[Japan] Six topics for understanding Hokkaido, Japan’s leading culinary treasure trove
Six topics for understanding Hokkaido, Japan’s leading culinary treasure trove
Japan’s leading culinary treasure trove is truly Hokkaido, which is blessed with seafood, agriculture that leverages its vast abundant land, and a thriving livestock industry. You can enjoy various seasonal flavors according to the season in which you visit. Here is an in-depth introduction to six topics about Hokkaido’s profoundly appealing delicacies.
1. Enjoy a stroll tasting the fresh flavors of Hokkaido assembled at the Central Wholesale Market
For savoring the delicacies of Hokkaido, you’ll first want to visit the Central Wholesale Market in Hokkaido’s central city of Sapporo. The market is a hub for distribution of ingredients gathered from throughout Hokkaido, and the Curb Market is open to the general public and tourists.
The Curb Market of Sapporo Central Wholesale Market
The hours of the Curb Market are from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Because some shops close in the afternoon, it’s wise to go in the morning. About 60 shops, stocking fresh seafood, fruits, vegetables, and more procured by experts, are lined along aisles that resound with the cheerful pitches of the sellers. Just walking around the energy-filled market is fun, and the friendly salespeople will teach you in detail about fish characteristics and recommended cooking methods. It seems that seafood such as red king crabs, hairy crabs, and scallops are popular with foreign tourists. At the eateries, you can savor sushi, kaisendon with sushi atop rice, grilled scallops, and more made with the freshest ingredients. Amongst this food, the king crab has potent umami flavor packed in its leg meat.
The kaisendon sushi rice bowls at the Curb Market of Sapporo Central Wholesale Market
2. What sort of meat dish is jibie, a precious Hokkaido gourmet food?
At the same time, there is also a “precious Hokkaido gourmet food” that you don’t see much at the Central Wholesale Market. It is jibie cuisine, made with meat from wildlife captured through hunting. In particular, the meat of the Hokkaido ezoshika deer that only inhabits the prefecture is a traditional ingredient eaten by the indigenous Ainu people of Hokkaido. Appropriate hunting laws and meat processing techniques have been updated in recent years, enhancing the flavor and quality to an unprecedented level. Ezoshika meat is soft and mild, characterized by its flavor that resembles lean beef. It has extremely high nutritional value with plenty of iron, minerals, vitamin B, and DHA. It is said that the best season for the meat is winter as it contains fat stored for the season. There are several restaurants in Sapporo that serve the meat, so it is recommended to visit for dinner. Dishes featuring the meat such as sautés, stews, and smoked round steaks are excellent when paired with Hokkaido wine.
Ezoshika meat steak, one of the jibie dishes at the restaurant Barcom Sapporo
3. Addictive soup curry made with a unique combination of spices
If you want a taste of local Sapporo food, “soup curry” is a must-try. Curry rice, a dish that developed independently in Japan, has a higher stew-like thickness than original Indian curry, and typically is made in classic styles such as katsu curry that features tonkatsu pork cutlets on top. On the other hand, soup curry features ingredients like vegetables and meat cooked until they are soft in a soupy curry, which is eaten by scooping out the curry-soaked rice with a spoon. It originated in the 1970s at a cafe called Ajunta in Sapporo that created a menu for its regular customers that fused the medicinal soup of traditional Kanpo medicine with India’s spicy cuisine. There are now over 200 soup curry specialty restaurants in Sapporo, and each of them serves up unique soup curries with different spices and ingredients. You can adjust the spice level to your preference at all the restaurants. The soup made with lavishly spiced curry steadily soaks up the ingredients such as local Hokkaido vegetables like onions, carrots, peppers, broccoli, and eggplant, and the slowly simmered leg meat on the bone. Compared to the curry rice that is typically eaten in Japan, soup curry features a more complex spicy flavor and the refreshing feeling of soup. It is a dish that will increase your appetite with the right amount of spice and flavor, and there are many people who can’t get enough of it.
At Soup Curry Treasure
4. You absolutely must try a “Shime Parfait,” the night specialty of the shopping district
The Shime Parfait, a fixture of Sapporo’s new food culture, is also a must-try. Shime Parfait refers to enjoying a parfait to finish off (shime in Japanese) the end of the day after enjoying a night of food and drink. There have always been numerous restaurants offering sweet foods late at night in Susukino, Sapporo’s shopping district.