Sipping latte's in Tokyu

We're winding our way up through the escalotors of Tokyu Department store, Sapporo. We're on the lookout for relaxation massage on the 10th floor (my neck is killing me) but we don't make it past the 4th floor. There's a sign at the turn for the 5th floor draging us both in ...... It's that of a delicious looking chocolate pudding, with a pumpkin cream centre. Even though my neck is quite sore, we're both immediately dragged towards Cafe la Mille.



It's full! We don't mind waiting a few minutes and just scope around. Kim does however notice that there are no other males within the cafe. It does definately seem to be a shopping lady's pitt stop (mind you, we late noticed Tokyu department store is mainly for older women). Nevermind, we head on in. We order one of the chocolate pumpkin pudding. It was slightly warm, rich dense pudding revealing a creamy and sweet pumpkin filling.



We also have a piece of chestnut cake. Delicious and fluffy, with layers of sponge and chestnut cream and a few toasted walnuts on top.



We both try a Hokkaido milk coffee, which is a mild roast latte topped with hot, creamy, delicious Hokkaido milk.



As we depart, we know we may be joining the latte sipping lady's on the 4th floor again soon ........

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.

Night wandering around in Sapporo

Now we have a night wandering around by ourselves in Sapporo, we immediately head for Suskino. It's quite overwhelming. All these 5 or 6 story high buildings with various signs out the front (all in Japanese of course) and no real idea what is inside. We wander around for a while but honestly don't even know where to start. We give M2 a call.. He points us in the direction of Commelier, a little wine bar over the other side of Route 36. The instructions were pretty clear, we just need to find the alley way behind KFC and about half way down will be a green sign saying Commelier. We find it rather easily, it of course is in one of these anonymous 6 story buildings. We head on up the elevator and emerge in a rather bare corridor.  Heading down to the end we find a too-cute little door with the sign. Opening up the door there's a large communal table that is full of Japanese business men and ladies. We are warmly greeted by the host and walked over to a little booth in the corner.

Firstly we ask for recommendation on a nice glass of wine. Kim tries a glass of Razor's Edge Cabernet Shiraz, which happens to be one of the wines M2 supplies to Commelier. I try a glass of Hokkaido wine, a Furano white. It's quite sweet, but very easy to drink. We then manage to speak a few words with the host and say we would like to share some smaller dishes. We then leave it in his hands.

We both have a little giggle at the sausage dog hashi rest ....



The first dish to hit the table, a version of 'corned beef'. It was set almost like a rillette, cut into little squares,  nice and rich with that pickle and salty flavour of corned beef. Served alongside some crusty baguette and a little pot of seeded mustard.



The next to arrived was a beautiful little omelet. It had a pile of Japanese mushrooms on top with a butter sauce surrounding it. The filling was to be a surprise. We both delicately cut into either end of the omelet and take our first bite. The sweet sweet flavour of Hokkaido crab is like nothing else. The egg is cooked perfectly, still a little runny in the middle. The delicate crab meat sticking to the inside of the omelet, and the mushrooms and butter sauce adding nice body and roundness to the dish.



It's about now that M2 actually arrives. He said he might see us there later ..... We've all ready had another glass of wine each, but now that M2 is here we go and order a bottle of Alsace riesling. Mmm, one Kim and my favorites, and definitely M2's favorite! It's here where the photo's lagged a bit. I know we ate a few other dishes, but we don't seem to have any pic's. The last pic we have is of some delicious crispy grilled Hokkaido chicken. This is simplicity at it's finest. We have had this dish a few times at different places. The Hokkaido chicken has such a nice flavour to begin with. It's skin is so crispy, like chicken crackling, yet the flesh is so tender and juicy. It's possibly cooked the whole way through on the skin side. Served cut into a few smaller bite sized pieces with a generous mound of Adonai Hokkaido salt to dip into before savouring each bite. The salt bringing out the delicate flavour even more.



We then bid Commelier goodnight, but the night has only just begun. We wander downstairs looking for a yakitori place, which is another of M2's faves. We find one, but it's spanking new ... wandering in, it doesn't seem familiar. Turns out it was the same place, just completely re-done. It's at this stage that we venture over the road to Giulio's. We didn't even make the association that we had met Giulio before. We sit down and order a glass of wine. He has a few specials, all using 'Dennis the pig'. (Dennis is a local farmer you can read about in one of our earlier posts). We order Giulio's home made fennel cured leg ham, and also the hand-made sausage with liver and braised beans. Both using Dennis the pig and both delicious! We ordered a few other dishes, all very traditionally Italian, simple and tasty.

We then head back to a place that happens to be just around the corner. This particular place had taken our fancy earlier on this trip. It was after Sushi with M1 that we were all craving a little something sweet. M1 couldn't really think of a place we could just go to for dessert. He even made a few phone calls, but no luck. It was then after having soup curry for lunch one day, that we had stumbled upon a little place called 'Tsubaki Dessert Bar'. So here we are, on our third stop for the night.



In the little alley way that runs just behind McDonalds, on the Ekimae Rt 36 intersection is Tsubaki Dessert Bar. You enter from the street and go down a set of stairs. Off to the right, there's a little restaurant, Dining Kuwana, and to the left you enter through a curtain for desserts.....oh sweet desserts.



They have a nice lists of spirits, liquors and shochu's. They also have a few herbal teas. I get a pot of the rose and hibiscus tea, the smell as it's placed in front of me intoxicating......



Kim gets a glass of shochu on the rocks, a deliciously sweet plum wine. On the little menu, the star attraction is their bowl of ice-cream with 12 flavored syrups. There are a few other offerings, including cake and parfait.

We go straight for the main event, the bowl of ice-cream. Firstly a small tray is placed in front of us. There's a large bowl with a few good scoops of plain milk ice-cream. There are 2 spoons, with a little spoon rest to build you tasty treat on and to the side is a little bowl of crushed peanuts.



Then there's the custom made little tray, holding 12 cute little ceramic pots. Each pot has an individual little spoon. There is a small label on the front, but it is in Japanese. Our waiter is extremely friendly and does a very good job of explaining the flavours to us. With our little broken Japenglish we work out the most part and fill in the gaps by tasting.



The flavours included, chocolate, coffee, maple syrup, berry, cassis, gin, tequila, grape, whiskey, soy, apple and one other ......

It was delicious, the most fun was making our own little flavour combinations. Some favorites were maple and apple, cassis & gin, and the milk ice-cream, soy & crushed peanuts seemed to work quite well.



All in all, not bad for a night wandering around Sapporo.

Underground dumplings, Sapporo

Fancy a quickie?? Good, me too.
As I was so sweetly just reminded I owed you all a dumpling follow up.

In pleasure town (I just don't stop loving that name) under JR tower we had just finished up at Tortilla flat and were on our wander home when we came across this little dumpling house. Far too full to give it a try we made a mental note, and the next day when we were in the area we swung back for a dumpling fix.

Wan Zhu Ji Men was the name of place with the name wrapped around smiling pig as the shop logo. They do a variety of chinese noodles, rice and dumplings, Feeling just a bit peckish we opted for just a few dumplings. No idea what the dumplings were we just pointed at few interesting ones and hoped for the best, one lot with red dumpling skins, a set of long ones and a set of standard shaped, all were fried pot sticker style, came with a good smear of chili on the side as well as Chinese black vinegar (a Chinkiang no less) to dip in and my memory tells me they were tasty as was the lychee soda we had to accompany them.









Perhaps the next time we go we'll have a Japanese speaker so we actually know what we're eating. Still it was a great place for a mid afternoonish snack and they sell the Chinkiang by the bottle so that's always a good reason to swing by.

Too quick???

Wan Zhu Ji Men
Pleasure town
Under Jr tower Dimaru side

Tortilla Flat, Sapporo

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.

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 ....