Food we had in Hokkaido

It was a very interesting journey to the Land of the Rising Sun. We landed in Narita early in the morning after a comfortable flight on Malaysian Airlines. At the immigration counter we had our passports checked and prints of our forefingers taken. This is a good move as no two people's finger prints are identical. Our Malaysian government should do this at all entry points into Malaysia. This way it can keep track of the people from neighbouring countries who come in, commit crime and go out, only to return using other passports. When their fingerprints are kept in a database and on their subsequent entries into our country, their prints can be compared and they can be remanded for entering on different passports. I'm sure this will also be a deterrent to those who come in with dishonest intentions.

During our visit we visited the wet market in Hakodate in Hokkaido. I was surprised to see the size of the crabs and scallops in the water tanks. There were different species of crabs as well.

Most of the seafood was either grilled or steamed and it was very very fresh and tasty.

I had my first taste of a grilled scallop. It was a large one and it was piping hot when we ate it. Very delicious it was and very sweet too, not sugar sweetness but the sweetness of the fresh scallop.

Most of the food we had was arranged by our tour guide. There was usually a soup, rice, grilled fish, tempura, steamed egg with mushrooms or a buffet where we could select what we wanted, such as the different kinds of sushi and ramen. I liked the rice cooked with scallop as it tasted as good as its aroma. Small round orange balls which I later found out were fish eggs ( what kind, I dont know, as our tour guide spoke no English and I do not understand Mandarin ) tasted like bubbles bursting in your mouth, slightly saltish.

However, a lot of food was strange to me and there was no English translation to help. Vegetables were familiar as we also have the same type in Malaysia. It was the cooked or pickled stuff that was totally alien and being unadventurous, I left them untried. My loss, but I did feel squeamish looking at some of them. The style of cooking was totally different.

One lunch was good as we each had scallop cooked in its shell, a whole soft succulent abalone also in its shell, a steamed whole crab shared by four persons, miso soup with crab, and rice flavored by some dessicated crab meat. The ramen which we had for dinner one evening was an experience unequalled at home. I don't know what they added into the soup to make it so tasty and there were some condiments which we had the option of adding to the ramen. Chili flakes also made a difference. The Japanese do not eat chili the way we do at home, sliced or pickled in vinegar or pounded with belacan. Only some places offer chili flakes and these can be added to ramen or miso soup.

However, I noted that such lunch or dinner did not come with any dessert. The only dessert we had were those offered in a buffet and it was usually pineapple, orange and grapefruit. There was also canned fruit cocktail.

Breakfast was provided in the hotels we stayed at and they were usually buffet style, with lots of variety, Asian and Western. Boiled white tofu is obviously a staple as it was present in every breakfast. Eggs were done omelette style or half boiled. Soft rolls, bread slices and croissants with butter and either strawberry or blueberry jam were always available as was cereal ( only one type ) and milk. Yoghurt was also there for the taking and there was a choice of tomato or orange juice. We could also have coffee, tea, green tea and water. There were dumplings, both vegetarian and meat dumplings, something like our dim sum. Porridge with its accompanying condiments and rice too were available.

All in all, it was an interesting eating experience for me as I rarely partake of Japanese food in Malaysia.