Bi.ble, Biei, Hokkaido

Tags

bakery, bi.ble, biei, fine dining, fresh produce, furano, Hokkaido, hokkaido fine dining, japan, mille feuille, restaurant review, venison

The last two times I was in Hokkaido in summer for the flower farms I never bothered to look up good restaurants, preferring instead to subsist on combini food. However this time, my sister insisted. So with much difficulty I managed to source and reserve a proper restaurant. Fit in with our plans well too as it is smack in the middle of nowhere in Biei, not too far from a couple of famous trees (Mild seven trees they’re called).

We headed there early, hoping to have an earlier dinner than intended as we were all done for the day at Furano, about half an hour away. However, the Japanese, being sticklers for proper timing, really only seated us at 6pm sharp. No slippers allowed, one of the older managers told us. Since we were clad in slippers and had no other foot wear he kindly acquiesced to let it go. A relief that’s for sure.

We were seated by the generous windows, facing a field, or a garden of something that has yet to reach its peak. Very serene and zen with all the light wood, natural light and green views.

I’d already preselected the ¥9000++ menu so all we had to do was order our drinks. Not an extensive drink menu so do not expect a cellar full of old world wines and fine sake.

We kicked off the meal with a cheese and onion quiche or tart of some sort. It was tasty, but did not quite blow the mind. At least it was fresh and piping hot from the oven. Always a plus.

Next, a cheese taco cradling a piece of potato. Hokkaido is renown for its agricultural produce, such as corn, potatoes, asparagus, melons; as well as its dairy products, beer and seafood amongst others. So I was very glad to see this creation of crispy cheese and soft potato. It was indeed an appetite stimulant. Not that my appetite needed whetting at all.

Before you dismiss this as just another hunk of bread, let me clarify that this is THE model of a perfect bread. It’s skin is crisp, like the most fragile crackling, and not so thick that one has to alienate himself from fellow diners by tearing a bite off with his teeth, caveman style. The interior is soft and fluffy. Tasty even, with chunks of cooked potato hidden within. It stays warm for a long time, with the help of heated beans hidden in another compartment of the cloth bag.

This platter of spreads were set upon the table alongside the bread. Ratatouille, pork pâté, smoked herring and freshly pickled vegetables. There is no sane person on earth who would hate such a largesse as this. Even if the individual components were average, I would still love the entirety. Just in case you were wondering, I did like everything, but as I’m not fond of smoked fish, that is my exception by default.

Bread with potato alongside the smoked fish, pâté and pickles. My sister, the bread connoisseur, couldn’t get enough of this bread.

Fried zucchini, battered in some very fine panko. They managed to keep the zucchini firm, so it had a pleasant bite to it. It could however, do with a touch more seasoning.

Potato cappuccino. That would mean cream of potato soup served looking like a cappuccino in a cup with cream froth. Potato and cream meld together such that I can’t tell them apart. No wonder we all love mashed potato. It is delicious heartiness in a delicate cup, and we took cue from a neighboring table to inconspicuously float a few pieces of bread in the cup to soak up every last drop.

This threw us off balance. A floret of boiled broccoli. Neither the sauce or crispy brown bits at the side could save this from being convincingly average.

A glimpse of the simple and rustic yet elegant decor.

Salmon next. Skin was crisp, but I wish it were more flaky tender. A shame that it was slightly overdone.

The venison makes an entrance. I was just a little concerned about how very red it looked but kept my peace. The effusive waiter placed it on my plate with a flourish, explaining that the deer was freshly hunted and roasted over charcoal, to their recommended medium rare doneness. It was served with a spoonful of rich jus and grated fresh horseradish.

He proceeded to spoon some potato gratin alongside the venison. I cut into the venison with a degree of trepidation and dipped it into a mixture of sauce and grated horseradish.

It was perfect. The ruby red succulence of the medium rare doneness betrayed no bloodiness oozing out onto the plate. All that was left was just juicy, meltingly tender meat. And what took it above and beyond was the horseradish. What a beautifully balanced and executed dish. Absolutely perfect in every way.

For dessert they brought out this exquisite behemoth of a Mille feuille. A generous helping of patisserie cream peeps out, sandwiched between two slabs of pastry made up of hundreds of layers each. Every buttered layer in the pastry is separate, intact and almost gauze thin. The waiter will ask if you’d like one or two finger width slices of this beauty.

The waiter then duly slices up the Mille feuille and serves it with a quenelle of vanilla ice cream topped with berry syrup. Every element is carried out with precision and finesse and the results are that of a top notch, consummate pastry chef.

Just when we thought we were done, out came a bowl of warm, freshly fried mochi donuts dusted with sugar and kinako powder. Quintessentially Japanese with a western flair. I loved every bite. And thus ended the dinner on a high.

We went back the next day to buy the potato bread and croissants from the bakery. Safe to be said that it did not disappoint. Most of the croissant ended up on my lap. Testament to how extraordinarily flaky and delicate the morsel was.

Ryunabe, Niseko, Hokkaido

Tags

Chinese, dinner, healthy, Hokkaido, hot pot, japan, japanese, niseko, Niseko restaurants, restaurant review

I’m not the biggest fan of hot pot. One has to brave steam, heat, slippery floors and distasteful arrays of unappetizing raw meat with platters of bland looking vegetables upon entering a typical hot pot restaurant. If that wasn’t enough, you’re served with broth that tastes exactly like boiled water and you’re expected to cook the said raw meats and vegetables in this sorry excuse of a broth.

I’ve been to Hai Di Lao, and thankfully had a better experience, what with the waitresses cooking the food for you and you’re given the option of much tastier soups. The meats and Co, however, still have much room for improvement.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised when we stumbled upon this place (ok fine, in all transparency, I stalked friends who were also in Niseko).

The broths offered looked and sounded extraordinary; thick fish soup with Hokkaido milk, fish maw and chicken broth and lastly a seafood and tomato soup base. A far cry from the feeble broths offered elsewhere at other hot pot restaurants that pale to near invisibility when compared to this. Ryunabe is unfortunately also very expensive, so we chose to only focus on the hot pot and ignored the sashimi/alcohol.

The dips and condiments were satisfactory as well, spicy chopped chili, sesame sauce, chopped raw garlic and spring onions. After dithering for a bit between the fish soup and chicken soup we settled on the latter.

Behold!

Just look at that soup! It certainly tastes like proper rich Cantonese soup that is topped up again and again whenever required. I would have been content with just the soup alone.

But then the meats arrived, beautifully marbled and precisely fanned out on pretty plates, each with a little piece of paper containing cooking instructions down to the very second of cooking.

Meats of the highest quality I’ve ever seen in a hot pot place. With the exception of some top notch shabu restaurants of course but I think I would prefer Ryunabe still for its delicious soup bases. Shabu broths tends to consist of either water or a thin subtle broth of dashi, so clearly Ryunabe scores higher in the soup base department.

The non beef items included pork slices, fresh, rosy pink fish, some dumplings and a bowl of beautifully arranged vegetables.

Almost forgot the udon, by which time we were stuffed and could not quite finish it. Even in food comatose mode we could tell the the udon is better than most. Everything on the table was top notch, perhaps the dumplings were average but that’s the only exception.

The waitress topped up our soup at least 5 times, not because it all evaporated and dried out, but because we kept drinking it by the bowlfuls. It was that good.

We sobered up as we got the bill though, but absolutely no regrets, it was a terrific meal. Garlic and all.

They also deliver and set up a hot pot meal for you to enjoy in the comfort of your apartment if you wish. After a long day on the slopes it does sound tempting indeed.

191-22 AZA YAMADA, KUTCHAN-CHO, ABUTA-GUN, HOKKAIDO.

Restaurant Phone : (+81)0136-555-304

Reservation Tel: (+81)0136-555-304 & (+81)090-5953-5168

Kita no Ryoba; Curb market, Sapporo, Japan

Tags

abalone, akami, crab, curb market, donburi, fish market, hokkaido crab, hokkaido melon, ikura, japan, japanese, kita no kyouba, maguro, restaurant, restaurant review, salmon, salmon roe, sapporo, sashimi, scallops, sea urchin, uni, yubari melon

Hokkaido is supposedly famous for fresh seafood, so I headed over to Nijo market in Sapporo first to get a feel of the place. It was a really small market, and not as cheap as I expected. There is still quite a selection of the Hokkaido specialties of crab, scallops, sea urchin and ikura as well as a smattering of restaurants serving up some donburis. I didn’t try any of the restaurants there though, and decided to go to the Curb market instead.

At least the shopkeepers there aren’t as pushy as the ones at Nijo market! Came across this restaurant almost immediately and decided to just go ahead and give it a try. 

Here’s some pictures of the menu:

mmm yes, give me ALL the seafood!!!! *drool*

I ended up coming to this restaurant 2 times during my very short stay in Sapporo. So the pictures here are spread across two meals.

Ordered a giant scallop which came on a mini grill. They don’t grill it for you, you have to watch out for it yourself. At the smaller establishments at Nijo or maybe even at the curb market, you can request it grilled with butter or some other sauce (I had a giant scallop at the Nijo cooked in butter and it was so so good!). The scallop here came out just slightly overcooked. Not bad but not great.

And of course I had to have the sea urchin and ikura donburi. It was so good. However, it could have been better. Indeed it seemed fresh, the restaurant being situated right smack in the middle of a fresh fish market, but the sea urchin lacked the soft creamy texture that I love. This variety is more of the solid type of sea urchin. It would have been perfect if the sea urchin had slightly less form and more smooth texture (we all know that the less-than-firm types of sea urchin just equates to more of that delicious buttery flavor!). I believe that the uni sushi that I get at Daiwa Sushi at the Tsukiji market in Tokyo is way better, and that is comparing apple to apple since the prices are similarly in mid-range.

My cousin had the salmon, scallop, tamago and crab donburi. He doesn’t eat much raw fish (blasphemy!!!) but he enjoyed his dish. The scallops and crab were so naturally sweet. Now we’re talking 😉 Really delicious.

Cousin also ordered some grilled crab and salmon.

The crab was obviously quite plump and delicious but I never was that big a fan of crab. I like it best when its already peeled for me haha ;p

The salmon on the other hand had a lot of bones, my cousin had his job cut out for him picking the meat from the bones. I’d suggest to skip this dish.

I decided to be adventurous and ordered this crab dish:

It is juicy sweet crab meat simmered in some sake in crab shell grilled over a small fire. So basically at the end of the process you get crab meat in a broth made of some sake and the oh-so-sinfully-rich crab brains/guts. It was beautiful *eyes tearing*

but that was before the abalone came along…..

This tasted like heaven on a plate. I expected the abalone to be tough, but it was tender and perfectly cooked. Then it was bathed in this sauce… this gorgeous rich sauce that tasted as if it would be perfect on a steak but still goes well with everything else… somewhat like a mixture of butter and sake and something else. So utterly decadent, divine and just simply lip-smacking good. I was tempted to eat the whole thing by myself instead of sharing. This is the highlight of the entire meal. And to actually overshadow the uni, that’s no small feat.

Here’s a donburi from the second visit. It was mouth-watering and again brings tears of joy to my eyes. How can anything be so utterly beautiful *cries*. There’s sweet crab meat, briny ikura and uni and the clean akami all in one bowl. I love Hokkaido!

Yes, and another helping of that simmered crab meat in kani miso….

Absolutely beautiful isn’t it?

And then….

Yes I went overboard with the abalone. This time it came just a tad too cooked but still darn good nonetheless. That sauce!!!

Ended perfectly with a slice of Yubari melon (please don’t confuse this with Hokkaido melon, Yubari is in a different class). Filled with the sweetest melon juices and none of that tasteless crunch you normally have upon eating the ordinary cantaloupe you find everywhere else.

Check out the picture below, a slice of Yubari melon costs 580 yen whereas on the right, a slice of Hokkaido melon costs 380 yen. And yes there is a difference 😉

THe damage from the first day. Second day was way worse as I got a little too greedy with the abalone.

One of the places you have to visit when you’re in Sapporo. I wish I were there right now ;(

Green tea mochi cream with azuki red beans

Tags

azuki beans, cream, dessert, flutinous rice flour, green tea, green tea cream, green tea ice cream, green tea mochi, green tea mochi ice cream, green tea mochi ice cream with azuki beans, japan, japanese desserts, mochi, red beans

 

 

Truthfully I’m not a great fan of mochi, I do like the Chinese mua zhee (glutinous rice flour cakes tossed in sugar and peanuts) as well as tang yuan (glutinous rice flour balls boiled in a pandan,ginger and sugar syrup), but otherwise mochi and mochi ice cream were never really far up my list of cravings.

These days the trend is mochi ice cream. I never understood it. The mochi is hard and chewy and the ice cream just didn’t seem to go well with it. And then I tried “Mochi sweets” in Kuala Lumpur. Now THIS is good mochi. It isn’t exactly mochi ice cream, its more of a mochi with cream inside I think. They’ve got everything down perfect, from the mochi, to the temperature it has to be consumed, to the ratio of mochi to fillings.

Now I thought I’d try to replicate it, but I still have some ways to go instead of the actual measurements, because I eyeballed the amount of cream and red bean used in each mochi T____T. Pleased with the way the mochi turned out, soft, smooth and chewy and super easy to make. In fact you can just use this mochi recipe and create your own fillings 😉

 

Ingredients

For mochi:

• 1 cup Glutinous rice flour
• 200ml water (room temperature is fine)
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp green tea
• pinch of salt

For the fillings:

• canned azuki beans (You can boil your own red beans in some sugar and water but this is so much more convenient!)
• 2 tbsp sugar (or more if you like the cream to be sweeter)
• 1 1/2 tbsp green tea
• 200ml cream
• pinch of salt

Instructions

• It is advisable to do the fillings first. To prepare the cream , pour the cream into a mixing bowl, add the sugar and green tea and blend with a blender until stiff peaks form.

 

• Using a teaspoon, place some cream onto the centres of small squares of cling wrap. Twist the loose ends so you’ll end up with this:-

 

 

• The whole point is to create balls of cream and place them in the freezer. It is so much easier to handle frozen cream as it doesn’t ooze out of the mochi as easily. So into the freezer it goes for about an hour or until it has completely hardened up.
• Next, place the azuki beans in a blender and add the salt

 

• Blend into a chunky paste. If you’d like the paste to be smoother then just blend it a little longer. Set aside until you’re ready to make your mochi.

• Now to proceed to the mochi. Place the flour, green tea and sugar into a bowl and mix to combine
• Add water slowly, and stir into the flour using a rubber spatula

 

• Make sure that there are no lumps in the mixture

 

• Cover the bowl loosely (don’t cover it completely!) with some cling wrap.
• Microwave the mixture for 1 minute at 1000watt. Remove the bowl from the microwave and stir the mixture before covering the bowl (loosely) again with the cling wrap and microwaving it for another 1 minute at 1000 watt.
• You should get the following end result:

• Prepare a tray and dust it with potato starch.
• Scrape the mochi mixture onto the potato starch and sprinkle more potato starch on top of the mochi

 

• Remember to put enough potato starch on the surface so it doesn’t stick to your hands. Flatten the mochi down and cut into 12 equal pieces.

 

• Take one piece of mochi and cover the rest with cling wrap to keep it from going dry
• Here’s where you can experiment with the proportions! Once you’ve pulled the mochi to your desired thickness, brush off the excess flour from the mochi, otherwise it’s going to be pretty hard getting it to stick and close up after adding the filling later on.
• Add a dollop of red bean paste to the mochi and top with a chunk of frozen cream. Add more red bean paste on top and close up the mochi, making sure none of the red bean and cream spills out. Then you can gently pat the mochi into shape with the help of some potato starch. Place the mochi into the freezer.
• Repeat with the other pieces of mochi.
• The below method of placing the filling in the middle of a round circle and attempting to close it up from there was pretty messy! I preferred pressing the mochi out into a longer strip, and placing the red bean and cream on one end and I’d fold the other end on top and seal the edges that way before arranging it into a round shape.

 

• Before serving, remove the mochi from the freezer to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. This allows the mochi to get back into a soft and chewy, rather than a rubbery texture, while still allowing for the cream to be somewhat like an ice cream. If you prefer it as a cream then just leave it for 20-25 minutes or so 😉

 

Serve alongside the extra red bean paste.

Daiwa Sushi 大和寿司

Tags

akami, anago, breakfast, brunch, chutoro, daiwa, daiwa sushi, fish, fish market, food, hamachi, hirame, japan, japanese sushi breakfast, maguro, miso soup, otoro, restaurant review, sea urchin, sushi, tsukiji, tsukiji fish market, tuna, uni

Tsukiji Fish Market (築地市場)

When it comes to sushi at Tsukiji Fish Market, two places immediately come to mind: Sushi Dai and Daiwa Sushi. Personally I never tried Sushi Dai, I’ve only gone to Daiwa sushi. And I’m so well satisfied I can’t imagine another place topping it. I should also think that they are similar in quality and standards according to some of the comments on the web.

The queues are always long at both in any case. The very morning I landed in Tokyo (around 6 am) I immediately dropped my bags and headed to Tsukijishijō Station (築地市場駅, tsukiji shijō eki) and meandered my way through forklifts, grumpy ojisans and the overwhelming smell of fish which, by the way, you can smell even in the station as it is right next to the fish market.

Finally got to Daiwa Sushi at 9am (just look for super long queues and the signboard). I was in line for 20 minutes, which was not too long of a wait as it is easier to seat one person compared to two people.

The fish market is probably one of those places in Japan where you do not get much politeness and you may get yelled at or pushed if you’re in the way. Don’t be surprised by it.

This is the “menu”, their set is pretty value for money as well. For 3,500 yen you get 7 nigiri sushi, one rolled sushi and miso soup. Good stuff. That day I went for a la carte and the bill came up to 5,400 yen but its all worth it.

Its a tight squeeze in there, barely enough room to squeeze through to sit even.

This is just some of the fresh offerings that they had that day. Oh by the way, I went to Daiwa twice during my stay XD it was that good.

Friendly chefs.

I was worried the grumpy obasan would not allow us to take photos at all, the last time we came and took out a camera or a phone to take pictures, she was like “NO NO CAMERA” -___- I was so upset then. But this time around I think they’ve completely relaxed that rule. People around me were taking pictures to their hearts content!

And so I started to order:

Akami (the leanest part of the tuna) and Tai. Large slabs of fresh, fresh fish, perfectly marinated with soy sauce and a dab of wasabi. You don’t actually need to pour more soy sauce into the little saucer. As a maguro lover, I absolutely loved the temperature, texture, and taste of their maguro. The sushi rice is of the sticky short grained variety that Japanese rice is expected of. Delicious. I rarely order tai (red snapper) but I thought I’d try it this time. The way that they slice the fish is also different. Did you realize that on the maguro you do not see any sinew? Compare this to a usual sushi joint, a maguro slice would probably consists of 4-5 bits of tuna joined together by sinew. Maguro without sinew like this one just melts in your mouth and you’re allowed to concentrate on the full flavour of the lean tuna. Whereas on the tai, the skin is left on and is cut in such a way so that you enjoy the taste and texture of this variety of fish. It was sweet and the best tai I’ve ever had.

A generous bowl of miso soup that comes with your meal, made with seaweed, little clams and lots of spring onions ❤

Next up, chutoro (semi fat tuna) and hirame (flounder).

Chutoro again, well sliced without sinew and laced with fat to make it richer than the akami, but not as buttery as the otoro. Still melts in your mouth XD Nice and thick slice there to satisfy my maguro craze. The hirame has more of a chewy texture which releases a subtly sweet flavor. Spend a little bit of time to chew on this so as to fully appreciate the taste of this. Would suggest to eat this first before heavier tasting fish like aji or maguro.

I forgot to mention, all of the fish come at room temperature, which is the perfect temperature (to me that is) to experience their natural flavours.

Then two orders of uni!! I had a little problem with this…. it was so tall and packed with uni that I couldn’t fit it into my mouth. I tried to take a bite out of it but the uni spilt out onto my hands T___T Then I learnt my lesson, please put the sushi into your mouth, uni side first, then stuff the rest of it in. Its a good problem to have =)

The uni was fresh obviously, and had no fishy smell. Just creamy, briny, meltingly amazing dollops of golden roe.

Then came the hamachi (Japanese amberjack), with a bit of its skin, and beautiful pink flesh. I had this fish fresh from the sea when I was at the Maldives and its flesh is indeed beautifully pink. Its taste is a little stronger than the other white fish I had, and is fatty too.

The next picture shows anago sushi (from my second breakfast at Daiwa…you didn’t think I could eat that much in one sitting did you? =p) which was nicely broiled and glazed with that sweet sauce. Really well done. 

And here’s another photo of chutoro and akami, as I forgot to take a picture of the otoro, which was mind blowingly good. Absolutely buttery and melt in your mouth.

I need to go back soon. When I think of all the expensive restaurants I’ve been to in comparison to this sushi place at a smelly fish market? There is no comparison if you want to put value and quality together, Daiwa sushi wins hands down for me.

If you’re looking for a Japanese sushi breakfast, please do consider this place. Try not to come too late as I’m not sure when they will run out of fresh fish as they did once some years back at 11am!

Daiwa Sushi. 03-3547-6807. Tsukiji / Sushi. Tsukiji-Shijo 5-2-1 #6.

Closed on Sundays and National holidays (and some Wednesdays)

Opening Hours: 5.30am – 1.30pm