You're allergic to what? and Congratulations !!

Kris, Chika & Michiko on Wedding Day

Oh Chika, you are one amazingly special girl ;-) Any outing with Chika is bound to be packed with excitement! I should also use this opportunity to congratulate Chika and Kris on their wedding day Friday, 25th September .... Due to unforeseen and sudden abdominal pains, which meant me spending my Friday in the clinic getting x-rays of my tummy to find out my small intestines were 4 times the size they should have been ... sadly meant we missed their wedding. I had been looking forward to attending the traditional Japanese ceremony for months ... Kim even bought a jacket just for the occasion, but want you both to know that we were thinking about you and sending our regards. Congratulations and here's to a wonderful future for an amazing couple !!

Anyway, back to the allelergy. Chika has one of those allergy's to mushroom where she can not eat them, but her giant bowl of Summer vegetable soba arrives and it seems okay for her to just pick around them?! ~shrug~ It looked damned delicious, and I didn't mind helping her finish off all the mushroom bits.



Kim and I both choose the Ten-don set. A selection of super crisp tenpura sitting on a bed of rice with a splash of sauce. There's a little pot of chawanmushi - a just set custard, sesame spinach, pickles, shredded negi and wasabi and a plate of cold soba noodles. A delicious meal to keep us moving on another day of adventures ....



Oh my, check out these umbrella lockers we spotted on the way out. Too cool!

Farewell Maru

When we head to Izumikyo we're usually grabbing a sandwich from Graubunden.  But then there's Maru, or the one with the white circle on the red sign. We didn't really hear much about this until later in the season, and then find out it is in fact their last season in Niseko.

We make it down one day for lunch. They have an amazing variety of lunch sets, all around 800¥ - 1200¥. Awesome! I order the grilled pork, which had a nice sticky black sauce and was served over rice and topped with an onsen egg.



Kim gets a half / half set. There's the same sticky grilled pork with onsen egg but also tempura eel. A little piece of tempura eggplant also sits on the side. Delicious.



Each set also came with a generous bowl of tsukemono (Japanese pickles) and a bowl of miso soup.

We also share another lunch set ... It's an interesting combination of baby prawns, scallops and shredded vegetables pressed together like a cake and tempura'd. We just pick all the crispy cake from a top the rice and it is superb. The sweetness of the shrimp and scallop exploding through the tangle of crispy vegetables.



We are sad to bid farewell to Maru this season, and disappointed that we only got to grace our taste buds with the pleasure of the deliciousness that is Maru only once before it left ......

Izakaya Rin, lower village Hirafu

An Izakaya, 居酒屋 is a type of Japanese eating establishment which also serves food. They are popular, casual and relative cheap places for after work eating and drinking.

The problem is that Izakaya Rin, which is nestled down in the lower village and is a favorite among locals, is usually closed before we've finished work. But, on this particular occasion we've both managed to sneak out early. It's lucky we get Yurie to call as we're leaving and reserve us a table. We make our way down into the village, Rin looks just like any of the houses either side of it, nothing much to let you know of the deliciousness that awaits inside, unless you were out looking for it.



There's an area as you walk in to leave you're shoes, and then we're greeted at the door. They ask if we have a reservation, which luckily we do. We still have to wait a few moments while they get our table ready. As we walk in, yet again through another door, it's apparant just how busy they are. The tables are full, there's clanging of glasses, shouting out of orders and drinks into the tiny kitchen and even a few people perched at the little counter.



We start with some marinated mackerel. 8 beautiful slices of the marinated fish. It has a beautiful silver/blue skin and a soft white flesh that packs a nice vinegar punch. A touch of wasabi the perfect accompaniment.



Gobo chips. This is the first time we've tried them since arriving in Japan. This particular variety are like little batons, in some kind of batter and fried. The crunchy batter revealing the earthy burdock beneath, and a good sprinkle of togarashi from the table giving them a nice little ting.



While we're going deep-fried, sun dried squid tempura. A delicious rather sweet sun dried squid in a feather light tempura batter which is dipped into kewpie mayonnaise.



And now we have our vegetable intake for the evening, even though it's deep-fried, age-dashi nasu. It's fried eggplant is floating in a dashi soy broth and topped with grated daikon, ginger and shredded spring onion. Yum yum! We savor the last of the broth we our spoon, as it's just so good.



The first thing that intrigued us when flicking through the menu was the camembert yaki. They do a good camembert in Hokkaido so we were interested to see what they would do with it here. The whole wheel arrived, sizzling away in a little cast iron pan. The rind is already nicely charred and there's a small spoon to the side. The waiter asks if we would like a demonstration, which as being camembert yaki virgins we accept. He takes the small spoon and just rumbles it up into a big old gooey mess, breaking the bits of rind up throughout the gooey pate. He then suggests a bit of soy sauce before scooping it onto the crispy saltine crackers that accompany.



A little plate of buta kim chii is a deliciously smokey wok fried pork, bean sprout and kim chii concoction that has a nice firery kick.



Butakushi, pork on a stick, were grilled to perfection. They were generously seasoned and so juicy. The only problem was sharing the 3rd stick ;)



We were both impressed with the little tsukone-balls. We have eaten plenty of tsukone in our time (well, in the last 6 months anyway) and the chicken mince has always been pressed around a stick and grilled. These little meatballs are just too cute. They still have the same flavor, and the ume boshi and shiso are divine, such beautiful colors as well.



Then *drum roll* the most controversial dish of the night.  Basashi.  Sakuraniku.  Horse meat, sashimi.  Well, there is the whole taboo thing associated with Western culture and the eating of horse meat.  I must say I was a little petrified, as I used to ride horses a bit when I was young, my Oma sending me here to Horse Camp for a few years in a row.  It was here I would stay for a week with a group of girls, us each getting assigned a horse to look after and ride for the week.  I used to get quite attached to my horse, my favorite would have been 'Romeo'.  Anyway, as you see, I digress.  But it's easy to see how the attachment to these big beautiful animals is like the same one we have for our other pets, like cats, dogs and guinea pigs.  But, I had to give it a go.  

As soon as the basashi arrived I immediately found it less daunting.  I must say I was expecting a rather lean, deep red, gamey type meat.  Something like kangaroo or venison.  The sort of meat, god forbid, that the Romeo, the big sterling would have been carrying.  But these Japanese 'horses' must be more like fat little donkeys that get to eat all day and don't have to move around too much.  The meat looked like wagyu beef, it was a nice pink with a heavy fat marbling and it was absolutely delicious!  The ginger giving it a nice hit, and just a touch of soy was needed.  Wow, it was so good!  It was super cold, and the fat just melted with each chew.  

Divine, decadent and definitely comforting and easier to deal with when you think of them as little fat wagyu donkeys!

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.

Sushi, Suskino, Sapporo

We're in Sapporo again after a day with M1 at Chitose hunting out some more fine Hokkaido products.  During the day we're already discussing our dinner plans.  As we haven't had sushi in Japan a phone call is made to Y and it's all organised.  Now the whole afternoon is spent eagerly awaiting this fine treat.

After a freshen up, we're picked up from the hotel.  We drive around for a  bit before ending up over in the vincinity of Suskino.  In the evening with all the flashing lights and crazy neon, it's quite a sight!

We find what M1 thinks is the building.  He's looking a bit puzzled though.  There appears to be a florist on the first floor, a set of lifts at the end of the corridor, and on the side wall a vague floor guide, all in Kanji of course.  

M1 doesn't seem to confident that we're in the right place.  He makes a phone call....  apparantly this is the building.  We take a life up to the 4th floor and walk past a place called "Dolce Bar"...  I was thinking, nice, somewhere for dessert after we fill up on sushi (if this is the right place) but upon walking by, realise that it's not that type of "Dolce" .  Anywhoo, we pass another few hostess bars before finding a quaint little entrance.  There's a plant, a sign in Kanji, and a curtain.  We head on through.....

It's allready quite full.  There's traditional Japanese seating off to the left, but thankfully we have one of the best seats in the house.  The 3 of us are seated directly in front of the 2 sushi chefs, at the counter.  We take a moment to take it all in....  The counter is housing an abundence of fresh seafoods...  There are many things unknown to us.  How exciting!

After a nice hot towel, drinks are arranged.  We start with our first, of many, Hokkaido sake's.  Delicious. 

I am then given a kawaii (too-cute) little napkin with the moon and some rabbits on it.  Only girls get these, apparently.

Then the food starts....  A lot is being said between M1 and the 2 sushi chef's, we're not quite sure what, but we're happy to leave it in their hands.  First course is a delicate little bowl of cod-roe with konnyaku. The cod roe was soft and salty, with a slight pop on the tongue. The strands of gelatinous konnyaku a nice flavour and texture contrast.

Next is a bowl of Hokkaido taraba crab.  It's been dressed lightly with fresh lime, and has the most amazing sweet natural flavour.  Sitting beside is a pile of fresh uni (sea urchin) which has a nice creaminess.  

The next to be placed in front of us is a generous bowl filled with ikura (salmon roe).  This is somewhat of a specialty in Hokkaido.  I have been blown away with the freshness and flavour of all the ikura we have sampled since we arrived ....  This is no exception.  Each little ball an explosion of flavour on the tongue.  Slightly salty with the addition of a very good shouyu soy, but still with it's incredible natural flavour.  All this is savoured from a little wooden spoon resting on the side of the bowl.

In some broken Jap-English, we're asked if we like oysters.  Of course!  We then watch as they are carefully removed from their shell, they are then dressed with a tangy ponzu dressing with and finished with a little seaweed.  Yum!

More sake is had as we watch some scallops going onto the little grill which is situated just behind the two chefs.



The scallops are then brushed with a sweet glaze.  Sheets of nori are then flashed over the grill, before the glazed scallop is wrapped up in a sheet of nori and handed to us over the counter.  This one is to be enjoyed with the hands.  Mmmm, and enjoyed it was.  The crisp toasty nori a perfect contrast to the plump, sweet scallop.

We sit back an savour our sake...  Our next dish is the only one of the evening to not be prepared at the counter.  When it arrives, there's a few giggles.  We try to ask what we're about to feast on, but all we manage to get out of them is "the female fish" and plenty more giggles.  Heh, anyway... it's tempura'd so we should be fine.  There's a little wedge of lime and some salt on the side.  The crisp batter reveals some very white and gooey stuff.  It's delicious, none-the-less.  There are also a few pieces of maitake mushroom which have been battered as well.  These have a great nutty flavour.  We later find out this Japanese delicacy is known as 'Shirako' or 'Tachi', which is cod milts, or to put it in lamen terms, cod sperm.  We have since seen this, and eaten it, on several occasions, prepared in a variety of different ways.  Tempura is still up there as one of the best, though.

We move onto another sake, and then start the marathon nigiri effort.

We all receive a beautiful jade coloured crockery plate in front of us.  Each piece of nigiri is then crafted before our eyes, before being placed, one-by-one, onto the plate.  The first is a piece of flatfish.  There is just the right amount of wasabi, the rice is still warm, and the fish so fresh brushed ever so lightly with sauce.

Then there's abalone nigiri.  Lightly scored and brushed with sauce.  It's nice a meaty, with great flavour.

Next up, prepare for battle-ships.  As each one is made, the little strip of nori is grilled before being wrapped around the warm rice.  It is then topped with the creamy uni.  Mmm.

We then see the nice big chunk of toro we've been eyeing off all night removed front the cabinet.  Toro nigiri.  Sublime!

Next is sweet shrimp nigiri.  The flavor is delicious, I just have a bit of a problem with the texture of raw shrimp....

But then next out is salmon belly, one of my absolute favorites.  It's so smooth and tasty!

I think they seen how much we enjoyed the toro...  A norimaki roll gets made right before our eyes.  A bit of the toro is taken and lightly chopped before being added, with a little sauce.  

They have some rather unidentifiable piece of sea creature they are then trying to explain to us.  One of them goes out and gets a little book.  It's full of pictures of all things seafood, with Japanese and English names.  We work out that it's Hokkaido surf clam.  It looks a little like a tongue draped over the shaped rice, but it was delicious!

We're then each given 2 pieces of inside out tuna norimaki, with toasted sesame seeds around the outside.

Then there's a rather unusual offering.  Smoked daikon pickles.  They're a deep brown colour, and the smoke smell is intoxicating.  Three plump slices of the pickle are served with a good dollop of sour cream.  An unusual but outstanding combination of flavors.

While we are savoring our pickles, one bite at a time, some small pieces of salmon are grilled.  This is then wrapped into a little norimaki, topped with ikura and bonito flakes.  Yum!

Another thing we had been fascinated with, was a little container full of the smallest little spring onions.  They looked like something that belonged on a Barbie dolls dinner table, or in a little doll house.  We sorted of pointed and expressed our interest.  We first had a look at the container.  Each strand was so perfect and green.  They were almost the length of my thumb...

We must have spent a while oohing over them, because before we knew it was another plate.  There were batons of Chinese yam, a very glutionous yet crunchy vegetable which had been pickled with perilla (red shiso).  They had a beautiful blush pink colour too them, and were lovely and refreshing.  Sitting to the side was 2 neat slices of tuna tataki, with the same sweet glazed brushed over them, and a little drop of cream cheese on each one.  Again, a rather unusual combination that worked really well.

We all move onto a Hokkaido sweet potato shochu.  It's nice a mellow, and served in a beautiful glass.

We then all (just about) finish with a gorgeous little minegi nigiri.  It has such a delicate onion flavour....  and it is so up there in the cute stakes!

We just sit and enjoy ....  before being asked if there was anything else we would like again or to try.  During the course of the night we had seen this large pink looking thing being sliced up...  We were curious.  We found out it was whale bacon or whale tongue and both lost our curiosity quick smart.  I ask for a grilled salmon nigiri.  Oishii.

Kim has a piece of fresh water eel grilled nigiri.

Another thing we were curious about, turns out to be house-made bottaga.  Awesome.  2 thin slices are served between crisp daikon.

Then comes a plate of house-made skimono, Japanese pickles.  There's daikon, cucumber and carrots and gobo that have been dipped in nutty toasted sesame seeds.

We watch as the two chef's work in harmony to create a gorgeous platter of sushi.  This is then taken down to one of the hostess bar's in the corridor.

We are again game to try a natto roll.  They all laugh when we agree.  We both eat it, I don't mind it's nuttiness, but it is rather slimy.  Again, the whole texture thing.  I mean, it's okay, but nothing either of us are crazy about.

It really is such a privilege to be able to sit at the counter of a fine sushi restaurant.  And to be in Japan and have that honor we are both truly grateful....

As we are leaving, I notice a too-cute little nigiri clock.  Nice!

We are walked all the way to the lifts by one of the chef's.  The whole floor is now buzzing, the bars all busy and plenty of hostess ......  Who would have thought, a fine sushi bar in amongst all of this.  Oh, wait, we are in Suskino.

Here's a copy of the shop card, with address
Somewhere around Suskino
Ph: 011 513 8002