Hokkaido is not just about crabs and snow, its eight great delicacies are actually...
When you think of Hokkaido in winter, you think of snow and crabs, but there is more to Hokkaido than snow, and Hokkaido cuisine is certainly more than just crabs. As the only prefecture among the 47 prefectures, located at the northernmost tip of the Japanese archipelago, it always gives people a different impression from other regions in Japan, and this uniqueness is particularly evident in terms of food.Most of Hokkaido was once inhabited by Ainu people, who historically made their living by fishing for salmon and trout, hunting deer and seals, and cultivating grains. Their inherent food culture has been passed down for hundreds of years and has become the foundation of Hokkaido's food culture. Later, with the reclamation of land and the migration of population, food cultures from all over Japan were also integrated. After the Meiji era, Western food culture was absorbed to form the colorful and unique Hokkaido cuisine. The Spring Festival holiday has just passed. Have you traveled to Hokkaido? Shitiejun has summarized this Hokkaido food guide. If you go there next time, you can refer to this article to eat!
Ingredients for Hokkaido cuisine
Hokkaido is dominated by large-scale dryland farming and dairy farming, and is also rich in aquatic resources.
Beans, vegetables, dairy products, herring, salmon, cod, crab, squid, kelp and other aquatic products caught in the near sea, as well as processed aquatic products such as salted salmon roe, salted cod roe, herring roe, and salted salmon have become the main components of Hokkaido cuisine.
Hokkaido has many famous products, including kelp, salmon, cod, far eastern mackerel, sea urchin, scallop, northern clams, hairy crab, flower crab, cod crab, salted salmon roe, potatoes, corn, rice, wheat, etc. Of course, milk produced in Hokkaido is also quite famous throughout Japan.
Hokkaido cuisine is based on these rich products, combined with the unique climate and geographical conditions of the local area, forming its unique "northern style".
Eight special dishes of Hokkaido
1. Sea urchin rice bowl
Even though sea urchins can be caught all over Japan, when it comes to sea urchins, most Japanese people think of Hokkaido first. Although sea urchins are omnivorous invertebrates, their favorite food is seaweed, especially kelp. Hokkaido produces high-quality kelp, and the sea urchins cultivated in it are also particularly delicious. Famous kelp producing areas such as Rausu, Rishiri, Hidaka, Shakotan, and Eyama are also famous for producing sea urchins.
The main sea urchin species in Hokkaido are the Ezo sea urchin (Ezo is the ancient name of Hokkaido) and the purple sea urchin. In the markets of Hokkaido, you can even see saltwater sea urchins that are only pickled in salt water, without any extra seasoning, so you can taste the flavor of the sea urchin itself.
However, the most classic sea urchin dish is sea urchin rice bowl.
This rice bowl is actually very simple to make. It does not require cooking like the usual pork chop rice bowl, beef rice bowl or oyako rice bowl. Just spread the fresh sea urchin on the rice and it is ready. The temperature of the rice is best to be warm, which can best stimulate the sweetness of the sea urchin.
Usually it is seasoned with a little soy sauce or wasabi, but of course, it would be better to have more ingredients.
2. Butter potatoes
Hokkaido is the main potato producing area in Japan, and it is also a major butter production base. Combining the two makes a delicacy - butter potatoes. Although it is just putting butter on potatoes, it has a simple taste. In many areas of Hokkaido, people will boil water in a large pot, cook a large number of potatoes at one time, and then eat them with butter as a simple lunch.
Even though this simple snack can be found at night markets all over Japan, it is very different in Hokkaido because the potatoes and butter produced in Hokkaido are of particularly high quality.
In fact, when the first butter production began in Hokkaido in the 5th year of the Meiji era, the Japanese were not used to the strong taste. Later, with the gradual penetration of Western food culture, butter really penetrated into the lives of the people, and butter also became an important product of Hokkaido.
3. Frozen squid
Like frozen pears and frozen tofu in Northeast China, the colder the place, the more people like cold food. Frozen squid is written in Japanese as "いかゴロルイベ", "いか" means squid, "ゴロ" refers to the squid's internal organs, and "ルイベ" is the Ainu language, which usually refers to a kind of food that is eaten before the salmon or trout is completely thawed after being directly frozen.
When eating frozen squid, its cold taste is a major factor. When you put it in your mouth, you first feel the cold stimulation, followed by the thick and sweet squid meat, and finally the mellow and delicate internal organs. The taste of the ingredients is concentrated due to freezing, and the flavor is particularly strong. It can be seasoned with a small amount of soy sauce or wasabi, and the spicy Japanese sake is better if it is paired with wine.
4. Squid somen
Next, let me introduce a squid dish. Japanese squid usually include mud squid, calamari, ink squid, sword squid, firefly squid and northern squid (all mollusks in the order Decapoda are collectively referred to as squid in Japan), and more than 70% of the edible squid is northern squid (Surumika).
A major production area of northern squid is the waters off Hokkaido, so there are many squid dishes in Hokkaido, including sashimi, grilled, dried, boiled, etc., with a variety of cooking methods.
Somen is a dish that Japanese people particularly like in summer. The noodles are white and much thinner than udon noodles. They are similar to Chinese dried noodles. They are usually eaten cold and paired with simple sauces, which is particularly refreshing. However, the method of eating squid meat cut into thin strips instead of noodles can be said to be unique to Hokkaido. The method of eating is still the same as ordinary somen, but the taste is more like sashimi, so you can enjoy two pleasures at the same time.
5. Matsumae pickles
It is named after the Matsumae Domain (now Matsumae Town) in the western part of Hokkaido's Oshima Peninsula. It is made by cutting dried squid and kelp into thin strips, adding dried herring roe, and pickling with soy sauce and sake. Although it is a pickled food, it has a sense of luxury and is often used as a New Year's dish in areas outside Hokkaido.
The mucus in the kelp blends well with the soy sauce and wine, forming a sticky texture. Combined with the sweetness of the dried squid and the richness of the dried herring roe, the flavor is very rich and it is a good dish to go with wine or rice. This dish is actually not complicated to make. The key point is that the dried squid and dried kelp are used directly in a dry state, while the dried herring roe needs to be properly desalted.
6. Sashimi Ice Head
This dish is written as "氷頭なます" in Japanese. Many people don't know what it is just by seeing this name. In fact, 氷頭 (氷頭) is the cartilage from the nose to the eyes of the salmon. It has a unique crunchy texture when chewed, and it is as clear as ice when cut into thin slices, hence the name.
Only a small amount of salmon can be obtained from a salmon, so it is also a very precious ingredient. In addition to Hokkaido, it can also be eaten in coastal areas of Aomori Prefecture, Niigata Prefecture, Iwate Prefecture, etc. where salmon are caught in large quantities. In addition to being used to make sashimi, it is also delicious when coated with pig bud starch and fried.
7. Budai fish soup
If you go to a supermarket or market in Hokkaido in winter, you may see a fat, silly fish, usually black or gray with black stripes, and some larger ones look like pufferfish or anglerfish. This is the Budai fish, named after its resemblance to Budai, one of the Seven Lucky Gods. It is a seasonal delicacy in Hokkaido in winter, and is most common in fisherman's cuisine and home cooking in the southern Oshima Peninsula of Hokkaido.
They usually live at depths of 100 to 150 meters, but during the spawning season from December to March of the following year, they come to the shallow sea, which is a good time to catch them. Their skin is covered with a thick layer of collagen, and has a similar taste to that of anglerfish, but it is less known to outsiders than anglerfish. Budai fish soup is usually seasoned with soy sauce, and the soup base is kelp juice, cooked with green onions, tofu, seaweed, etc. The taste is not too greasy, and you can drink bowl after bowl in the cold winter.
8. Hokkaido Ramen
In the vast Hokkaido, each place has its own unique ramen style, represented by Sapporo's miso ramen, Hakodate's salt ramen, Asahikawa's soy sauce ramen, and then to Kushiro, Kamikawa and other places.
With Hokkaido's rich products as the background, these ramen noodles make full use of local ingredients. For example, in the waters north of Hokkaido, there are a lot of whiting crabs, so in the coastal areas of the ramen, you may see a huge whiting crab leg lying across the bowl.
By walking around different areas of Hokkaido and tasting ramen of different flavors, you can draw a map of Hokkaido's products.
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