Day 15: Last day of eating

Today is a special day.
It was only 15 days ago we were on a flight to come to Japan to eat.
One day ago, we got sick of ramen.
Today is the first morning I have awoken and not craved a ball of rice wrapped in seaweed.

Is it really the end??

Breakfast @ Nijo Fish Market

3 streets worth of "fish market". i.e, showing off the world's hugest crabs. And roe.
There was a recurring theme with ppl talking to us at this place:
1. Are you from Hong Kong? (do we really look that honky? Or do a lot of honkies just come here)
2. Oh, Australia.... Summer? (our sushi chef followed this up by: "Santa claus... t-shirt?" "No, he wears the full suit." "Ah, very hot!")
3. Try? Try?

We had brunch at the stand-up sushi bar in the middle of the fish markets. It was a tiny place, but served super super fresh sushi.

We both had the kakashi set, which included (left top, clockwise to left bottom):
usame (ie fish called halibut), toro (ie fatty tuna), scallops, sweet prawn, surf clam, egg, crab, salmon roe, sea urchin (uni), salmon

The toro was a bit lacking, but the rest was super yummy.
Came with seafood miso soup (with 2 prawn heads each!) Gave the miso soup that extra sweetness.

Score: 9/10
(minus 1 for the sadly disappointing toro, which i left til 2nd last to eat! The toro I had in sydney was 5X better...)

ROYCE Shop + Cafe
If you don't know about Royce, it's one of the most famous chocolate brands from Japan.
They have a cafe in Sapporo near Odori Park, so we went in to excape from the snow storm that had just started. Their Chocolat Chaud (pictured below) was super creamy & super chocolate-y - definately recommended for anyone making a stop at Sapporo. It came with a little chocolate piece by the name of "frommage"... but it didn't taste anything like cheese.... just white chocolate....


More shopping + Daimaru Depachika
A bit of shopping afterwards at the conveniently placed underground shopping centres (did i mention that like 1/3 of the city is underground - you can kinda understand it if you spend a day in winter here...) & a much-anticipated visit to the Depa-chika (ie B1 floor ie food floor) of Daimaru. Filled, as expected, with lots of things to taste & yummy food to look at. One of the food-tasting-servers (whatever they're actually called) was over-enthusiastic with practicing his English (which, interestingly, also consisted of "Ah, Australia, Summer? Very Hot!".... hm... recurring theme anyone? or is that all they were taught?). Luckily for us, due to this, he gave us a bit to try of everything there.... as opposed to the lady in front of us who only got 1 dish.

And then an early return to our hotel room to try to convince our luggage to fit everything we've acquired on this wonderful trip. The suitacases seem to have an appetite as great as our stomachs.

Dinner @ Apia

Location: Apia
Type: Udon joint



Clara craved udon, and Dee needed somewhere cheap to eat (we're seriously running out of cash...) so we picked this Udon joint.
Food:
1. Cold udon set + tempura fish sticks (+hot rice + pickles)
2. Hot special udon

The cold udon set was topped with shreds of nori, bonito flakes, grated daikon on a shiso leaf (perilla), and 2 huge sticks of tempura'ed fish stick (the type which is a cylinder, but halved lengthwise). All i can say is YUM. Along with a sauce to add of course. And chopped green spring onion + ginger to add to taste. YUM. The only problem is that its cold, and snowing outside, but I've acclimatised in the last 3 days walking through snow, so it doesn't bother me.

Clara's hot special udon was a mix of 5 udons - topped with kitsune, tempura, soft poached egg, hairy seaweed and wakame seaweed. It was yum apparently. "Yum" says she.

Overall rating: 8.5/10
The udon wasn't handmade, but for a decent price everything else tasted tops.

Kinokuniya
Then we bummed in big book shop. Clara buy books. Denise go to children book section and read picture book in english and be amused.



The last note
This ends the official part of our blog journey. Thank you all for reading and exploring Japan with us and our stomachs. :) Its definitely given me plenty of new ideas to try my hands at back home in the kitchen, so we hope its been inspiring for you too!

If you'd like to try to replicate any of these foods, however crazy it may be, let me (Dee) know and I'd love to cook with you.

Day 14: Otaru

(before we start, we've started to upload photos to the previous posts, if you would like to revisit them)

Otaru - a small town near Sapporo in Hokkaido.
It is much like Venice in that there is a central canal, and they like fine crafts and glass blowing.
It is also littered with tourists. But not pigeons.

Breakfast @ Mister Doughnut Dee had fond memories of this chain "Mister Doughnut" and insisted we go back.

Location: JR Station
Food:
1. Variety of doughnuts
2. Cafe Au Lait
3. Cute paper bag (OK its not edible, i know, but worthy of mention)
Dough was chewy. There's something about a chocolate doughnut with extra icing in a contrast colour and pastel sprinkles. The 5 year old needs of my brain are satisfied, but after 2 minutes my 24 year old stomach started rumbling.
Score: 3/5

Otaru Yesterday it snowed quite heavily in Sapporo.

We knew we were in hokkaido as the snow was still there when we were at sea level & the snow went pretty much all the way to the edge of the ocean - to the point where, as we passed by on the train, we saw surfers running in their wetsuits... on the snow... what can we say, some ppl are crazy.


As Otaru is further away from the city, and has a canal running through it... its much colder!! The helpful LCD screen next to the canal read 5 degrees the time we were there. (and then it went to 4.7 actually)
We spent all day semi-slipping on ice on the roads and footpaths... there was snow and ice everywhere! Thankfully the canal had not frozen over (good pictures) + ducks swimming.

Lunch "KANI-DOUJYOU" Otaru is known for its seafood, in particular Unidon (sea-urchin).

Location: In Otaru on street behind main street
http://kani-doujyou.com
The front of the shop was filled with tanks of giant scallops, hairy crab about 1m diameter with legs about 30cm long, and a huge array of seafood. The back 3rd of the shop had some seating, looked slightly dodgey, but we decided to give it a go- after all the food's guaranteed to be fresh!

Food:
1. Uni Don
2. Uni + grilled scallops don

The uni was lovely. Juicy, not big, but seemed quite fresh. Its salty. Texture is a little gooey, understandable if you can't stomach oyster you probably don't want to try this. The scallops- i had hoped they were sashimi, but obviously i didn't get that across. :( The non giant variety. Giant would be gross if eaten as sashimi. eww. I thought they were a bit dry, being directly char-grilled you could see the charred marks which were tasty, but dried scallop turned out to be a bit like gong-yiu-chu. Which sucks. Anyway. I think they were just a bit over done, perhaps if they left the scallops whole and didn't butterfly them. The uni was super super yummy tho!

More shopping + Music Box Museum

We amused ourselves shopping in numerous shops filled with different glass handicrafts, wooden carvings and leather goods.
There is also a music box museum in Otaru, 3 stories tall, ground floor is approx 200m squared... its quite massive, and includes music boxes in all shapes and sizes, playing music from Totoro to Beauty and the Beast to Fur Elise to Jpop.

Snacks: On the way back to the JR station

Street side stalls for grilled giant hokkaido scallops were abundant. Thankfully we found the store with the BIGGEST scallops, and got the last order. We could've sworn the guy was packing up shop until we asked him... :)


As were icecream stalls. Clara insisted we find the one with SIX flavours of soft serve in the one cone. Super creamy & super yummy~!


And a giant takoyaki stall selling what they renamed 'bakudanyaki" and that it was totally different from takoyaki and okonomiyaki. Anyway. Lies. Its the same, only 8cm wide, 200 grams, and has a thick dried skin to stop it falling apart, has been evidently cooking for at least 15 minutes if not longer. Another point is that the shop was playing what seemed to be their theme song, going something like "bakudanyaki, bakudanyaki..." & then listing ingredients & random stuff.... it was kinda catchy in a disturbing way...


Oh yes, & the store selling giant rice crackers. Denise got the wasabi nori one, super yummy.

Needless to say, we LOVED Otaru.

Dinner: Oden

On the way back, we realised we were too full to have a full dinner & so, with Dee's reminiscing about the oden she had a few days ago (see Sapporo 1), we decided to revisit the 7-eleven & get oden to share.

It was just as yummy as last time =).

Day 13: Sapporo Day 2: Ishiya Chocolate Factory + Sapporo Beer Museum

Today was a totally food-orientated day (yeah... very different from our other days, we know). We woke up to snow pouring down from the sky outside (not in our hotel room, that would be too disturbing). Neither of us expected it this early in December & thus were unfortunately, not fully dressed appropriately for the situation... crap...

its snowingggg!! *insert funny dance*

Breakfast: At local Lawson's convenience store

Rah: Pork onigiri, that the lady nicely heated up for me in the microwave. Very yummy.
Dee: Chicken instant noodles. The egg starts off at this inch-wide 1cm high block of yellow, sitting on top of noodles. It suddenly reconstitutes to strings of egg. I don't know how the japanese do it, but this proves they are leaders in innovation.

Stop 1: Ishiya Chocolate Factory, aka Shiroi Koibito Factory.

Probably the producer of Hokkaido's most famous non-natural-growing export - the Shiroi Koibito chocolate biscuit. Shiroi Koibito, for those of you who don't speak japanese, translates to "White Lovers" & was apparently the term used by the creator of the factory to describe the snow (since Hokkaido is snow country after all).
They were, (sorry if you like them) sickeningly sweet (but then, i don't have much of a sweet tooth).

Luckily (& also randomly), this place also housed a gramophone & vintage toy museum.

Another attraction is the host of mini houses they had scattered around the park. Dee insisted on going into nearly all of them. Even tho they were made for children & the doors were half her size...

Lunch:



Location: Goodies from exploring a local supermarket.
Food:
1. Fried Chicken in yellow sauce
2. Fried Chicken cutlet in sweet brown sauce with ?potato salad on top

After 13 days in Japan, we still don't know what we are eating. I'm not even going to try.
Thankfully, dessert had a name. We've been meaning to try this one since when we first spotted it in on Day 1...

3. Haagen Das "Salty Butter Biscuit" flavour.
ie. Like those butter cookies you had in the blue round tin as a kid. YUM. The icecream itself is slightly salty vanilla goodness, as creamy as you would expect from this brand. In the centre, as you dig, there is biscuit!! miraculously, you can dig through the "biscuit" easily with the plastic spade and it seems one with the icecream. It tastes a little of undercooked dough, but the majority of the taste is "biscuity" not "doughy". There seemed to be multiple bits of biscuit <1cm.>
Stop 2: Sapporo Beer Museum


Sapporo is, interestingly, where Sapporo Beer is produced (well, duh). Sapporo beer is also the only beer that Clara had liked the taste of. We learned about how beer was produced & the history of beer in japan. Basically beer is made from hops and barley which is roasted into diff gradings giving us our different ales. Fermentation happens. It is pasturised. This is beer.
Then we got to taste 3 types of beer that they produce:


1. Black Label - Rah's Fav, very transparent looking and tasting. Not much of a foamy head.
2. Classic - Dee's Fav. It's been produced exclusively in Hokkaido since 1985, and is a favourite of the region. Its more bitter and astringent than the first.
3. Kaitakushi - It was ok. Don't remember it much... :)

Needless to say, we were both a bit giggly afterwards.
Highly recommended for both educational and historical value, and the fresh beer on tap to taste. I must commend the museum on the high quality of exhibition, loads of little models, along with English translations. Free entry to museum, beer tasting was reasonably priced. Top notch. They also sold "Beer Jelly" in the gift shop. Can't tell you what it tastes like- its not mine!

Dinner: Donburi

Location: Apia underground shopping centre
Food:
Dee: Gyudon (ie beef) + mini udon (Y430). I can't believe what value this is. Taste was passable, but it was what I paid for - a big bowl of hot rice with beef and vermicilli noodles on top. I thought the Gyudon was a little dry, I added chilli spice for extra taste. Udon was simple but good, even the stock was good. 7/10
Clara: Oyakodon + mini udon (Okayo = "mother & child" ie chicken + egg... name is possibly a bit disturbing). Very yummy, egg was still a bit runny (the best!) Udon was quite nice. 8/10