Food of Hokkaido

When I travel, I try to spend less money on souvenirs and more money on food. Why? Because I like food. For you Japanese-studiers, I have been called a 食いしん坊. Not sure how negative the nuance is, but my dictionary says, 'big eater', so I can't really disagree.

My Sapporo food-highlights are:

Genghis-Khan - Lamb and vegetables cooked yakiniku-style. Goes great with beer. Apparently it's named after some Mongolian.

Hairy Crab - or kegani, was my favorite. I was expecting the hairs to be prickly, but they were very soft.


Miso Ramen - People don't eat much ramen in Okinawa, so I took the opportunity to eat a lot of it while I was here.

Fish Sex Organs - or tachi-pon, is...fish sex organs (白子) in a ponzu sauce.


Oysters - I had oysters once in high school and hated them. Then we ordered huge grilled ones, and they were excellent.

Ika-somen - or raw squid cut up in noodle-like strips. This was served with a whole squid next to it. The waiter asked how we wanted it prepared, and that was when we noticed that it was still alive because the tentacles were moving. We went with tempura.