What to eat in Hokkaido!

In addition to being worldwide famous for its dairy products and exquisite natural views, Hokkaido is also known for its fresh and flavourful seafood. I have to admit Japanese food has always been my favourite cuisine long before I’ve ever been to Japan. Maybe it’s because I’ve got Japanese ancestors so preference for Japanese food has been ingrained into my taste buds ha!

Lunch box set at the airport

The first thing that popped into my mind when I was invited to go to Japan was all my favourite Japanese dishes ranging from sashimi, sushi, curry and soup, basically everything! This time, I want to share with you my culinary experience in Japan or to be more precise, in Hokkaido, other than the mandatory Gengis-Khan.

Geng is khan so good!

In front of a small Geng is khan restaurant

1. Seafood Soup at the Edge of Lake Akan

As soon as we got to the lake and before we visited the Ainu cultural centre, I ate at a hotel next to Lake Akan. The menu prepared for me was seafood soup, squid sashimi and tempura. It was delicious! I don’t know why the rice in Japan tastes so good, it’s fluffier and more fragrant here. The seafood was fresh and the tempura was extra crispy. If you do come here, you gotta try this place, all right!

Lake akan!

seafood galore!

super like this set menu!

fish tempura, so gooood!

Seaweed

Raw squid sashimi!

2. Raw Hokkaido Salmon

When you eat sashimi, maybe you’re used to it, especially with salmon sashimi, it’s quite common. Moreover in Jakarta, we’re basically drowning in salmon sashimi. It’s not a big deal, right? However, eating Hokkaido Salmon at a fish market in Kushiro, Hokkaido, now this was remarkable. So for my last night in Hokkaido, I went to a fish market. Here, they sell all kinds of seafood, from live crabs and ready to eat crabs, they have it all and they’re all fresh! There was one thing that intrigued me other than the otoro (blue fin tuna) or the crab: the Hokkaido Salmon (only found in Hokkaido, thus the name). Hmm, that’s enough to arouse my curiosity. One slice was around 200 Yen or about 20k Rupiah. I tried a slice and it was sooo good! The salmon tasted super fresh and melted in my mouth. If you want to see my instant reaction when I tried Hokkaido Salmon, you can watch it here.

so goooood

Happy face of the seller!

There are only two kinds of food for me: delicious and super delicious. And all the food that I ate in Japan fell into the super delicious category. Even the simple lunch box bought at Seven Eleven was yummy so whatever the Japanese dish was while I was in Hokkaido for this trip was always appetising. Oh man, I can’t wait to return to Japan. I hope my experience here was useful and has given you some insight.

Happy traveling, I hope we cross paths!

Cheers,

Febrian

Translated by Achmad Sirman