Japanese fast food on a road trip, Katsu-mania!

On our way home after a quick visit to Sapporo we're both a little hungry. It's our first time driving into and out of Sapporo, so we're both concentrating on the driving and keeping an eye out for the signs. Almost out of the city we're really hungry now .... and as much as I'm wishing something would just jump out at me, like the golden arches, but not the golden arches, I'm thinking it might turn into SeicoMart hot chef lunch at any moment.

But then, just as I hoped it would, it jumped out at me. A shopfront plastered in sporadic wood planks, giant red kanji and something that just screamed out that there was a whole range of tasty's waiting inside. ''Kim, Kim, take the next left'' I exclaim. He seems a little puzzled as to what I'd seen but around we go. We trace back and find a park, then in we go.



I don't know why I had such a strong feeling that something delicious was waiting for us inside this wooden front building, but it certainly was.  What we discovered was a katsu shop.  Yup, just katsu's!  All be-it about 25 varieties and ways you could enjoy your katsu.  It was katsu-mania.  We point and order a couple of things from the menu. Firstly a cheese-u katsu. It's super crunchy with a mountain of freshly shaved white cabbage, rice and pickles.



Japanese curry katsu was also delicious. Slices of pork katsu sitting on a bed of rice and floating in a pool of Japanese curry sauce with some pickled ginger.



But the star of the show, something we noticed advertised by posters on the wall, the katsu sandwich. Now I love a good sandwich, and quite often the simple 2 or 3 filling ones are the best! And simple this was indeed. Plump pork katsu with a super crispy coating was sandwiched between 2 crustless slices of white bread. There was a scraping of butter and a splash of terriyaki sauce. Sublime! We add a little extra ton-katsu sauce from the pot sitting on our table.




Re-fuelled and nursing content tummy's we are again on our way ...

FujiSushi, Niseko Hirafu

This is our first shot at a sushi place in Japan we're both very excited.
Fujisushi is just across the road from work and always has a crowd.. out the front is a glass display case filled with models of the food you could be enjoying should you choose to partake in this establishment. I love that there's a whole industry dedicated to making life like food models, there's so much thought and attention put in to them.



Inside we sit an have a look at the menu. At a lot of Asian places some times the menu in English is minuscule compared to the one written in the native tongue, feels like your missing out on all the good stuff. The menu here is after a quick look the same size so you are free to enjoy the delights of a whole bowl of cod roe or raw squid noodles should you so feel like. Kat is a bit under the weather so she goes for a simple all in one bowl of pork katsu and egg on rice, it's simple but delicious and as well as the generous portion it is accompanied by miso soup, a pickle of diakon and cucumber and a small salad of unknown ingredients, all very good.



I opt for the tempura set, the tray comes out and it's huge, there's the tempura which includes two prawns and a great selection of veg, a fish soup, a chawanmushi with chicken and shitake, two types of pickle, a selection of sashimi, rice, an orange and oddly enough a small macaroni salad. The tempura is light and crunchy, the sashmi fresh and every thing is tasty even the macaroni, there's easily more than enough for one person, still rather that than not enough.



Funny, our first sushi restaurant in Japan and we had no sushi, still there's always next time and from the friendly service and tasty treats there definitely will be.

Fujisushi
Opposite the Seicomart