Soba soba

When M2 offered us the opportunity to try fresh made soba at a famous shop, we jumped at the chance. Just down the road from us.. well down the road, round a bend or two and along a bit more, is Rakuichi Soba. It's out the back of Annupuri just off the main road, apparently it has a bit of a following and you could wait up for up to two hours for a seat. Winter is their slow season so we're hoping we'll be ok. The approach to the restaurant is so picturesque, a narrow wooden foot bridge leading to the building, all dusted with snow it's very fairy tale.



Once in the door we see that a wait will still be in order as all of the stools along the small counter are full. Luckily we wait a brief ten minutes before a space is cleared and we're in.



We are very thankful that M2 speaks Japanese or we would have been limited to hot or cold soba, we would have had no idea of the special duck soba or the .....well actually that's as far as we got, DUCK SOBA??? Two please.



Once you have your order in that's when the magic happens, owner and soba master Tatsuru makes the noodle dough to order for each order. First mixing the dough, then deftly pressing and rolling before finally hand cutting with an impressive noodle knife. You can tell Tatsuru has been doing this for a few years when he has finished the process he has enough noodles for our order exactly. The noodles are then taken out to the back for blanching and plating.







While waiting for the noodles we order plates of vegetable tempura to get us started. Little plates of eggplant, beans, peppers, okra and mushrooms all crispy coated, mmmmm I love tempura.



The noodles arrive shortly after, my cold duck noodles have the soba off to the side of the duck soup, a small plate of tempura yam next to them, Kat had the duck as well, but the hot version so the noodles, soup and tempura are already mixed.



The soup is rich and the duck flavorful, the noodles are, in my very limited knowledge of soba, the best I've ever had, the little tempura yam thingies tasty.



Coming here is not only a great meal but a great experience. I know we want to come back, but which is better, waiting two hours for a seat if we come in summer or waiting all winter to eat here again.......dilemma dilemma.

Soba Restaurant Rakuichi
Buckwheat Annupri
048-1511 431, Niseko, Niseko-cho
TEL : 0136-58-3170
Hours : 11:00～15:00、17:00～（Reservation required)
Holiday : Thur.

Eff Eff, Annupuri

On our first visit to Annupuri we tryed to go to Eff Eff with Sh. We got there a bit late, though... Ever since then we'd been meaning to get back there. Here's a little old cottage tucked away at the base of Niseko Annupuri. The little sign on the front boasts "Ham & Sausages", awesome!



Walking in it feels like Grandma's house .. The fire was going, there's little vase's of flowers and plenty of knick-knack's lining the walls.



But then there's a small little showcase at the front filled with packets of house cured meats, hand-made sausages and ham. I believe it's all produced down below. We want to get a few things to go to take back and have a look out, but there's also a small little menu that you can sit down and enjoy.

Firstly comes a plate of sliced speck. It's nice and salty, with a good firm texture. It smells amazing! The 7 slices are draped over a little salad of crisp lettuce and tomatoes with a nice vinegary dressing. Yum!



As we're enjoying this, we see our selection of sausages being grilled over a little charcoal grill.



Then they arrive, hot from the grill. There's a weisswurst - a German style white sausage, a spicy pork sausage and a few little weiners. They are served with a good whack of mustard, ketchup, potato salad, sliced gherkin pickles and 2 lonely little beans .....

It was all delicious! Everyday we are amazed at what this little part of the world has to offer ......

Eff Eff
Annupuri Village
Hokkaido, Japan