Wandering through the little underground villages in Sapporo that link various parts of the city to subway stations & shopping centres is always full of surprises. The little arcades are lined with funky little shops, and of course, countless little eateries. We had just stocked up on some books at Kinokuniya and crossed the road, entering JR station from the street we headed one floor underground. We were both captured by an entrance labeled "Pleasure town". Most of these little arcades tend to have names, like "Pole Town" "Fashion Lane" etc. We had to venture in to see what "Pleasure Town" had to offer. They must of course be talking about the 'Pleasure of Eating ...'
Wandering through we found this awesome little dumpling place (which of course we went back to. Blog to come) and various other eateries... But the one that took our fancy was Tortilla Flat.
I don't know what drew us in the first, the giant wine barrels, the hundreds of wine bottles, or perhaps the numerous Iberico legs hanging from the roof.
We poke our head in, it's allready quite full. We're happy to settle at the counter. There's quite a large menu with some fantasticly humorous translations and most of the drinks are in English.
We start with an order of one white sangria and one red. Sitting at the counter we see each drink crafted in a stemless riedel. Sugoi! The drinks are then passed from the bartender directly to us over the counter.
She then takes an cheese pick and peels back a white towel to reveal a half wheel of aged Parmigano Regiano. The heady aroma of the cheese escapes as she lifts the towel. Mmm. She takes the pick and hacks some chunks from the inside of the cheese. These chunks are then taken out with a spoon, placed in a little dish with a few toothpicks and handed to us over the bar. Wow. I think the whole experience of seeing it produced made it taste even better. A nice sharp kick to awaken the palate for what lay ahead.
We immediately order the marinated Spanish olives. A large jar of olives is produced and the bar tender just takes a spoonful into a dish and hands them over the bar. There was plump salty black olives and little stuffed green ones that were marinated in a garlic olive oil.
We had seen the leg of Iberico sitting on the counter, so next is plate of fresh sliced Iberico. Sitting at the counter we have a great view straight down into the kitchen. There's a young Japanese girl with awesome hair taking charge. She takes the Iberico from the counter and starts slicing.
Taking her time she fills the plate generously with the chunks of delicious pork. It's then drizzled with some virgin oil and finished with a large sprig of chervil. It's nice and firm, salty and full of flavour.
We then couldn't resist the slow cooked pork trotter with a sherry sauce. The pork meat is encased in an almost crackling like skin, but just tears apart with a fork. It's juicy and just has that porky flavour that we've not experienced outside of Japan. The sherry sauce is a nice sweet reduction of the cooking liquid. A few crisp vegetables sit to the side.
The drinks keep flowing and we keep on ordering dish by dish. We both love eating this way .... Next is garlic mushrooms. We see them getting prepared in the kitchen and the smell of them cooking is intoxicating. They arrive on a cute little terracotta escargot plate. 6 plump little mushroom caps sitting in an intense garlic & pepper topping. They're stabbed with a few toothpicks so we dive right in. Yum yum. The little pieces of toasted baguette to the side used to mop up all the garlicky goodness left in the plate.
Next to arrive is the anchovie and potoato dip. It's like a brandade, with warm potato puree mixed with Spanish anchovies. It's nicely seasoned, and scooped up quickly with some toasted bread. The little dressed salad on the side a nice bit of acidity.
We then order smoked salmon and quails egg. The quails egg is wrapped in the smoked salmon and sitting on a little round of toasted bread with a generous dollop of mayo. There's a thin strip of roasted pepper on top. The combination works really well and they're both devoured in no time.
We finish with a generous chunk of grilled Iberico pork. It's seared nicely, with a good crust, but juicy and a little pink in the middle. As we're eating it, we're assured this pig had a great life, it was as if you could taste the acorns he'd enjoyed. The meat had a delicious nutty flavour that just lingered ..... There was a decent spoon of mustard to smear on as we went and some steamed green beans and broccoli.
Wandering through we found this awesome little dumpling place (which of course we went back to. Blog to come) and various other eateries... But the one that took our fancy was Tortilla Flat.
I don't know what drew us in the first, the giant wine barrels, the hundreds of wine bottles, or perhaps the numerous Iberico legs hanging from the roof.
We poke our head in, it's allready quite full. We're happy to settle at the counter. There's quite a large menu with some fantasticly humorous translations and most of the drinks are in English.
We start with an order of one white sangria and one red. Sitting at the counter we see each drink crafted in a stemless riedel. Sugoi! The drinks are then passed from the bartender directly to us over the counter.
She then takes an cheese pick and peels back a white towel to reveal a half wheel of aged Parmigano Regiano. The heady aroma of the cheese escapes as she lifts the towel. Mmm. She takes the pick and hacks some chunks from the inside of the cheese. These chunks are then taken out with a spoon, placed in a little dish with a few toothpicks and handed to us over the bar. Wow. I think the whole experience of seeing it produced made it taste even better. A nice sharp kick to awaken the palate for what lay ahead.
We immediately order the marinated Spanish olives. A large jar of olives is produced and the bar tender just takes a spoonful into a dish and hands them over the bar. There was plump salty black olives and little stuffed green ones that were marinated in a garlic olive oil.
We had seen the leg of Iberico sitting on the counter, so next is plate of fresh sliced Iberico. Sitting at the counter we have a great view straight down into the kitchen. There's a young Japanese girl with awesome hair taking charge. She takes the Iberico from the counter and starts slicing.
Taking her time she fills the plate generously with the chunks of delicious pork. It's then drizzled with some virgin oil and finished with a large sprig of chervil. It's nice and firm, salty and full of flavour.
We then couldn't resist the slow cooked pork trotter with a sherry sauce. The pork meat is encased in an almost crackling like skin, but just tears apart with a fork. It's juicy and just has that porky flavour that we've not experienced outside of Japan. The sherry sauce is a nice sweet reduction of the cooking liquid. A few crisp vegetables sit to the side.
The drinks keep flowing and we keep on ordering dish by dish. We both love eating this way .... Next is garlic mushrooms. We see them getting prepared in the kitchen and the smell of them cooking is intoxicating. They arrive on a cute little terracotta escargot plate. 6 plump little mushroom caps sitting in an intense garlic & pepper topping. They're stabbed with a few toothpicks so we dive right in. Yum yum. The little pieces of toasted baguette to the side used to mop up all the garlicky goodness left in the plate.
Next to arrive is the anchovie and potoato dip. It's like a brandade, with warm potato puree mixed with Spanish anchovies. It's nicely seasoned, and scooped up quickly with some toasted bread. The little dressed salad on the side a nice bit of acidity.
We then order smoked salmon and quails egg. The quails egg is wrapped in the smoked salmon and sitting on a little round of toasted bread with a generous dollop of mayo. There's a thin strip of roasted pepper on top. The combination works really well and they're both devoured in no time.
We finish with a generous chunk of grilled Iberico pork. It's seared nicely, with a good crust, but juicy and a little pink in the middle. As we're eating it, we're assured this pig had a great life, it was as if you could taste the acorns he'd enjoyed. The meat had a delicious nutty flavour that just lingered ..... There was a decent spoon of mustard to smear on as we went and some steamed green beans and broccoli.
After an hour or so of this grazing we know this little corner of Spain in Japan will be added to our list of Sapporo staples ....
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