Hello all, here’s a much delayed report on Otaru and Sapporo. Though I have notes on some dishes, this will mostly be a vibe-based report because it’s been a white. Many thanks to all of you for encouraging Hokkaido. I adored it. The people of Hokkaido have a remarkable pride in their island, which we saw again and again. The dedication to sourcing/using Hokkaido ingredients was really impressive.
So we were ostensibly in Hokkaido to ski. Niseko (which we went to two years ago) seems to have turned into an absolute zoo, and I was looking for something a bit more local, so we ended up renting a car and staying in Otaru, which is a decent-sized port city known for its seafood. TLDR on the skiing is this: skied two days each at Kiroro and Sapporo Teine. Tons of powder, great vibes, pretty darn empty, especially if you went into the side country. Driving was a trip, but easy enough! There’s so much snow that they don’t really clear the roads in the way that they do in, say, Mammoth. Basically was driving on snow for 5 days straight, except on the expressways. Here’s our ride, which was a Subaru Levorg STI! Pretty obsessed with her and wish I could buy one in the states.
Otaru
We were there during this sort of lantern festival where they light up the town with candles inside ice sculptures. Adorable, romantic, crowded. But, all told, I was obsessed with Otaru. It’s big enough that there’s a very legitimate food scene, but it’s small enough to be mostly walkable, if you don’t mind a ten minute stroll in a blizzard, lol. Gosh it snows a lot on Hokkaido. There’s not enough sights to spend a ton of time there if you’re not skiing, but I can’t imagine a better base for a ski trip.
Okay, on to the food.
Naruto Hon Ten
Dope chicken shop, tight fry. Canteen vibes, awesome signage. Perfect after skiing food.
Sushi Yoshi
First time getting the really surly sushi experience. We walk in, swarm the barstools, and the owner mutters in Japanese to the only other customer at the bar that he doesn’t like serving foreigners. Said other customer was our great blessing and our great curse. He was the GM of Kiroro, bought us unlimited sake, translated every dish, and was blackout drunk and would not stop talking to us, lol. An experience certainly. By the end of the night, once I’d bought the owner a highball, we were on good terms. Loved this spot because, from what I could tell, most things were sourced from Hokkaido. That was a theme throughout the trip: chefs had real pride in their Hokkaido ingredients. Texturally, this was a really interesting night for me. Lots of sushi with crunch, not a ton of fish, lol.
Here are the dishes in order, coursed out by slashes: egg and crab// glass eels (not Hokkaido) // tsubugai (delicious) // abalone // shrimp // animo // a sort of shirako risotto // hotate handroll // Hokkaido uni (duh) // Hokkaido oysters // tako // chutoro // kinmedai // fishhead soup // red snapper// glorious crab and uni mixture.
So that’s what, three bites of fish? The night was sullied by the drunk customer, but beyond that, what an experience to stumble in to this tiny spot in the midst of a blizzard after a day of powder. Beats the apres food scene in Mammoth.
Rakuten
Izakaya joint, one of the more memorable meals of my life. Bar seating, grandfather and grandson in the kitchen, grandma as our bartender/waiter. Every dish was explained to us using google translate. Not going to lie, the anticipatory feeling of watching her type out a relatively detailed dish was akin to when I was in highschool on AIM and my crush snowchick3m was typing… But seriously, what an oddly intimate way to navigate a meal! By the end of the night, the granddaughter of the establishment was singing Frozen to us and happily recalling our names.
Food was pretty damn good too: fugu shirako/uni and crab/seared bonito in a chive sauce/pork wrapped tomato/pork-wrapped mushroom/mushroom tempura/hearty bowl of oden/some wagyu/some sushi. Highly recommend.
Okay, onward to Sapporo! A quick note on the city: it’s a strong recommend for me, especially in winter. It’s surreal for a city that big to have so much snow. A quick sidenote: we took the bus to the Sapporo Art Park, which is this pretty impressive art complex in the woods on a mountainside on the fringes of the city. Ended up crashing a Japanese birding party to see this bird known as the snow fairy. Also, there’s a great little art museum there, but, the standout for me was the sculptural garden, which meanders over a decent hill. There are 50+ pieces, and everything is covered in feet and feet of snow, so you can rent these indigenous style snowshoes and traipse through a winter wonderland while looking at incredible art. One of my favorite tourist experiences ever.
Semina
Japanese-Italian joint, 8 or so course tasting, remarkable sourcing from Hokkaido. The main decor in the restaurant is a map of the island that lists the restaurant’s suppliers. Pretty cool to see, though this spot was more or less no English, lol, so some stuff was a bit lost on us. The owner was a big Shohei fan though and stoked that we were from LA!
Really fun meal here: highlights were a sunchoke and Japanese mustard fish tempura situation, a shirako carbonara riff (lol, my buddy just kinda sighed when this was brought to the table. It was an inevitable dish,) and a venison, burdock, and sunchoke dish.
For 80 bucks or whatever this is, I definitely recommend.
Sushi Sohei
Usual disclaimer that compared to you all, I’m a sushi novice. This was a wonderful meal though. Matsukara used to work at Sushi Sho in Honolulu, and he also worked in Hong Kong, so his English was quite good, and he was really welcoming. Nice blend of locals and tourists here, rather than tourists only. Supposedly 80 percent of ingredients were Hokkaido sourced. Huge recommendation, and at 200 pre-sake, quite the steal. 4.07 on tabelog, the 6th highest rated sushi spot in Sapporo!
Gonna separate otsumami from the sushi.
shirako and seaweed/ flounder sashimi two ways (sea salt/soy) / smoked baby tuna, egg yolk, seaweed / shabu shabu style grouper with ponzu and chives/ grilled cutlass and radish/ fugu and fugu shirako in a turnip broth/ abalone in its sauce, then once you finished, Matsukara gives you rice to make an abalone risotto of sorts / sea cucumber
Onto the sushi.
squid/ sawada/ sayori with scallion and ginger / akami, boiled, soy sauce marinade/ otoro / kohada / akagai / kurama ebi / anago / fish broth miso / tamago
Then we did some additional dishes: uni roll, grilled tilefish / aged otoro tartare with sesame / tuna handrail.
Suyama
4.17 on tabelog, little kaiseki joint run by a husband and wife team. Again, we got that google translate intimacy, and me and this woman became real pals by the end of the meal. This was the meal of the trip, and maybe my best meal in Japan to date. Cannot recommend highly enough. Here’s what we ate
hokigai with flowering wasabi/ shirako chawanmushi/ hirame, chutoro, uni sashimi/ kue with sesame tofu (insane dish) / gimpo? some sort of prow fish (I couldn’t quite figure this out) with crab and celery / tempura hotate with mountain herbs (my wife’s fav dish of trip) / sawada and bamboo shoots/ hokke atka (a sort of mackerel) rice bowl with scallions, pickles, mushrooms. Had three bowls of this, dream dish, would do anything to recreate. Now I get why you all go crazy at Hayato with that rice bowl / some fruit/ some mochi.
So simple, but such beautiful cooking. The food at Suyama was less austere than the kaiseki that we’ve had in Tokyo and Kyoto. Felt like an insane celebration of Hokkaido’s bounty. Ugh, what I’d do again to walk in here amidst snow flurries and tuck into such intimacy.
. Hope if any of yall ever make it to Hokkaido, this can be of some use!