Hinata's Summer in Hokkaido #5/5 - Asahikawa, Otaru & Hokuryu
(This post is Part 5 of 5, Hinata's Summer in Hokkaido, August 2013.)
On the way to Otaru, we stop by Asahikawa (旭川市) for only 2 reasons: I love browsing at the kimono/yukata store Mimatsu (三松) at Seibu Department Store, and we love eating at Tenkin (天金). In our first trip to Hokkaido, we had very good experiences at both places thanks to the people there, and we just want to go back for the experience.
Side note: this time, I left Mimatsu with yet another yukata (a black Junko Wong yukata with thistle patterns) and hanhaba obi and geta (featuring pink nadeshiko). Sigh. I am incorrigible.
We had our meal at Tenkin (天金 本店), a no-frills izakaya that seems to be popular with both locals and foreign tourists. So it was packed with Asahikawa locals, and Japanese and gaikokujin tourists.
What I love about the place is the homey atmosphere, the fresh food, and the reasonable prices. There's a very local feel to the place, and I could really feel like I was feeling the local flavour of Asahikawa.
Though it was not the customary season for this dish, Hubby and I ordered the two kinds of crab o-nabe (お鍋). We got King crab and hairy crab (毛がに) and loads of other shabu-shabu goodies that I love -- like Chinese cabbage and shungiku (春菊) - simmering away in a miso broth!
Delicious! Super warm though.
And then we went to Otaru (小樽), another seaside port town in Hokkaido. It's another place where we are only there for food and shopping for food products (mostly the stinky but really delicious dried seafood snacks).
So one reason why we like Otaru is Masazushi Zenan (政寿司 全庵). We went to the honten our first time in Otaru. BOTH branches: super long queue, but the hour-wait was worth it. Had a kokuto umeshu and tori-karaage to start.
On a whim, Hubby ordered the wafu-style sirloin beef steak. It was delicious, and we really wanted seconds.
Then the reason why we go to Otaru: fresh seafood. Most especially the murasaki uni (紫ウニ, purple sea urchin).
Ordered an additional murasaki uni nigiri-zushi because well, murasaki uni is the specialty of the are. It is also a favourite of mine.
The uni chawanmushi (ウニ茶碗蒸し) cost the equivalent of US$5... And our total bill was ¥15,350 (about US$140). Fraction of what it would cost at home.
Yes, so our second time to Otaru was really just about eating the regional seafood (which we also did in our first time back in 2010) and the sweets at LeTAO and Kitakaro (北菓楼). We did return to the Otaru Canal, and then to Kitaichi Glass to have a look at the beautiful glassware.
Early morning we went to the Sankaku Market to inhale more of Hokkaido's seafood. Again. There's this no-frills eating place in the market where you just pick out the freshly caught seafood in the tanks and they prepare it for you to eat right there. You pay for the seafood by weight or per unit at pretty much wholesale prices and a small flat price for food prep.
The regional specialty is among others, King crab, murasaki uni and bafun uni (馬糞ウニ). There isn't much for me to add on the issue of Hokkaido's uni because other more knowledgeable people have written about them.
JJ Proville in "Uni: The Taste of the Sea, On the Plate" (2009) writes:
Ken Belson in "In Japan, Searching for Prized Sea Urchins" (16 July 2013, The New York Times) writes:
(Shakotan and Otaru are both neighbours in the Shiribeshi Subprefecture.)
We were a bit adventurous as well - we tried shako (蝦蛄) for the first time. Shako is mantis shrimp, a marine crustacean of the stomatopod order. It was really ugly but delicious. The texture and flavour of the flesh is not like shrimp/prawn but rather like crayfish or lobster. Apparently it is widely harvested in Japan and is often eaten as a sushi ingredient. So I am left wondering how is it that I've not had any so far.
Because we had Hinata with us, Hubby thought it'd be apt if we visited a sunflower park. He had been quite amused by my rapt fascination with the sunflower fields we passed in Furano. So, he took us to a sunflower park -- Himawari-no-sato (ひまわりの里) at Hokuryu Town (北竜町).
Himawari-no-sato at Hokuryu is supposedly Japan's largest sunflower garden, covering 20.8 sq km and a million sunflowers. The sunflower is a flower symbolising the season of summer in Japan. Well, in Japan, it's not the only one, but it is a well-loved one.
During the time we were there, there was a Sunflower Festival going on, and we took part in the sunflower maze. We did also check out the World Sunflower corner where sunflowers from around the world were on display. Some of these sunflowers were over 2m tall!
Our last day was spent back at Sapporo. Hinata insisted she wanted to go to St Marc's Cafe to enjoy a choco-cro. Though I told her that we have St Marc's in Singapore, she was very insistent that the St Marc's Cafes in Japan are on a totally different level of deliciousness altogether.
But yes, they do actually carry seasonal flavours that we won't find at home, like the peach choco cro, which had slices of white peach inside. Mmmmmmm...
We really didn't want to get on that plane home.
Hinata's Summer in Hokkaido (August 2013)
- I. Shiretoko
- II. Akan National Park
- III. Kushiro
- IV. Furano & Biei
- V. Asahikawa, Otaru & Hokuryu
 |
| Hinata among the sunflowers at Himawari-no-sato, Hokuryu Town |
On the way to Otaru, we stop by Asahikawa (旭川市) for only 2 reasons: I love browsing at the kimono/yukata store Mimatsu (三松) at Seibu Department Store, and we love eating at Tenkin (天金). In our first trip to Hokkaido, we had very good experiences at both places thanks to the people there, and we just want to go back for the experience.
Side note: this time, I left Mimatsu with yet another yukata (a black Junko Wong yukata with thistle patterns) and hanhaba obi and geta (featuring pink nadeshiko). Sigh. I am incorrigible.
We had our meal at Tenkin (天金 本店), a no-frills izakaya that seems to be popular with both locals and foreign tourists. So it was packed with Asahikawa locals, and Japanese and gaikokujin tourists.
What I love about the place is the homey atmosphere, the fresh food, and the reasonable prices. There's a very local feel to the place, and I could really feel like I was feeling the local flavour of Asahikawa.
Though it was not the customary season for this dish, Hubby and I ordered the two kinds of crab o-nabe (お鍋). We got King crab and hairy crab (毛がに) and loads of other shabu-shabu goodies that I love -- like Chinese cabbage and shungiku (春菊) - simmering away in a miso broth!
Delicious! Super warm though.
 |
| Otaru |
And then we went to Otaru (小樽), another seaside port town in Hokkaido. It's another place where we are only there for food and shopping for food products (mostly the stinky but really delicious dried seafood snacks).
So one reason why we like Otaru is Masazushi Zenan (政寿司 全庵). We went to the honten our first time in Otaru. BOTH branches: super long queue, but the hour-wait was worth it. Had a kokuto umeshu and tori-karaage to start.
 |
| Wafu-style sirloin beef steak, Masazushi Zenan |
On a whim, Hubby ordered the wafu-style sirloin beef steak. It was delicious, and we really wanted seconds.
 |
| Masazushi Zenan |
Then the reason why we go to Otaru: fresh seafood. Most especially the murasaki uni (紫ウニ, purple sea urchin).
 |
| Murasaki Sea Urchin, Otaru |
Ordered an additional murasaki uni nigiri-zushi because well, murasaki uni is the specialty of the are. It is also a favourite of mine.
The uni chawanmushi (ウニ茶碗蒸し) cost the equivalent of US$5... And our total bill was ¥15,350 (about US$140). Fraction of what it would cost at home.
Yes, so our second time to Otaru was really just about eating the regional seafood (which we also did in our first time back in 2010) and the sweets at LeTAO and Kitakaro (北菓楼). We did return to the Otaru Canal, and then to Kitaichi Glass to have a look at the beautiful glassware.
Early morning we went to the Sankaku Market to inhale more of Hokkaido's seafood. Again. There's this no-frills eating place in the market where you just pick out the freshly caught seafood in the tanks and they prepare it for you to eat right there. You pay for the seafood by weight or per unit at pretty much wholesale prices and a small flat price for food prep.
 |
| Murasaki uni and bafun uni at Otaru's Sankaku Market |
JJ Proville in "Uni: The Taste of the Sea, On the Plate" (2009) writes:
"According to [Chef Sotohiro Kosugi of Michelin-starred Soto in New York], the quality of the uni is directly linked to what the sea urchin has been eating and where. "Uni usually tastes great when it's been eating kelp. It's very common knowledge to the Japanese chef that wherever kelp taste good, the uni is good". The northern island of Hokkaido in particular is known for its kelp and its uni. ... On the popular Japanese varieties of uni, Kosugi indicates that the larger Murasaki variety (purple; long spines) have lots of moisture and are softer. Bafun uni (green; short spines) have a denser texture and do not contain as much water as the Murasaki uni."
Ken Belson in "In Japan, Searching for Prized Sea Urchins" (16 July 2013, The New York Times) writes:
"There are more than 100 varieties of sea urchin in Japan, but only six are edible. The chef, Kiichi Sasaki, explained that two types are caught nearby: murasaki uni, which has a mustard-yellow color and a sweet taste, as well as longer spikes on the outside, and bafun uni, which has an orange hue and a richer taste. ... The uni from Hokkaido is the most prized because of the kombu, or kelp, that they feed on, and the clean water where they live. According to Mr. Sasaki, uni caught along the Shakotan Peninsula 'sets the price in Tsukiji' in Tokyo, where a small box can sell for hundreds of dollars, three to four times more than in Hokkaido. ... Uni live about 10 years, but they are most delicious at around 4 to 5 years old. Finding them, Mr. [Tetsuji] Jin said, has become tougher. In other parts of Hokkaido, sea otters have decimated the uni population. Warmer ocean temperatures have stunted the growth of the kelp that uni eat. In Shakotan, deforestation has led to runoff, upsetting the uni's ecosystem. Signs around the harbor warned of poachers."
(Shakotan and Otaru are both neighbours in the Shiribeshi Subprefecture.)
We were a bit adventurous as well - we tried shako (蝦蛄) for the first time. Shako is mantis shrimp, a marine crustacean of the stomatopod order. It was really ugly but delicious. The texture and flavour of the flesh is not like shrimp/prawn but rather like crayfish or lobster. Apparently it is widely harvested in Japan and is often eaten as a sushi ingredient. So I am left wondering how is it that I've not had any so far.
Because we had Hinata with us, Hubby thought it'd be apt if we visited a sunflower park. He had been quite amused by my rapt fascination with the sunflower fields we passed in Furano. So, he took us to a sunflower park -- Himawari-no-sato (ひまわりの里) at Hokuryu Town (北竜町).
 |
| Himawari-no-sato, Hokuryu Town |
Himawari-no-sato at Hokuryu is supposedly Japan's largest sunflower garden, covering 20.8 sq km and a million sunflowers. The sunflower is a flower symbolising the season of summer in Japan. Well, in Japan, it's not the only one, but it is a well-loved one.
 |
| Himawari-no-sato, Hokuryu Town |
During the time we were there, there was a Sunflower Festival going on, and we took part in the sunflower maze. We did also check out the World Sunflower corner where sunflowers from around the world were on display. Some of these sunflowers were over 2m tall!
 |
| Peach choco cro and the normal choco cro at St Marc's Cafe, Sapporo |
But yes, they do actually carry seasonal flavours that we won't find at home, like the peach choco cro, which had slices of white peach inside. Mmmmmmm...
We really didn't want to get on that plane home.
Hinata's Summer in Hokkaido (August 2013)
- I. Shiretoko
- II. Akan National Park
- III. Kushiro
- IV. Furano & Biei
- V. Asahikawa, Otaru & Hokuryu
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