Japanese Cooking Blog with Asako Nonaka #6
Asako Nonaka ◆ May 30, 2015

Hi! I’m Asako. How are you doing? I had had a short trip to Hokkaido last weekend. There were 2 reasons to go there that I had wanted to do while I was in NY. Do you know what they are?
They are “eating delicious sushi” and “going to a hot spring”! Actually there are some great sushi restaurants in NY but it’s rare for me to go there because it’s very expensive as far as I know. I couldn’t find a hot spring around New York City so I missed it for a long time. If you know a great spot for a sushi restaurant and a hot spring around NY, please let me know!
We flew to Sapporo on Saturday morning. It took only 1 and a half hours by plane. The weather was chilly and cloudy unfortunately. Then we went to see the morning fish market in Nijuuyonken station. My 4-year-old son was so excited to see the many living crabs in the water tank. We went to a sushi restaurant in the fish market and ordered the chef’s recommended sushi set. “Neta” (we call the sushi fish like this) were very fresh because it came from the market. I like “toro” which is fatty tuna from the belly section and that was so great. The cold toro melted in my mouth and the umami flavor spread in my mouth… I still remember the delicious taste. “Uni” (a sea urchin) is so different from the one I eat usually; there is no odor, and it changes from solid to liquid when it mixes with rice in the mouth. The taste has good saltiness. I think we can eat them only in Hokkaido, not in New York or Tokyo.

In the evening we went to the Susukino area that has a lot of bar restaurants in Sapporo and had delicious delicacies from the sea like sashimi and crab. Then we went to the popular ramen restaurant named “Ichigen”. Eating ramen was one of my husband’s pleasures on this trip. The taste of ramen was great and I had never eaten that before. It uses soup made from shrimp and pork belly and the bone. The savory smell of shrimp made us hungry before eating it. Once we ate the soup, the sweet, salt and umami flavor of shrimp spread in the mouth and we can imagine the shrimp even it doesn’t exist there. The noodle and the soup have a good balance to eat.


The next day we went to Jozankei which is called “Ozashiki” (a Japanese-style room) in Sapporo. It took one hour by bus from Sapporo station and we could see the beautiful scenery of mountains and river. There was a tasteful hot spring resort. We chose one of the hot spring baths and my desire was fulfilled there. I soaked in the hot spring and I felt my body and mind get loose and I realized I had come back to Japan. There was also an open-air bath and it was great to see the beautiful scenery and feel the fresh air!
This time I am going to introduce the salad using crab associated with Hokkaido. It takes only 10 minutes to make it using a can of crab.
Recipe: Crab and Potherb Mustard Salad
Ingredients
[one_half](salad)
1 bunch of potherb mustard
half an onion
5 cherry tomatoes
1 can of crab
white sesame[/one_half][one_half_last](dressing)
crab juice
1 tsp of lemon juice
2 tbsp of rice vinegar
1 tsp of soy sauce
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of sugar[/one_half_last]
Directions
1. Slice the onion and soak them in water.
2. Cut the potherb mustard into a bite-size.
3. Separate the crab into the juice and meat.
4. Make a dressing to mix the crab juice, lemon water, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and salt.
5. Dish the potherb mustard, onion, and the crab meat and add the dressing and white sesame.
It is a lightly seasoned salad and good on a hot day. Feel free to try it!