We're in Sapporo on a mission to find some kitchen supplies and scope out some of the local Hokkaido produce on offer. It's an 8am departure from Hirafu and we're only on the road for about 20 minutes before we start passing these amazing little street-side fruit and vegetable vendors. We stop and browse their goods, with everything from Japanese mushrooms to wild Hokkaido walnuts. We get maybe half way there when we stop at a little roadside (it's actually on both sides of the road) fried potato place. The car park is packed with buses and weekend drivers, all stopping in for a hit of fried potato early on a Saturday morning .....
This carries us through the morning and we manage to look at a few places after arriving in Sapporo. But then, it's lunch time! We are with M1 & M2 today who are doing the deed of showing us around a bit... We pull up somewhere on the outskirts of the city and park the car. There's not too much around, I'm almost wondering what's planned. But then we arrive at a little shop front, writing on the windows with the recognizable words "Lunch" and "Drink" on the door, and what appears to be a list of wines on the window. Nice!
We walk in, there's a table of four downstairs and a minuscule open kitchen. We're lead up a small flight of stairs to a cosy little room with another 14 seats.
The table is set with a lunch set menu and the knife and fork resting on a very cool little 'hashi' rest.
We get some much needed help from M1 & M2 deciphering the Japanese menu as there's not a word of English. There is the option of 2 starters, pate or marinated saba (a Japanese mackerel). Kim, myself and M1 choose the pate. It arrives a very generous slice, wrapped in thin bacon with chunks meat, liver and nuts. We are all intrigued by the accompanying puree, it's a rich, intense but slightly sweet banana puree. I really like it! It has such an concentrated banana flavour, and seems to cut through the richness of the pork quite well. There's a couple of little cornichons, as well. Yum!
The M2 goes for the saba. It's so beautiful, 3 slices of the marinated saba nestled between pieces of roasted apple and a blush pink apple puree. We all manage a tiny taste, and it is just divine!
Then arrives the soup course. Hokkaido bean soup with chorizo. The soup is rich and nutty, with a touch of creaminess. There are a few pieces of sauteed chorizo floating in the bowl, a little virgin olive oil and some toasted cumin on top. A tremendous soup and a perfect size portion.
We're chatting away, sipping away at our glasses of wine for only a few moments when our cutlery is reset, with some very cool Laguiole cutlery, and our main courses arrive.
There were four options, so we chose one of each, with the idea of sharing and sampling each one. They are all so good, that whatever we ended up with in-front of us, aside from allowing the others a little taste, was polished up in no time. Kim had the Mulloway, arriving with crispy scored skin on a little bed of cabbage, what we think was salsify and a few mussels.
M2 has the chicken hot-pot, arriving in a pretty little
Staub La cocotte. It is filled with bits of roast chicken, Hokkaido potatoes, cabbage and some clams. It smells divine! and taste fantastic! The juices in the bottom require some more bread, as four hands devour the lot...
M1 has the roast lamb rump. It's roasted MR with a very pink centre, served with a few mild but floral roasted green chilli's and a chunk of caramelised pear.
I definitely end up with the pick of the bunch. Roasted pork (Wow, have I mentioned how amazing the flavour of Hokkaido pork is?) that has a nice layer of crispy fat and a deliciously moist rosy flesh. There's a few pieces of roasted Hokkaido sweet potato, deep purple skin with a velvet yellow interior. Then there's a roasted pumpkin puree, with a nice little hint of sweetness and a piece of caramelised fruit, maybe apple? maybe pear? maybe apricot? A winning combination none-the-less, with Autumn written all over it.
This amazing ¥2200 lunch set, which also includes a glass of wine and coffee or tea, also includes dessert. It's another hard choice to make ... There are 6 options! Kim takes the salted hazelnut semi-freddo. Two little squares come piled high with a splash of Frangelico sauce underneath.
I go for pure simplicity, poached rhubarb with
fromage frais. Delightful!
M has the chocolate. It's just that, a slice of a rich set chocolate, with a hint of chilli and a star anise ice-cream to accompany....
Then there's the tea brulee. It's a roasted green tea, so the brulee is a nice caramel colour. It's in a beautiful wide dish, so the crisp sugar topping is there for each mouthful. There's a scoop of vanilla ice cream slowly melting on the hot sugar....
As we're leaving, and offering our best thanks in Japanese, we get a chance to survey the tiny little kitchen from which this is all produced. There is 1 chef, a 4 burner and barley enough room to swing a tea-towel. And all of this spectacular food is being produced by this guy in this tiny little space, and he's cooking main courses as he sends desserts and plates pate's. Very impressive! Very delicious! Very much looking forward to visiting here again soon ......
Hofe
Tel: 011 272 1118
Lunch 11am - 3pm, last order 2pm
Dinner 6pm - 11pm, last order 10pm
(Sorry no address, it's written on the back of the card in Kanji :))
