Are you going to drink that??

Seems it is the festive season round here ... Following close on the heels of pork and lanterns is the festival of beer (oh joy!). This happens smack bang in the middle of Sapporo and goes on for three weeks. All down Odori park huge beer gardens are set up by all the major players on Japans inebriation circuit as well as a bunch of the guys who usually prefer quality over quantity.

We made plans to meet up with a few friends in the center of the beerdom and headed off for a much needed civilization day in the city before hand. After some city wandering we found ourselves at the beginning of Odori so decided what better time than the present to have a few drinks. Wandering down the park we head past the gardens of the beers we can enjoy any day and grabbed a seat in the German section, we started off with a Franziskaner's weiss and a Spaten fest bier



Of course we couldn't have a beer garden without beer drinking snacking, so with table and beer secured we picked up a German sausage plate as well as a curry sausage an kicked back in the afternoon sun. Sweet.



Just as we finished the first round, we were joined by the Gyu+ crew We picked up a HB Munchen Dunkel and a Hallerndorfer Rauchbier which is a smoked beer, and got down to chewing the fat with the guys.



After we polished off these beers, and maybe a couple of pretzels we took a mosey on down to the Otaru beer spot, passing a group of sumo on the way (our first sumo sighting in Japan). Although we would have been glad to drink any of Otaru's range we were more interested in the other creatively named micro brewed beers from Rouge brewery on offer. With one Dead guy ale, a Brutal bitter, Shakespeare stout and an Otaru Pilsner with strawberry syrup in our hands it was time for a little more talk and don't forget the snacks, this time grilled squid and beef with mustard.





As the light was fading we now made our way to the Kirin tent where the night time action really kicks off, fueled by towers - 6 liters of towering beer, scouring the garden it seems that there is no seats left so we grab a spot on the grass....for about two seconds before a group leaving gives us their table. A tower is procured and the drinking begins.



It's a long way to the bottom and just when we had thought we had finished we realised we had just drunk until the beer level was out of sight, but there was still a liter in the plastic tower housing, once this was done the foolishness really set in.





Fuzzy logic brought Hisashi to the realization that if we had missed the unseen liter there were many liters awaiting a fellow in the know. This genius thought in his head he headed off into the throng of festivalers helpfully clearing the empty towers two or three at a time and stopping by our now hysterical table to empty the stash.



Ten more liters later we decided to head into town for a few more drinks and salsa of course. A quick stop in Tanuki koji at a bar that all I can remember is the roof was a foot shorter than I was, and we were suddenly in Suskino in a salsa bar, Hisashi promply passed out and the rest of us enjoyed salsa lessons from the owner for a few hours before wandering out onto the street for late late night ramen Kyushu style.





This means thin noodles and that's about all anyone remembers from that night. Good times.

Tiny Shop, Big Ramen

It's cold..... really cold and the wind is bitter, whipping around us and we've been standing here for 20 minutes. Here is out side a tiny six seat ramen restaurant etched into a corner of building opposite Bic Camera in Sapporo and every second we wait in the out in the cold my hope that what's on offer inside is worth it grows. Having seen this place on several occasions and wondered what sort of building planner allows a two meter indent in the corner of their building for a possible shop?




We had thought we had arrived bang on twelve, yet as we peeped through the doors there were six butts on six chairs so the waiting had begun.

Finally seconds before we succumb to frost bite and hypothermia a space clears and we're in.



There's just the six stools at a bar and a kitchen barely big enough to stand still in and one guy doing the cooking then walking the two feet to do the serving.



Kat opts for the spicy ramen and I'm always a sucker for roast pork with soft egg. With the kitchen within touching distance we can see every move, for Kats spicy ramen the pork, chili, beansprouts and bamboo are stir-fried before the stock is added and the lot poured over the noodles. The result a spicy broth with a good kick piled high with goodies. Mine comes loaded with pork a great soft egg and a sheet of toasted nori tucked into one side.



After both ramen are slurped down enthusiastically it's tempting to just sit and enjoy being warm and content but our memory of standing outside in the queue is still fresh and others are outside needing a break from the icy breath of Siberia, so very reluctantly we move on. The next time we come here it's going to be in summer, good ramen or no, really cold is really freakin cold.

Ramen, Kutchan

Well this has to be probably one of the slackest efforts we've done so far.....We had ramen recently, good ramen in fact but we ate with no regard to providing just about any futher information than that... still here goes.

On the main road in Kutchan is a ramen shop that has a sign out the front saying open since 1991 or close to (told you, fuzzy memory) at first I was unimpressed but then I realised it's now 2009, did a quick count and and went ooooooh.

Inside we were given the gaijin menu (I had a quick peek at the Japanese one to see if we were being stiffed on any of the good stuff but it was all front and present).



Kat went for the Hokkaido specialty - butter corn, and I for the tonkotsu, a collagen thick broth of long simmered pork bones. The soups were quick to arrive and we were glad we had stuck with the regular size, they were massive enough already.

The butter corn was full the the rim loaded with pork, corn and what looked like half a block of butter on the side.....seriously.

My tonkotsu was super rich, with the pork, egg and all the collagen, amazingly delicious but I felt I was on the verge of congealing, I managed to struggle through for the cause though.

We topped it all off with a small plate of gyoza, crispy and fragrant.

I'm sure we'll be back one day to get an address and give a few different types a go.

If you do manage to find it between now and then don't forget to grab you complementary vanilla and red bean ice cream on the way out. Yum.

Could really do with an aero bar about now.......................

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Airport Ramen, Sapporo

First meal in Japan what's it to be .. ?? Mysterious and deadly fugu, ethereal sushi singing only of the sea?? Nope it's going to be airport ramen! our baggage was trapped in a damaged container so we were delayed in getting our bags.. The bonus being a very nice JAL attendant changed our ticket so we didn't have to make the 90 min Narida-Hanada slog and flew straight on immediately, hence we were one and a half hours early for our pick up. Twelve hours of flying hungry and with time to kill we headed into the the first food place we saw. As regulars in the Ichi-ban boshi queue we are well accustomed to the delights of ramen and so I'm slightly disappointed that my first mouthful of on the soil Japanese food isn't going to be as foreign as I'd wanted but a boys gotta eat. After a quick look at the 3d menu (love those plastic food models) we take a sit and order.



Kat has the Sapporo (when in Rome) ramen it comes a generous serve full with corn, leek, beansprout and the ramen with a ball of miso floating in the middle, once stirred the stock turns to a rich red broth, it's kinda the transformers of ramen, most satisfying.



I have the tried and tested butter corn ramen (Hokkaido butter don't cha know). It has three slices of roast pork, corn, wakame and leek, all the while your eating the butter melts to form a fat film of the best kind on the top of the soup so the things picked out get a quick and delicious glaze from bowl to mouth. Yum!



Maybe not so foreign, but far far better than many choices on offer at other airports around the globe (looking at you Miami).

Ramen
Just out side the domestic arrivals gate
New Chitose Airport
Sapporo, Japan