Hokkaido Simply Delicious!!!

Eat the Delicacies of Hokkaido, one of the biggest attractions of Hokkaido is of course, the FOODs!!! There are a variety of dishes and foods made from freshest ingredients. Flavors of Hokkaido are diverse, depending on seasons, regions and restaurants.

If you want to experience the delights of Hokkaido, eating fresh sushi and Kaisendon (seafood rice bowls) are a must. Sushi-bar Street in Otaru (Otaru Sushiya-dori) is filled with traditional sushi bars and new revolving sushi restaurants. Some restaurants are famous for all-you-can-eat style sushi, others are for their big lumps of sushi. You can enjoy sushi in any style you like.

Ekiben is a packed lunch often sold at railway stations. Eating ekiben is one of the pleasures of travelling. In Hokkaido, many of them use local specialties like 'ikura' (salmon eggs), 'uni' (sea urchin eggs), crab meat, squid, clams, scallops, etc.

One-Pot Dishes are Popular Winter Standard. Ishikari-nabe is a one-pot dish in which salmon, its milt and various vegetables are cooked with miso sauce. Its name was derived from Ishikari River, famous for salmon. Sanpei-jiru is a soup of salmon or hatahata fish and vegetables with salt and kelp flavor. There are also a variety of one-pot dishes (nabemono in Japanese) in Hokkaido, such as Hamanabe and Gokko-nabe, as people have to live with long and severe winter.

Genghis Kahn (Jingisukan) is a lamb barbecue dish named after the Mongolian warrior, is unique to Hokkaido and especially popular at beer halls throughout the city, many with their own original sauces in which the lamb is either marinated or dipped after grilling. The dish is rumored to be so named because in prewar Japan, lamb was widely thought to be the meat of choice among Mongolian soldiers, and the dome-shaped skillet is meant to represent the soldier's helmets that they purportedly used to cook their food.

At home or outdoors, this barbecue is so popular among Hokkaido people for “Ohanami” cherry blossom viewing, summer camping, on the beach , in the field, or at home, many enjoy having Jingisukan. Standard ingredients for this is, mutton or lamb, vegetables like onions, bean-sprouts, or others depending on the season or individuals ’liking. In most cases, for eating this barbecue, we use the special iron-cast pans in the shape of flat helmets with the hollow edges all around. In eating the meat, there are two choices, one is the meat is already soaked in the special sauce, the other is choosing the raw meat. For both kinds, we grill the meat on the pan with other ingredients at table, after the ingredients are cooked, we dip them into the special sauce for the unseasoned meat, or if we need more taste. If you have a chance of visiting supermarkets, meat corners, you find many different kinds of packs of Jingisukan coming from many different farms or factories along with different kinds of sauce. For local people, it’s quite common to have the “Jingisukan pan “at home, enjoying this barbecue with good beer or other beverages all the year round. In Sapporo, there’re many restaurants especially for good Jingisukan, so why don’t you try eating this specialty from Hokkaido while you stay here ?

Hokkaido has the biggest production of soba (buckwheat) in Japan. Sorachi and Tokachi provinces are the main production centers. Because of the big difference of temperatures between daytime and night, Hokkaido's soba (buckwheat) is especially tasty. There are thousands of soba noodle restaurants in Hokkaido, many of them serve handmade soba noodles made from locally produced soba.

Ramen is very popular all over Japan. Its history began in 1922 when a Chinese restaurant served ramen for the first time. Now, there are thousands of ultimate ramen restaurants in Hokkaido. Indeed some streets have nothing but ramen shops like the famous Ramen Yokocho or Ramen Alley, where signatures of past and present celebrities adorn the walls of the shops that line either side of the narrow passageway. Typical Sapporo's ramen is miso flavoured ramen served with rich butter and sweet corn. Asahikawa ramen is popular for its original soy sauce flavour, and Hakodate ramen is famous for its salt flavour. There are also other ramen with the names of their places. Individual ramen shops all have their own particular flavour and style and chefs can be quite secretive about what makes their soup so special. Everyone has their favourite ramen shop and a local's recommendation is worth getting. Otherwise, look out for crowds, as a queue waiting to be seated is a sure sign of quality.

Soup curry has become popular among local people. It is a new style dish of a mixture of ramen soup and curry. It is different to a normal thick curry and tastes like a curry flavoured spice soup cooked with large pieces of meat and vegetables. There are great varieties in ingredients. Some restaurants have 'Natto' (fermented soybeans), boiled egg or seafood in their soup curry. It may be interesting to try different soup curry.

Blessed with a broad expanse of land, a sunny climate, and water on all sides, Hokkaido has a rich natural environment and is a treasure trove of farm and marine products that are cherished by people throughout Japan.

More than 30 years have passed since the production of wine has begun in Hokkaido. Wineries have opened in Otaru, Hakodate, Furano, Yoichi, etc. Wines made in Hokkaido are steadily gaining popularity in Japan. Other kinds of wine made from local specialties such as haskapp berries, cowberries, melons, etc, are also popular.

In Hokkaido, there are many kinds of local beers. Their skills were introduced from countries like Germany, Belgium and Hungary. Those breweries are often small, so the production is usually labor-intensive. The beers are made from pure water and locally produced malt and hop. Sapporo is the spiritual home of Japanese beer. Sapporo Beer, founded here in 1876, still brews locally along with other major national brewers; Asahi, Kirin and a host of local microbreweries.

Hokkaido produces many kinds of Japanese and Western sweets, made from quality dairy products and agricultural produce. 'An' is bean jam made from Hokkaido's high quality adzuki beans, and mainly used in Japanese sweets. Hokkaido's cool climate is ideal for making chocolate. White chocolate and raw chocolate have become Hokkaido's specialties.

Dairy farming is popular in Hokkaido, and it is well known for producing good, economical beef, poke and mutton. Brand beef such as 'Hidaka beef' and 'Shiraoi beef' are known for their good quality. You can also try rare sea lion meat and reindeer meat. It is famous for its excellent dairy products. Cheese and butter were first produced in Hokkaido in the Meiji Era. Their quality is based on the knowledge accumulated during the history of one century, and known worldwide. The long history of dairy farming in and around Sapporo has produced a legacy of first class butter, milk, and ice cream products. Indeed Sapporo is home to one of Japan's major producers, "Snow Brand" as well as many other first-class, local enterprises. Ice cream made from fresh milk is also very popular.

Hokkaido is the home of vegetables in Japan and locally grown potatoes, pumpkins, onions, and asparagus add their natural flavours to any local dish. Potatoes, as well as sweet corn, are another taste of autumn in Hokkaido, and worth trying. Newly harvested potatoes are called 'Shin-jaga', and have fresh taste. Tokibi (Sweet Corn) is the king of delicacies of Hokkaido, being harvested from August to September. Many tiny stalls selling roast corn line the Odori Koen Promenade in central Sapporo during the season, and people enjoying a stroll in the promenade while munching on corn on the cob is a familiar scene. When they are kept through the winter, they taste sweeter.

Summer sees the harvest of the various types of melon grown in the area. Delicious, fragrant Yubari melons and Furano melons are famous nationwide. Haskapp is a small purple berry used for sweets and jam. Cherries of Niki are a popular specialty of the region. 'Densuke-suika' of Touma is a rare black jumbo watermelon. Its taste is very sweet.

Much of Hokkaido's population lives by the sea, and consequently seafood figures heavily in Hokkaido fare and are considered to be among Japan's very best seafood. Hokkaido is famous for its catch of variety of Kani (crab), such as 'kegani' (hairy crab, the most popular), 'tarabagani' (king crab) and 'hanasakigani'. 'Zuwaigani' (snow crab) is often called "the king of winter taste".There are many different crab dishes including 'nabemono' (a one-pot dish), 'yakimono' (grilled dish) and 'sunomono' (vinegared dish), but best eaten boiled. Sake (Salmon) dishes unique to Hokkaido style are 'Sampei-jiru' and 'Ishikari-nabe'. Ishikari-nabe is a one-pot dish in which salmon, its milt and various vegetables are cooked with miso sauce. Its name was derived from Ishikari River, famous for salmon. Sanpei-jiru is a soup of salmon or hatahata fish and vegetables with salt and kelp flavor. There are variety of processed salmon foods such as 'aramaki-zake' (salmon stuffed with salt, a preserved food), 'Kunsei' (smoked fish), 'Toba' (dried salmon), 'Tsukemono' (Japanese pickles), 'Izushi' (fermented fish), 'Suziko' (salted salmon eggs), 'Ikura' (processed salmon eggs). Ika (Squid) are caught mainly on Tsugaru Strait near Hakodate. They are eaten grilled, boiled or pickled, but the best of all is their fresh sashimi. 'Ika Somen' is a very popular dish of very thinly sliced squid sashimi, eaten with somen noodle sauce and grated ginger. 'Ikameshi' (stuffed squid with rice) is also popular in Hakodate. Processed squid such as 'Shiokara' (fermented with fish guts) and 'Surume' (dried squid) go best with 'Sake' (Japanese traditional rice wine). Uni (Sea Urchins) are popularly used in sushi, 'nabemono' (a one-pot dish) and rice dishes such as 'uni-don' which is a bowl of rice topped with sea urchin eggs.