The capital of the wild northern island of Hokkaido, Sapporo feels like Japan’s “last frontier”, said Alex Halberstadt in Condé Nast Traveller, a place where “everyone is from somewhere else” and a newcomer can “cast off the shackles of their past and reinvent themselves”.
The city’s fabric is overwhelmingly modern and “prosaic”, and its people are chattier, more open and less bound by tradition than in, say, Osaka or Kyoto. Nowhere is this difference more evident than in its food scene, the “strangest and most fascinating” in the country.
Hokkaido’s “unspoilt” valleys and cold waters yield fabulously “flavourful” ingredients, and though Sapporo’s restaurants can’t reach the “culinary heights” of Kyoto’s “hushed kaiseki pavilions”, they are often “much more fun”, making the city worth a visit for gastronomic thrills alone.
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At Cucina Italiana Magari, for instance, the food did not strike me as very Italian, but it was “delectable” even so. I loved the creamy soup (like a New England clam chowder) “loaded” with mantis shrimp, milt (cod sperm sac) and fugu (the potentially lethal blowfish you need a licence to prepare).
Also unmissable is Noa Hakobune (Noah’s Ark), for its chargrilled seafood and its weird building (designed by the British architect Nigel Coates), decorated with biblical murals. Sapporo is also known for its “hearty” street food, including ramen, which is best sampled at Menya Saimi, a restaurant reminiscent of a “school canteen”. Its noodle soup is “stunning”.
It’s worth visiting the hot springs at nearby Jozankei, where one secluded inn, Kasho Gyoen, offers in-room onsen baths and good Italian food (done straight).
The Sapporo region has Japan’s “most exciting wine scene” – but the city is also famed for its ice cream. At Gyokusuien, it is plain and buttery, and served with green tea. At Tempura Masa, it has the dense, smooth texture of ripe mango. And at Nanakamado, you can get a two-foot-high sundae called a shime parfait, with 20 elements, from rhubarb sorbet to bamboo-charcoal-flavoured mascarpone.
