One could not go hungry in Obihiro with its wide and quality selection of shops and restaurants specialising in confectionary and local dishes including the popular butadon 豚丼 (grilled pork served over a bowl of rice).
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Vignettes of Japan #13: “Hoto” oden on a rainy evening
Oden Miyuki Honten serves up delicious oden from large vats of simmering dashi stock. Perfect food for cold, wet days in Kanazawa, Japan.
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Karaage, Japanese fried chicken
Make some tasty karaage at home with this easy-to-follow recipe
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Vignettes of Japan #7: Toasty senbei
On my return trip to Otaru, aside from sushi, there was one item that I looked forward to eating again: Senbei 煎餅, Japanese rice cracker. Three summers ago, when I was in Otaru with my family, we bought some senbei from a little shop while strolling along Sakaimachi Street. Everyone in my family likes senbei.…
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Vignettes of Japan #6: Pointing game in an izakaya
Otaru has around 100 sushi restaurants, including some 20 on the famed Sushi Street, which is five minutes on foot from where we were staying. As much as we like sushi, we were in the mood for a variety of small hot dishes – specifically, we wanted to eat at an izakaya. We decided to…
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Vignettes of Japan #1: Ramen on a cool summer day
It was summer but the skies were grey and the wind gave me goosebumps under my jacket. We had arrived at the entrance of the ramen shop. Sliding the door open, we stepped inside. The air was thick with humidity, a warm welcome and respite from Sapporo’s chilly streets. It was only 5pm but the…
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Banana Yoshimoto: Kitchen
“The place I like best in the world is the kitchen,” declares a youthful Mikage Sakurai at the beginning of “Kitchen“. Written by Banana Yoshimoto*, Kitchen quickly become a bestseller when it was published in 1988. Yoshimoto also received some of Japan’s top literary prizes with her first book, further fanning the “Bananamania” in the country. Having recently read Kitchen –…
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What has onigiri to do with pork and sauerkraut?
We had Pennsylvania Deutsch pork sauerkraut yesterday. This is the third consecutive year that AB has made this traditional dish to mark the start of the new year. Today, it is more commonly known as “Pennsylvania Dutch pork sauerkraut” as the word “Deutsch” (the German endonym) sounds like “Dutch” in English. The German connection is…
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Mt. Furano, Daisetsuzan National Park in Hokkaido // 富良野岳, 大雪山国立公園, 北海道
One of the things I love about Hokkaido is its abundant natural landscape and within this, the varied hiking trails and treks. During the summer trip with my family to Hokkaido, we spent the first few days in the Furano-Kamifurano-Biei area which is near to the immense Daisetsuzan National Park 大雪山国立公園. Aside from visiting flower farms and eating…
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