Beer,  Food,  Sapporo,  Yakitori

the yakitori sendoff from sapporo

this post is a little overdue as well.  about two weeks ago, our travel companions and fellow powder hounds from new zealand and vancouver were packing up their bags to return to their homes and careers.  both of which haha and myself no longer have and will be searching for when we return lol

for our last night in sapporo together we opted for kushidori, a japanese yakitori chain.  the ordering process is simple… lots of pictures with accompanying english descriptions.  jp, always being our voice of reason this trip when it comes to ordering reasonable quantities*, suggests we start with 8 of each ‘staple’ skewer.  his pick are the pork cheek skewers.  nick is about 99% muscle mass so it’s not surprising that he agrees.  the waiter runs downstairs in the middle of our order and upon returning, he informs us that they only have 5 more of the pork cheeks left… a little dejected, we graciously accept his offer.  we then go on to order 4 of everything and opt for more variety.

daikon salad, cause we’re responsible diners
miso_rolled_pork1
miso rolled pork. wow. just wow.
sweet green peppers & bacon wrapped mochi (rice cake)
ooey gooey mochi. this is what love looks like
liver/tongue & chicken skin. another home run
minced chicken w/ jalapenos
mmmm glistening, shiny pork cheeks. never has my brain and heart disagreed so much about eating one thing. jp’s ordering skills are on point*
gochisosama deshita!

we leave kushidori with full stomaches and flush faces and walk two blocks to the north island beer bar, one of the few craft beer establishments in sapporo.  i’ve read that they brew their own beers of many varieties including pilsners, stouts and my fav, ipas.  we walk up a tiny staircase and find our way inside the small bar.  the bartender ushers us upstairs and we make ourselves comfortable on their vancouver condo-size furniture.

beer & food menu
the cozy confines of north island beer bar

very reasonable prices for their whole menu without any cover charge to boot.  within minutes she comes upstairs with our brews and from the first sip, it tastes like home.

our happy little beer family

i’ll be the first to admit that sapporos taste better after a powder day but i’ve come to realize how spoiled us pac-northwesterners are.  thank the good lord for providing us with hipsters who brew awesome beer!  as always, the japanese have expanded outside of their specialities to master yet another domain.  their ipa was almost fat tug-like; hoppy and bitter.  their stout was smooth, chocolate-like but not quite full bodied.  i’m not much of a pilsner drinker but i really like theirs; crisp and it had a little bit of a hoppy bite to it. we call it an early night and as we’re waiting for our bill to come, we peek outside and notice that 5-10cm of snow has fallen since we’ve been inside which made for an awesome stumble home across the bridge!  come to think of it, we would’ve cabbed it home had it not been for the snow.  instead we got to witness nick’s phallus drawing expertise on infinite snow canvases 😀

nelson muntz: haha!

being the responsible travelers we are (or the organized person that haha is), we booked three taxis to shuttle all our luggage to the jr station in the morning.  we wake up to about 15cm of new snow overnight and after waiting for the locals to shovel out the sidewalks, we lug our mountain of luggage downstairs to wait for the taxis.  and wait.  and wait.  and then one taxi pulls up and apologizes profusely for getting lost, so we wait for his two companions to show up.  what happened next took me a while to comprehend.  i’ve never known any japanese person to be inefficient but these three drivers were hell bent on fitting four fully packed board bags into one taxi.  we did have an issue because none of their back seats folded down but man, they played luggage tetris for a good 20 minutes while we watched countless taxis drive by!  we would’ve been more than happy to pay for the extra taxi but i have to assume that they pride themselves on their problem solving techniques.  i don’t actually remember how they managed to get it to fit as i was freezing and took cover inside one of the cabs.

how many taxi drivers does it take to…

good times and great memories!  looking forward to doing this again guys!

 

*jp’s most used quote this trip was “i’m really regretting my eating decisions”

Leave a Reply