we walked around the Kita Unga (North Canal) area.

I enjoyed looking at the New Years decorations, they are different from Osaka, a little more vibrant.

We were also amazed with the icicles. Though you have to be careful where you walk, you don't want snow from the rooftops to come crashing down on you nor the icicles.

One thing we saw was this statue of a dog named Bunko, he was apparently a dog with the fire department and lived 24 years or 100 years in dog years. He was always the first on on the truck when an emergency arose.

On the way to the Authent Hotel we bought a piroshki from Inomata, which we heard was good.

The outside is crunchy and the inside had bits of gobo and water chestnuts along with some minced pork.

Kind of Asian...different but good.

We also came across another panju place, Nishikawa panju.

This place has been in business for 50 years plus!

These domes were bigger than the ones we tried from Kuwataya and the owner said that they make their an (sweet bean paste) from scratch.

The thing we liked about these were that he gave us two fresh out of the molds so they were piping hot. Perfect on an icy day.

After checking out some sights and fish markets, we went to the "sushi street" to look for lunch.

We stopped into Maruyama.

A tiny shop but look at this chirashizushi that I ordered...pretty, yeah?! Delicious too.

Satoshi went with the nigiri, but I thought his sushi was skimpy for the price. (a little higher than my dish)

After lunch, Satoshi wanted to check out a Japanese sweet shop, little did we know that it was just around the corner from Maruyama.

Niikuraya specializes in different types of dango (dumplings).

We chose their anko (sweet bean paste), matcha (green tea), kurogoma (black sesame seed) and mitarashi (sweet shoyu sauce).

If you eat your dango at the shop, they serve you free tea...whoo! You cannot complain that there isn't enough bean paste, there is actually too much.

We then walked to Sakaiya, a retro-cafe. This cafe is inside an old warehouse.

The coffee was good here, plus they don't allow smoking.

After coffee, we tried Kameju's cream pan. Soft brioche style bread filled with different creams.

I tried the chocolate while Satoshi tried the strawberry.

At this point, I was really full, I ate some cabbage salad from New Sanko.

This salad was interesting with bacon bits and shiofuki konbu (seasoned kelp). Satoshi had sashimi, fried ika geso (squid legs) and tsukune (chicken patty).

Another full day with lots of walking and eating.

Inomata
3-1-1 Inaho
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.22.7905

Nishikawa Panju
2-12-16 Inaho
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.22.4297

Maruyama
1-13-1 Ironai
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.25.6625

Niikuraya
1-3-1 Hanazono
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.27.2121

Sakaiya
4-4 Sakai-machi
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.29.0105

Kameju
1-5-12 Irifune
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.33.8044

New Sanko
1-3-6 Inaho
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.33.3500

Authent Hotel
2-15-1 Inaho
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.27.8100

otaru day 2

Day 2 started with our hotel's breakfast buffet, they use local ingredients and there was lots to try. My highlight of this buffet was the awabi (abalone) o-kayu (gruel)...delish!

After breakfast we checked out and left our bags at the front desk.

Then we bought a 1 day pass and rode the bus to Otaru Chikko, we then took the train one station over to Asari.

I had heard about this shop called Asariya selling kunsei (smoked) fish sushi. We were happy they were open even though it was nearing the end of the year.

Satoshi chose their smoked scallop sushi.

I chose the smoked salmon with haskap (blue honeysuckle).

We liked both sushis, I thought maybe mine would be sweet, but it wasn't. The salmon was tender and Satoshi's sushi had a nice smoky flavor.

Plus, the owner and his wife were really friendly and nice.

Afterwards, we rode the bus back to the bus terminal to wait for another bus.

While we waited we tried Kuwataya's panju, I think panju stands for pancake + manju.

These actually taste like taiyaki except they are in the form of domes (we tried chocolate and sweet bean paste).

We also tried Amatou's white pudding. I am not too sure how they keep the pudding white because the eggs in Japan are really orangey.

This pudding was really creamy.

Then we were off to Tenguyama. You can read about what a tengu is here.

From the bus stop, it is about a 4 minute ride up the mountain by ropeway.

While going up the mountain, you could see many people skiing down the mountain.

There was a display area with many tengu from around Japan. It was interesting to see all the different types.

We then went back to check-in at the Hotel Nord and then headed out for dinner at Otaru Bine.

The reason they call this restaurant Bine is because it is in an old bank it is owned by the local bus company and they specialize in wines.

The cheese fondue was really delicious and creamy.

Another dish that was really good was the Hokkaido deer ragout with mushrooms served on pasta. It tasted like it was cooked in a red wine.

We also tried their house salad which was topped with seafood, their bouillabaise which we mopped up with the bread from the cheese fondue and we also tried their wine sampler of different Otaru Wines (the white one was really sweet (a Muller-Thurgau), the rose was was kind of dry (Seibel 13053 Blush) and the red was kind of light and dry (Zweigeltrebe)).

We saved some room for dessert and tried some items from a convenience store. A fluffy cake filled with Hokkaido custard cream and this tokibi (corn) cone filled with vanilla ice cream.

It was quite a full day filled with lots of food and lots of walking.

Asariya
4-1-1 Asari
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.54.0067

Kuwataya
Otaru Unga Terminal
1-1-12 Ironai
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.34.3840

Amatou
Otaru Unga Terminal
1-1-12 Ironai
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.31.0141

Otaru Bine
1-8-6 Ironai
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.24.2800

Hotel Nord Otaru
1-4-16 Ironai
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.24.0500

osaka-otaru

Several days before 2013, we went on a little trip to Otaru.

We were using miles and actually wanted to go to somewhere in Okinawa (where it was warm), but in the end, could only get seats for Hokkaido (where it was fahreezing)...

I didn't mind too much, as I've been wanting to see snow and the last time we'd been to Otaru was back in 2009.

From Osaka it is about 2 hours to Chitose by plane and then about another hour by train to Otaru.

When we got off the train, the snow was coming from all sides in semi-blizzard fashion.

After checking in, we ventured out to look for dinner.

Our hotel was located looking out at the unga (canal) and across the canal in the old stone warehouses were many eateries.

We decided to check out Otaru Beer.

The interior seemed like a German beer hall with German music and some of the foods were "German-ish".

We started off with tako (octopus) carpaccio...the octopus was tender with a little chew, the sauce was Asian with some chili in for kick.

We tried their ramen salad, this was like a hiyashi chuuka without the "soup".

Different but good.

Next we tried their currywurst, a sausage topped with curry flavored ketchup...delicious!

I had seen this on many food shows and would like to try it in Germany someday!

Love the sausages in Japan, they all have a nice snap.

Lastly we tried their German pizza this was a thin crust topped with sour cream, lots of thinly sliced onion and thinly sliced bacon...this was different but really tasty.

Their dunkel bock beer was fruity but delicious as well, I would definitely go back to try their other beers & foods.

Otaru Beer
5-4 Minato-machi
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.21.2323
Hours: 10:00-23:00

Hotel Sonia
1-4-20 Ironai
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.23.2600

otaru and shikotsuko

So it snowed all Saturday night and we woke up on Sunday to tons of snow. Everywhere you looked someone was either shoveling or there was a big bulldozer moving the snow. People were running in the middle of the road because the sidewalks hadn't been shoveled yet.

After breakfast at the hotel, our group headed to Otaru, a port town. The snow was off and on and made walking really difficult.

We checked out the stone warehouses along the river, a famous sight in Otaru. Otaru is also known for glass and seafood. For lunch, we checked out their "sushi street". Here is Satoshi's lunch at Asahizushi 16 pieces(3150 yen about US$31.50). I had a smaller set (2625 yen (about US$26.25)). The fish was really fresh and delicious, we even had abalone sushi.

Of course along the way, I found some chocolate (you knew I would, right?). From Le Tao, I bought their Lausanne set, this set included a citrus center with dark chocolate ganache covered with dark chocolate (the one with white stripes), a millefeuille and dark ganache center covered with milk chocolate (star-ish) and a millefeuille (layers of puff pastry) with milk and white chocolate (pyramid-ish) bon-bons. The chocolatier was Alexandre Pirk, who is with Mojonnier in Switzerland. My favorite was the milk with millefeuille (star shaped). Le Tao is often featured at the Hokkaido fairs in the department stores and is known for their cheesecakes.

Near sushi street was the Hotel Vibrant, and in big bold letters...Chocolat du Nord...I picked up some mendiants with assorted fruits and nuts. These were really good and the dark chocolate was smooth, a little acidic. My favorite was the one with the apricot on it.

Our tour met after lunch and we went to Shikotsu-ko (Lake Shikotsu). There was also an ice festival there and the sculptures were really blue. The water when frozen looks really blue. The locals in this area also built their structures then pumped the water from the lake onto them...again, amazing stuff!

It was a great tour we saw lots of snow and enjoyed many different experiences.

Hope you enjoyed our adventure to Hokkaido, after being in minus temperatures for a couple of days, I was amazed at how "warm" 5C (41F) felt.

Asahizushi
1-12-5 Ironai
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.29.0625

Le Tao
7-16 Sakaimachi
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.31.4500

Chocolat du Nord (UPDATE: 2012, this shop has now closed)
1-3-1 Ironai (inside the Hotel Vibrant Otaru)
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134.27.2626

p.s. Today is Valentine's Day which means the girls give the guys something, Satoshi keeps asking if I am giving him some chocolate, I told him it is impolite to ask...(though I am giving him these...shhh!) Happy Valentine's Day!!

hokkaido gourmet fair (part 2)

Remember I wrote about the Hokkaido Gourmet Fair held at a department store? (here) Well, on top of Satoshi's bento, I also bought some bagels made by Otaru Bagel. These bagels were interesting, gokokumai (5-grain) and earl grey.

These bagels were good and chewy. I particularly like the earl grey bagel. The bergamot oil from the bits of tea in the bagel were so fragrant and tasty.

I also got some herb tea from a company called Koyu-Seikatsu. I've bought this brand before when we travelled to Hokkaido. Their tea is certified Japanese organic and has many different herbs, one in particular is called Dokudami (Houttuynia cordata) I remember taking this tea while growing up, it was supposed to help with acne--but I think it is actually supposed to help you "go".

I was talking to the vendor at the kiosk and she was asking me if I had ever tried their tea. I told her, "yes" and she wanted to know if I had seen them at another fair that they had participated in Osaka. I told her, "no, I've bought your brand in Hokkaido". She was so thrilled that I remembered their brand that she gave me a free sachet of tea!

I guess it pays to be a foodie with a semi-photographic memory :)

Otaru Bagel
2-21-17 Shinko
Otaru, Hokkaido
Phone: 0134-51-3251

Koyu-Seikatsu
14-3 Kashiwagi
Kitami, Hokkaido
Phone: 0157-66-1201

Hope you had a great weekend.