- Hey everyone I hope you're having an amazing day it's Mark Wiens, I'm in Sapporo on the island
of Hokkaido in northern Japan. And of course Japan is known
for seafood but Hokkaido is known within Japan for seafood. So this morning we are
going to the Sapporo fish market, the main market. We're gonna buy a bunch of
seafood, hopefully eat some crab. Crab is very well known
in Hokkaido as well, especially in the winter time
and yeah it is a cold morning but I am ready to eat some seafood and we're walking to the market right now. (soft house music) It's like a 10 minute walk
from the subway station but this is the beginning
of the outer market. There's a couple of very very
famous restaurants, seafood restaurants, Hokkaido seafood
restaurants in this area. It's just the morning now but already starting to get kinda busy. ♪ Yeah I don't want, she got a point ♪ - Oh, it's getting really
cold but to my understanding the whole sale market is, it's actually on the other side of the road, but that's not really open
to the public and that really takes place early in the
morning or even late at night. But so then right now
we're in the outer market, which is the retail part of the market. Where you can come, where
you can shop for food, where you can shop for
fish and seafood and crabs. And then they also have
restaurants here as well. All of a sudden it's starting to snow. Okay I think we need to eat a,
we need to order a crab ASAP. (water splashing) - Do you have Hanasaki also?
- Hanasaki! - That one is Hanasaki.
- Hanasaki. - [Mark] What is the season
now, Hanasaki's season? - Hanasaki.
- Oh this one is Hanasaki. - [Mark] Hanasaki. - One kilo, one kilo.
- 1.7 kilos. Okay. Yeah like that one, that
one is like three kilo? - Big size.
- Big size. - Okay, yeah.
- Okay? - [Mark] How many kilo is it? (speaking in foreign language) - 34,000. - Steam, grill. Hot, hot okay.
- All steam grilled? - Uh-hum.
- Okay. (woman speaking in foreign language) Putting on the yellow gloves. - [Woman] You okay? - [Mark] I think so, thank you. I don't like this, oh okay. I couldn't decide between the
King crab and Hanasaki crab so we decided to get them both. (soft house music) (speaking in foreign language) (laughing) (speaking in foreign language) - [Mark] Oh this is the
Hanasaki boiled yeah? - Hanasaki boiled, yeah. (all speaking in foreign language) - My lens is all fogging up, but the two different crabs the Hanasaki is gonna be completely boiled, and then the King crab is going to
be half boiled half grilled but I think it fully goes boiled first. Oh that is, this is an
aroma therapy spa session, I love crab spa session. (water boiling) (soft house music) (both speaking in foreign language) For the Red King crab we're gonna get it two different ways, half
boiled, half grilled. But he first pre-blanched
it, just for a few minutes so they can cut it in half,
half of it he threw back into the boiling caldron into
the boiling sink of water and then the other half is gonna go on the grill and two different ways. The King crab is ready
they're chopping it up and I think the Hanasaki crab should be ready very, very soon. (speaking in foreign language) (laughing) Okay. (soft house music) The Hanasaki crab is ready actually that took a while to boil at least like 20 minutes to boil. It's so steaming, so hot, so fresh. (both speaking in foreign language) (crab crunching) - Hanasaki.
- Hanasaki. (man speaking in foreign language) (soft house music) - The Hanasaki crab is
actually extremely medium. The eggs are just sprouting
and the roe and the meat and then they beautifully played it they cut everything with the scissors so that all the shell, they free the meat! (speaking in foreign language) Oh yeah it's a lot warmer in here and the crabs are ready, both of them. (soft house music) Alright sitting down, we got the one that they just finished peeling that's hot out of the boiler, this
is the Hanasaki crab. The color, the brightness, the
orange and reds, the spikes the eggs just sprouting in the roe. Actually the yellow is the
roe, I don't even know what is is that like two roes I'm not even sure. Then this is the King crab which is cooked two different ways
both boiled and grilled. The crab aroma, the colors,
it's vibrant, it's beautiful. Both of these crabs are
delicacies in Japan, both of them are from Japan
from the seas especially the Red King crab is famous in the winter because the meat is the fullest. And then the Hanasaki
crab I think is also, there's different seasons but definitely the winter is one of the best
seasons in Japan for crab and it is definitely the
middle of the winter. Okay I think we have to start with the Hanasaki crab since this one is fresh. This one is right out of the steamer. I don't even know how to begin (laughs). We got the legs, you've
got the body there. That body looks amazing you can see the different textures in there. I guess we just start with the body and yeah they scissor cut everything. It just lifts up like
a lid, oh look at that. Oh look at that. That's packed with meat and
that's pretty sharp too. Oh wow that's a nugget, first
bite ever of Hanasaki crab. You can just smell the crabby aroma. (giggles) oh wow. That flavor is like so sweet and this hint of complex bitterness. Slightly salty I don't know
if it's boiled in salt water. The texture of that
meat and like the sweet, wow that's unbelievable, the freshness that is firm, that's extraordinary! (giggles) What I love about it too, there's absolutely nothing
on it just straight boiled perhaps in salt water
I'm not totally sure. But that is so flavorful,
so good on its own, such an amazing product that
you do not need anything. (people speaking in foreign language) Happy birthday Cobb. (giggles) I wanna immediately taste
the Red King crab after that just to taste the difference of the meat, so I'll grab a leg. (laughs) And Red King
crab I have had before but I don't think I've
ever had it this fresh, being able to choose my (gasps). Oh look at that (giggles) oh wow. That is just thick with
meat and what I read is that during this season,
it's some of the meatiest Red crab that you'll ever have. (soft house music) Look at that, that's just pure King crab. (soft house music) (chuckles) Wow. That is another speechless,
that is stunning. It's so sweet, it's so juicy, okay, and that's awesome to be able to taste both right back to back because you really taste the difference
between the two crabs. Of course they are both
crab but the Hanasaki has more of like a bitter complexity to it with a really really vibrant crab flavor. The Red King crab is a little more sweet and definitely a lot more juicy. (soft house music) Again you do not need anything on that. That is the purest, the sweet
juiciness is remarkable. Okay I'm gonna move back
over to the Hanasaki now and I wanna try that floral formation. I think that's from the body section but that's the meat body section
as opposed to the roe yet. Check this out it's like
a glove, oh it's juicy! I think you can just kinda
scoot it with your finger. Oh yes there's so much meat in here. Okay back to the Hanasaki
crab, I can definitely taste that the Red King crab
is sweeter in flavor. Okay they're both good,
so unbelievably good. (people speaking in foreign language) This is some of the Hanasaki crab roe. That's a chicken nugget sized chunk. Wow (giggles) that's so rich, kinda yolky, like dry in a good kinda way. That's like almost as much as you possibly wanna take in a single bite only because it is such a rich mouthful. This one is the other roe and I'm actually not sure what it is
but we'll try that next from the Hanasaki crab. Oh that's kinda awesome that's got burst with salty juiciness,
kinda like fish roe. Almost like poppy seeds you can feel them squishing between your teeth. Oh I just got crab juiced. There's not really any roe
in the Red King crab but we do have the claws
and then the knuckles. Actually the knuckles are
some of the best meat. Look at that boneless shelless nugget. And one of the best
things about eating huge crabs like this, the Red
King crab especially, is just how meaty it is and how like easy it is to eat. They chop it with scissors but then the meat just slides out just huge chunks. It is so sweet, maybe
it's a little more firm than the actual legs but the texture of the knuckle, it's superb. Next up for the Hanasaki crab claw, let's see how to navigate this guy. Oh yeah it is kinda spiky,
oh that just comes apart. You do wanna be careful
not to stab yourself on this Hanasaki crab claw. That reveals the meat, I
think you can do just kinda pull it out with your finger. Okay that was not a clean
pull out but that's okay. The claw is like so firm and then it's not stringy but more flakey. Even the inside of that
crab is completely orange, even the little spikes are intact. They go into the mold, the shell is like the mold of all the meat. Hello guy, I'm gonna try that interior, it's like the head lining which
they've already scooped out I don't know what it is
there's a combination of, oh yeah look at that chunk. This is like a combination of head lining plus roe plus like tangly bits. It's like helmet lining. A little bit bitter, we got
the roe in there, the rich roe and then yeah kinda like slightly
totally different texture. This is one I haven't tried yet, the grilled Red King crab leg. This is one of the greatest parts, just opening it up, just to reveal nuggets. Oh beautiful, again,
absolutely spectacular. And I'll just slide my finger down there. (soft house music) What a meal, what a crab meal! I think that was just
the right amount of crab, we shared with five, there's five of us that ate those crabs. But that was spectacular,
I don't know if I've ever had an entire meal of crab
with nothing, no condiments, nothing extra on on it. I didn't even feel like I
wanted to use anything extra on it, it was that good. Hanasaki you were delicious
and thank you King crab. To give you an honest opinion,
both are incredibly good and have like different taste,
different flavor profiles, but if I were to just chose one I think I would go with the Red King crab. Yeah it is not called the king
of crabs without a reason. It's so juicy, so sweet, so fresh. But this is a really good place, they're really friendly here. I paid 34,000 yen for both of the crabs. Which, let me just do the
conversion, that's a little over 300 US dollars for both the crabs. Which I think it was a splurge but really, it's so fresh, it's so
good, they're so nice and that fed five of us. (soft house music) (people speaking in foreign language) Not only do they have seafood here but also fruits and vegetables and this market is well
known for their melons. Unfortunately it's not melon season, but they do have melons year round and Japanese melons are
some of the most premium melons in the entire
world so I got a slice. (soft house music) Oh it's cold, oh it's juicy. Oh wow okay yeah. That is a perfect thing after
you eat a bunch of crab. It's so juicy, it's so refreshing and that's like icy
cold from being outside. All the juiciness! It's like sweet but like
a harmony of sweetness. (soft house music) It's really good but really cold. Oh yeah that melon was
so juicy that it made my hand all wet and now
my hand is like frozen. Okay the next place that we're gonna go, I think we're gonna step into, it's one of the most famous places but it really is a legendary place and even though it attracts tourist buses, that's the same place that
we saw right as we entered. They really do say it has
amazing incredibly fresh seafood and it's an iconic seafood restaurant of Hokkaido of Sapporo. (yelling in foreign language) (water running) (soft house music) An entire seafood market. On the bottom floor they
have a lot of live seafood. They have more crabs they
have basically everything. Then on the top floor is a
dining room where you can order food so I think we're gonna go straight for the dining room. We ate the crabs in the morning but now it's just about lunch
time so there is a line. I wanna eat here because
it's such a legendary place and the seafood does look incredibly fresh and people say good
things about this place. Everything is so organized,
the staff are friendly, it's like a happy seafood palace. Okay the wait was not that long that was just like a 10
minute wait, we got a table. Check out this menu,
wait there's another one. What a beautiful, beautiful laminated menu with all the different bowls they offer and many what people come
here to eat are the different selection of Donburi rice
bowls topped with seafood. (soft house music) Every time I see a rice bowl like this Japanese style and they have different varieties of seafood, the colors, it just looks like a blooming flower and I love the way it's displayed. It's not only delicious
but beautiful to look at. Another thing is when you pick it up, you can feel that the seafood is cold but then you can feel on the bottom how the rice is still warm. So that's another thing about this is the contrast of temperatures
in your mouth at the same time. And I think maybe I'll take off my, should I take off my hat? No I should no take off
my hat for this meal. I think it's okay to
leave your hat on here, I see other people with their hats on too. What to begin with that is
always the main question. I think I will start with the salmon eggs, they're just glistening
and calling my name. And I'm gonna reach
down, they gotta be eaten with a lot of rice, a good ratio. (giggles) Yeah I love the contrast of temperatures, the cool seafood with the warm rice. The rice is sticky and gooey
and then those salmon eggs just pop with that briny liquid. On to the middle and then I'll
just add a little bit of this to each bite, I'm going for the uni next. (soft house music) Oh wow it's so sweet just with that wonderful nuttiness, salmon is next. These ones are scallops! Scallop is awesome, so soft,
so sweet, not slimy at all. But that wasabi went up my
nose a little bit, I love it. Revolving around again, oh
yes it's time for the tuna. Slightly warm, so pure just
like butter all the way through. I'm not totally sure what this is maybe some kind of surf clam. Oh yeah it has a crunch to it, gonna follow that with some rice. And then finally, this
is squid maybe, squid? Slightly slimy but it chews
and you can taste the sweetness coming out of it with every bite. Okay and then finally the crab, I haven't had any crab yet today. (soft house music) I like it both with the
soy sauce and without. It does definitely enhances
the raw seafood but again the freshness, the sweetness of the natural seafood is what stands out and you really don't need anything. (soft electronic music) And then finally for my last bite. It's a raw shrimp and you can
just see the transparency. You can almost see how,
yeah it's gonna be sweet. I always leave the shrimp
for the end, that is sharp. Oh wow! Okay that might be the best
bite of the entire bowl. So sweet, the texture is
almost like sticky and gummy. That's just tasty, that is awesomely, awesomely fresh and just so sweet. (soft house music) What amazed me is how
friendly that market is and it's like low-key, it's
friendly, people are nice, the seafood is so fresh,
so vibrant, so colorful. The colors just pop! This is the place to come in Sapporo for crab and for amazing seafood. And really, yeah. When you're in Sapporo,
when you visit Sapporo, it is a must visit place
if you love to eat. I wanna say a huge thank
you for watching this video, please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it, leave a comment below. I'd love to hear from you
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goodbye from cold winter Sapporo and I will
see you on the next video.
