5 Must Try Japanese Winter Foods | Hokkaido Road Trip ⛩

which place has the best food in all of japan well if you would have put a gun to my head don't actually do it bloody hell you would have put a gun to my head and ask the answer would be hokkaido right here has the best food in japan and i want to go there right now and eat it all and i want to do it with the two people that made me a super hit song top 14 itunes here natsuki and joseph this trip will be a thank you to them both and also because i owe them the money from the song but how much did our chart topping itunes single make and what are the top five dishes in hokkaido well it's time to reveal all as we wrap up warm and go on one last epic journey of 2021 stop doing that i'll give you the money [Music] a lot of people say i don't get up in the morning early enough and that i'm lazy well i am up in the morning because look it's 11 54. the proof is right there sapro tower i'm not lazy still the morning good morning guys and welcome to safaree we're in adori park right now this is the park where they have the snow festival every february and we're about to begin a three-day road trip across hokkaido we're gonna taste some delicious food and we're gonna see some beautiful scenery and maybe kill natsuki and jerry along the way as well and one of them is actually waiting for us the top of zapro tower who could it be let's find out it's joey isn't it it's definitely jeff well hello there mr animation man hello christopher broad we saw you from down the ground waving oh really it was quite a powerful moment the highlight of the year seeing jerry wade from 100 meter tower what do you think though your first time in separate right it is my first time in sunflower i've been to hopkinton about three or four times right but i've never actually stayed in sao paulo and explored it fantastic and of course most of this video won't be in sapporo until so great oh joey his dreams of exploring sapporo ripped up in tatters already still maybe natsuki can cheer him up as we go down to meet him in the streets below and grab our first dish of the trip the much needed lunch welcome to zaparanaski and he's he's already got his cigarette yes third time together he's isn't it yeah we've asked and i've made three videos here we're always together in sapporo but we are leaving sapporo shortlist what do you want to do for lunch first natsuki fantastic food fantastic yeah well there is a seafood market nijo market one of the most famous markets in hokkaido is just up here fish market do you want some fish i don't like freezing brilliant well we go in there anyway so you've got no choice and so in search of our first dish we see graffiti from the cold in the absolute labyrinth that is need your market it's our first time inside the market and it's not long before some delicious looking plastic food entices us into a restaurant these are amazing these are fake foods right but they from a distance even up close actually these are the most realistic food samples i've ever seen why why me because we're friends oh yeah you never buy me lunch of course if it was ryotaro he'd buy me lunch congratulations natsuki congratulations real authentic hokkaido seafood we've got uh scallops covered in butter it's the biggest scalp i've ever seen in my life it's huge isn't it it smells incredible what have you got fresh chipotle free hot cake fresh paratha fresh paradise and tuna crab wasabi mmm beautiful lemon so usually with this kaisendom this sort of tuna seafood bowl you put the soy sauce over the fish over the top right so you should pour it by that soy sauce although surely you put the this yeah yeah put that you're gonna put the whole thing in jesus you got some soy sauce give me give me sauce give me sauce that's that's his new song that he's just made up [Music] we have to we have to ride that today we're going to stay in a log cabin welcome go grab it the log cabin dance look no rock come here rock cab [Music] after our somewhat disorientating lunch comprised of seafood and karaoke we hit the road and leave sapporo behind as we drive two hours south to lake toya to the warmth of our cozy rock cabin for what might seem like a relatively peaceful and picturesque setting lake toya harbors a dark secret the entire lake lies in the shadow of mount usu an active stratovolcano which had a major eruption in 1977 causing the locals to abandon their homes around the shores of the lake one such reminder of the destruction is this huge collapsed hospital ominously left to quietly decay over the last 40 years and serve as a warning to future generations wow that's pretty damn cool i feel like if i just shout loud enough the whole thing will just come crumbling skyrim in the skyrim it's faster or dark so on august 7th 1977 the volcano behind this building mount usual actually erupted and many buildings along the lake were abandoned and people had to kind of flee really quickly fortunately the 230 patients in this hospital were able to be evacuated and there were no casualties and nobody uh lost their lives i mean just look at that it's credible when you look at it and you think that people got out there alive given that the building itself is completely and utterly just collapsed like this is a two-story building the first story is gone buried but at least it's uh it's a success story about an evacuation that went pretty damn well the top google review for this place says shock experience with your eye can see the real stuff have to drive there by yourself and that's not a translation that's just something somebody's wrote having taken in a shock experience with our eye we're all freezing to death unfortunately here on the shores of lake toya we find a restaurant serving up the quintessential hokkaido winter dish so one of the dishes you need to get when you come to hokkaido is soup curry sure food it's very famous when i think of hokkaido steep curry is one of the first things that springs to mind you really can't get it anywhere else in japan apart from a few specialist shops i found one place in tokyo one place yeah that's it this is the real deal the real deal had soup curry probably like three or four times whenever i come to hokkaido but this is the most picturesque beautiful looking soup car i've ever seen so what did you get jerry i got the 12 vegetables level three spice level three there's what 20 levels 20 levels of spice uh i got level two because i'm a [ __ ] he doesn't like spicy yeah childhood my sweet three yeah but it does go up to 20 if you want to die yeah after level five they put habanero in it so god knows what level 20 is i think it's just mustard gas they put in that oh my god i got the chicken curry with the extra side of cheese and bacon nice thick cuts of bacon there what did you get natsuki my choice chicken and the extra sausage extra sausage with a bone in it oh bone tag yeah bone sausage i was born [Music] all right let's go that's spicy oh that is spicy and that's cute i got level two unless that's spicy level three has a kick to it okay oh level two's being like slapped in the face really nicely yeah really nice it's just the right thickness right but like a gravy sauce almost the soup curry is a relatively recent dish it started in the 1970s a cafe in sapporo came up with it like your standard japanese curry the rice is sort of kept separate you're supposed to take a scoop of the rice dip it in the curry and they use seasonal vegetables around hokkaido it's a very colorful dish i think that's what's so nice in winter right when the outside is all dead and all the leaves of trees are dead and coming into snow it's nice to have a colorful warm dish to keep you going it's easy to see why it's become so popular and so ubiquitous throughout the island of hokkaido one to 10 j 10. he always has to go one or higher than the scale what if we were to change the scale to 1 to 11 would he still go up a level 1 to 11 [Music] at last we've cracked the secret to natsuki's food reviewing technique and what better way to celebrate than checking in at last into our warm cozy and dare i say reasonably priced log cabin okay guys we've just arrived in front of the log house yay we can't really see anything there's just like an inconspicuous like door and a shovel for the snow and it's very cold you can see the stars because we're in the middle of nowhere yeah middle of nowhere yeah ready going in my house i hope not asking i hope not all right yet my hands are so cold i can't turn the dial [ __ ] it out all right here we go oh technology country [Music] getting greedy now that you're getting greedy it's a surprisingly spacious log cabin set across two floors with a big double bed for joey a private bedroom for myself and even a special room just for natsuki oh nice house for you you can sleep in there like a dog room like a dog room so how much do you think this place was one night you [ __ ] it you're mine ichiman 120 85 pounds it's very good value for money everybody [ __ ] each money thing crazy [Music] [Music] there are a few landscapes in hokkaido more visually striking than the jiggle kudani valley literally hells valley with streams of sulfur and plumes of hot steam spilling out onto the earth's surface but not to waste all of that hot water the locals built the town of nabori betsu one of japan's best loved hot spring towns right on top of it it's just one hour east of lake toyo and today i've used the savings from last night's cheap log cabin to book us a room at one of the town's top traditional inns complete with our very own private hot spring but first things first we need to find ourselves some food and wander down into hell's valley and natsuki and joey have dressed up like the demons that are said to guard over the town although personally i find natsuki's interpretation far more frightening than the actual demons themselves i'm mime table red port table let let her let her devil laugh that really does look like hell it's like something you'd see on mars so this is the jiggle kadani hells valley 24 acres created by an eruption 20 000 years ago although this is hell it's actually rather beautiful but it's really an assault on the senses it's got this sort of metallic taste in the air because the air is filled with that sulfuric gas it's pumping out you've got the sound of the spring you've got the sound of the steam pumping out it really is a beautiful place and if it wasn't for this seismic hellish landscape that wouldn't be the wonderful hot spring town of the borivetsu so i highly recommend coming here and check it out there's nowhere else in japan quite like it well there's a few others but this is the best just as the weather takes a turn for the worse we seek shelter inside a ramen shop serving up authentic hokkaido miso ramen our third dish of the trip [Music] we just ordered or namin and naski and joe have already got beer so that's great i can't drink because i'm driving of course but uh look at this beautiful dollop of butter oh on top there and corn so these have been two of the main key characteristics of hokkaido ramen you often get corn with it famous in hokkaido and butter dairy is quite a big thing here okay is soy sauce no only miso it's true i've broken the cardinal rules i've got shoyu because i love soy sauce right you need to get miso if you want the true hokkaido namin experience what about the noodles asking noodles uh maybe usually fat but this short this is the noodles are thinner and a little bit curly they're good it's a bit sort of chewy it's nice it absorbs the flavor right the soup the broth is amazing with the butter in it oh that fresh buttery taste in the ramen nice juicy braised pork as well yeah oh fuzzy lovely good rubbish now in winter you can't beat a bowl of ramen we know we had curry yesterday soup curry but ramen's still the king lana in winter season priest he's begging for his life he's begging for his life please please please at last out of the cold and into our traditional inn natsuki can finally have some much-earned time alone relaxing in the comfort of his very own private hot spring lucky natsuki [Music] good bus good relax time good weather but my [ __ ] everybody in bus how much room in here is that [Music] so the reason we're here for this trip is to celebrate too much volcano at top 14. [Applause] so i thought i'd reveal how much money too much volcano made so we can split it three ways oh yeah i forgot you still a lot of stuff how much volcano how much volcano what do you think what do you think so top 14 on itunes singles chart maybe how much money 100 dollar hundred dollars a hundred dollars more than that maybe like a thousand dollars too much 4k name on itunes and spotify it made 2 212.40 wow that's pretty good you send on that's pretty good don't be so disappointed after our not so relaxing soak in the bath our kaiseki dinner is waiting downstairs for us and the star of the show is the local shiraoi wagyu beef which we get to cook on our own little grill charming [ __ ] number one famous in hokkaido best beef on the hot plate oh man that's going to kick fast goodnight there oh it's going to that's the trouble with the these they give you this the best beef you'll ever have that's always in such small quantities that yeah is there any time where i can like just like order extra yes then do it again two more of these extra shallow oh it smells so buttery and rich yeah oh now that is succulent oh my god [Music] why didn't they only give you two little just put the wasabi in his mouth get your ambulance ready oh no i mean oh my god we broke natsuki i think you broke himself he broke himself he did my mouth one of the best things about driving through the japanese countryside is there's always a surprise around every corner and on our last day of our road trip we go in search of our final dish when something big and bizarre along the side of the road certainly grabs our attention what is that there's a giant tuna and a bear on the roof wow big hip where's here yeah what does he eat every day salmon oh some next summer oh side by side nice dental he does have nice dental to be fair it's a bloody big bear we just saw it out the car window we had to stop we had to see it i don't know how they built it it's a godzilla size bear a reference to the hokkaido brown bear which you can only get in hokkaido unfortunately which we haven't run into and our last few days here on the island the last dish of our calorific road trip is one that i've been looking forward to the last three days because surprise surprise it's a hokkaido original fried chicken dish no i'm not making it up and yes that is a fried chicken vending machine at the front of the restaurant thank you god you are real this is it sarah for my singing a fried chicken vending machine this is like a dream come true or is it go through all farming this is incredible this is a revelation oh like all family mart stores at the moment are out of chicken but now we have a family of chicken vegan machine i feel so emotionally moved oh we'll try it afterwards we'll go in the restaurant first this is a zangie chicken place and zangie chicken is kind of the carriage fried chicken of hokkaido and we'll explain what it is inside let's go yeah [ __ ] hell there's a staggering amount of chicken on this table this is the world record for most amount of fried chicken on a table ever but it smells so damn good it does yeah it's like a very garlicky soy sauce based flavor i mean oh the batter looks so crispy let's give that a little crispy oh it's the crispiest batter yep oh my gosh oh you're doing in a fancy way look at that i'm not dabbing it so you're probably wondering what the difference is between curry chicken and zangie chicken the chicken is marinated in sauce before it is battered and cooked whereas karaoke chicken they just batter it and stick it in basically zangie's marinated and all sorts of things soy sauce garlic right a couple of different spices it changes on the recipe but yeah mostly soy sauce and garlic based yeah it started becoming popular in the 1960s a shop not too far from here about 100 kilometers from here in the town of kushino started doing it you really don't find this outside of hokkaido and you've never had it right i've never been yeah i've i think i had it once it was very very good because the the chicken has a lot more flavor than kariaga i mean the batter is extremely crispy apparently the best way to eat it as well is you put a little bit of sauce on it on top of that here we go yeah special sauce oh yeah give me give me salt it's come full circles and we've got uh we've got chicken wings here we've got half a chicken i just it looks like they've just chopped a chicken in half of the katana sword and shoved it in the deep fat fryer oh my god the size of that thank you this is crispy so crispy makes a mockery of kfc and family more maybe it's more soft it's hard yeah so the crisp the the batter is way crispier than karaoke oh my gosh this is so flavorful they just get punched in the face with garlic and soy sauce like way more it's like i dipped it in sauce without it being insulted it's really good any criticism it's it's a bit too big to pick up with chopsticks look at that these chopsticks aren't going to make it through this meal this might be the best fried chicken i've had ever in japan this is disturbingly good value as well it's 940 in about nine dollars for this is it i feel full after just one piece let alone five six pieces one of the six dishes we tried on this trip which one would you like to try let us know in the comments down below we're going to finish this build and then head to the airport my favorite place in hokkaido is it not oh well here we are guys at chitotay airport about to go home back to tokyo safar and sendai respectively thank you so much for joining us on this journey i hope you had fun i hope you learned about some new dishes and it's uh it's time to go home no where's our money money what the too much volcano oh i mean it's not the whole point to gather and collect the money how much volcano there you go that's your money 250 yen what i spent the rest on this trip didn't i yeah well i got wait wait wait wait wait i made a mistake there you go i mean i spent it on this this celebration trip yeah money well spent right really well spent good tally power advisor there you go good trip advice you had fun didn't you i did lost the money and we'll make it we'll make a bigger song next year make more money yeah we'll make we'll make the second one make the money back all right absolutely more trip yeah let's make second single second second single for now guys thanks for watching japan thanks for joining us our trip and i guess we'll see you next year have a good one bye to catch yeah i want to play my dumbo with natsuki and joseph and also because i owe them the money from the song i've got payday oh i've just broken the entire set

Channel: Abroad in Japan

Views: 1,970,557

Keywords: japanese food, hokkaido, japan food, ramen, sushi, wagyu, abroad in japan, the anime man, trash taste

Id: 04_f8TOIXtY

Length: 23min 32sec (1412 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 30 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/muldervinscully]

Great video! Chris needs to do a summer Hokkaido trip and go to Shiretoko to take on some bears

[u/alladessadagar]

This was a good video as always, well shot and produced, but it also feels like we saw almost all of this in Joey's video? And that his video was – dare I say it – more interesting. It's probably just me though, because I'm nostalgic and miss the "vlogging" style of the first Journey Across Japan, when I first discovered Chris' videos :)

[u/cfuentea]

These videos are so fun! natsuki and his unlimited energy 😅 When the cooking abroad japan video?

[u/Dangerous_Employee47]

I guessed the final joke right from the start but damn that food looked great.

[u/metalslug123]

Did they ended up eating that fried chicken from the vending machine?

[u/the-urban-sombrero]

Natsuki jumping into “Give It Away” in this video and “Psycho Therapy” in Joey’s video absolutely sends me.