Feb.
2005, Xene #44
Dining Satisfaction(Get Some)
by Michael O'connell
札幌で外食するならこのお店
取材・文 マイク・オッコーネル
Perhaps you've heard of England's notorious "chip
butty," the fried-potato sandwich. Apparently
inspired by this, a Mexican restaurant in Sapporo
once served tortillas stuffed with French fries and
called them tacos. This was not Mexican cuisine. It
wasn't cuisine at all. It was Mexican a la Manchester,
the gastronomic equivalent of a slap in the face.
Sapporo restaurants rarely fail so spectacularly.
The food here is excellent, and chefs who come up
from Tokyo rhapsodize about the fresh seafood and
produce. Even so, there are times when you leave unsatisfied.
The meal may be on the skimpy side, or it may be prepared
with a lack of care. The service may be smiling but
inept. The waiter may say "Irrashaimase"
while the loud music and cramped seating are saying,
"Chow down and get out." Portions, quality,
service, atmosphere - failure in any one of these
means poor value for money. Success in all four means
a restaurant that's firing on all cylinders. You'll
leave satisfied, and you'll come back.
札幌のとあるメキシコ料理店で、フライドポテトをトルティーヤで包んだ
ものをタコスとして提供していた。これはイングランドで悪名高いフライド
ポテトのサンドウィッチからヒントを得たものだと考えられるが、
これはメキシコ料理でもなく、失望以外の何物でもない。東京のシェフたちが
絶賛するほど札幌の食材は素晴らしい。でも素材が良いだけでは不十分で、
量・質・サービス・雰囲気、この4つが揃って初めて満足のいくレストランとなり、
もう一度行きたいと思わせるのだ。
Mackerel kunch (Ootoya)
 |
Ootoya, on the 10th floor of the Bic
Camera building adjoining Sapporo Station, is just
such a restaurant. This is surprising considering
the Station's reputation for giving poor dining value.
Ootoya serves satisfying sets in a pleasant atmosphere
at reasonable prices - usually about 700 yen.
Although the sets all are prepared with a Japanese
sensibility, they cover several cuisines. My personal
favorite is the
yakizakana saba teishoku (broiled
mackerel served with rice, miso soup, grated daikon,
bean sprout salad and delicately pickled daikon).
Other good bets are the
tori no sumibiyaki teishoku
(char-broiled chicken with similar side dishes), and
the Chinese-influenced
tori to yasai no kuro-su
ankake teishoku (deep-fried chunks of chicken
with lotus root, green peppers and carrots in a thick
sauce of sweetened vinegar). Lighter but still filling
is the hon nigiri tofu to
chikin no toro-toro-ni
teishoku, a savory bowl of tofu and chicken in
an egg-thickened sauce garnished with trefoil. You'll
also find burger plates (
hanbaagu teishoku),
breaded deep-fried pork (
tonkatsu), chirashi
sushi bowls, and donburi dishes. The rice is premium
Koshihikari, and you can taste it. The drink bar is
157 yen extra, and the photo menu is a breeze. Ootoya's
unifying themes are quality, nutritional balance,
and the deft touch of the cook.
札幌駅の近くの「大戸屋」はそんなレストランのひとつで
リーズナブルかつ雰囲気もよく、札幌駅周辺のレストランは
期待できないというイメージを払拭してくれる。私のお勧めは
焼き魚さば定食、鳥の炭火焼定食そして中華風鶏と野菜の黒酢
あんかけ定食で他にもハンバーグ定食、どんぶり物などメニューも
豊富で、使うお米もコシヒカリと抜かりない。ドリンクバーも
157円と安く、メニューも写真付きで親切。大戸屋は質・栄養バランス・
料理人の腕共に統一性がある。
For more straight-up Japanese, hunt for
Hoshino,
at S2E2, north across the street from the Nijo-Ichiba
fish market. It's not the easiest place to find, hidden
behind a recessed wooden door in a gray concrete building,
but when you do find it, you'll forget every limp
udon noodle you ever had. The handmade noodles
resist the tooth to the perfect degree, and at lunchtime
Hoshino bustles with regulars because no other
udon shop in Sapporo can touch it.
I recommend the
tori nanban, noodles with chicken
breast in a soup topped with negi leeks. The hearty
buta kakuni tamago takikomi teishoku features simmered
pork and boiled egg, a bowl of udon, seasoned rice
and two side dishes. Remember to sprinkle your udon
with the shichimi seasoning. At most noodle shops,
it's red with chili pepper. Hoshino's is a pale green
blend of citrussy
yuzu peel that perfectly
compliments the delicate Kyoto-style broth.
Expect to pay between 700 and 900 yen for a bowl of
udon or a set, 100 yen more for
ohmori (large
serving). The only difficulty is the menu, a kanji-phobes
nightmare.
もっと和風でいくならば、「ほし野」だ。見つけづらい立地にあるが、
ここのうどんを食べてみると今まで食べていた、のびたうどんなど忘れてしまうだろう。
お昼時ともなれば常連客でいっぱいになるこの店では鶏南蛮、豚角煮卵炊き込み定食がお勧めだ。
そしてうどんに欠かせない七味唐辛子は、ほし野の場合、ゆずの皮が入っていて薄い緑色。
京風のつゆにはぴったりだ。ただ、メニューが漢字だらけなのが難点。
Occidental noodles can be found at
Chirorin
Mura, which opened in 2004 at Tanuki Koji
W6. This chain is a longtime pasta favorite, with
other downtown branches at S2W2 on the B1 floor of
the Ships Building, and at N1W2 on the B1 floor of
the Tokeidai Building next to the Sapporo Clock Tower.
A generous plate of pasta will set you back 600 and
800 yen, 100 yen more for the heaping ohmori (large
serving).
Because the Japanese menu is many times more extensive
than the "Engrish Menu" (rare candor there),
I'll give the Japanese names of recommended dishes.
There's
karubonaara (carbonara; 1000 yen),
ebi no tomato sohsu (shrimp with tomato sauce),
ika to nasu no tomato sohsu (squid and eggplant
with tomato sauce), and
chikin no kuriimu sohsu
(chicken with cream sauce, garnished with spinach).
A funkier choice is the
asari beikon suupu supagetti,
pasta in a salty broth of clams and bacon, the perfect
meal for a chilly day. I shy away from the even wilder
selections, like pasta with potatoes (that taco butty
haunts me still). Sets, from 1300 yen, include a pasta
entrèe, drink, salad and dessert, but the only
reason to order the set is for variety, since the
a la carte servings of spaghetti are ample.
My only quibble is the smoky air, and this applies
to all their locations. The good news at the Tanuki
Koji branch: You'll rarely have to wait for a seat,
even during the lunch rush. As at Ootoya and Hoshino,
the menu is the same for lunch and dinner, weekdays
and weekends, making these places super value all
the time.
洋風麺なら「チロリン村」。札幌各地に点在していて、パスタに関して
私の長年のお気に入りだ。カルボナーラ、えびのトマトソースなどもいいが、
あさりベーコンスープスパゲッティは寒い日に最高だ。ポテトのパスタがあるのは、
前述のタコスを思い出してしまうが…。大戸屋やほし野と同様ランチ・ディナー、
平日・休日に関わらず同じメニューを楽しめる。
Why
are the great Chinese restaurants always tucked away
in residential neighborhoods? It's a riddle wrapped
in a mystery inside an enigma, as Churchill might
have said, although judging from his girth he'd have
enjoyed
Yohgenkyoh, two and a half blocks
west of Nakajima Park, at S12W8, behind Nakajima Junior
High School. I cook so much that I rarely eat out
in my neighborhood. For Yohgenkyoh I make an exception.
The weekday dim sum (
yamu-cha) lunch is a steal.
Choose from among 17 stir-fried dishes, buns and dumplings,
at 700 yen for 4 dishes, 800 yen for 5 dishes, and
900 yen for 6 dishes. Hearty soup, pickles and tea
are complementary with these sets, but rice is extra.
You might want to choose fried rice as one of the
included dishes. It's dotted with savory Chinese sausage.
A delightful study in contrasts is the
kikurage
tamago itame (stir-fried eggs with tree-ear mushrooms),
available as a dim sum choice and a dinner entrèe.
The dim sum photo-menu is intuitive.
Dinner is pricier, but the choices become more exotic.
Even with the photo menu you may not know what you're
looking at, which will either frustrate you or give
you a thrill, depending on how you feel about the
culinary deep end of the pool. The
buta-niku hosogiri
to tenmenjan itame (1200 yen) is a must: Strips
of pork are flavored with sweet bean sauce and served
with scallions and cilantro. You roll these in skins
made of bean flour, with the fragrant coriander offsetting
the tangy pork. Yohgenkyoh's specialty is Northeastern
Chinese home-style cooking, as seen from the great
number of potato and bread dishes. The
chuugoku
inaka-fu no chi-no-sachi itame (900 yen) features
potatoes and green peppers. It translates as "stir-fried
harvest of the Chinese back-country." Soup entrèes
include the
kaisen booru-iri hoorenso suupu
(900 yen): fish balls and spinach in a clear broth.
Expect to spend about 2000 yen per person on dinner,
well worth it for Chinese this authentic and hearty,
and service this warm and able.
優れた中華料理店はどうしていつも郊外にあるのか？これはナゾ中のナゾだ。
私は自炊をする方なのでめったに近所での外食はしないのだが、中島公園近くの
「養源郷」だけは別だ。平日の飲茶は掘り出し物。ぎょうざや饅頭はもちろん、
チャーハンや炒めものを含んだ約17種類から選べて、4皿700円から。ディナーに
なるとちょっと高めになるが、より中華の雰囲気がでてくる。養源郷の名物は
じゃがいもなどを使った中国北部の家庭料理で、心こもった本格的な中国の雰囲気
と暖かく優れたサービスは評価に値する。
I love ethnic food, but I hate
esunikku food
-bastardized cooking that blunders into taco butty-land.
Sapporo finally got its first real Thai restaurant
when
Jitrada opened in 2000 at S4W5,
two doors north of the Sunkus convenience store. Behind
the suspiciously windowless wooden door is the finest
Thai food in Sapporo, brought to you by a Thai cook
and her Japanese husband.
The menu is trilingual, so I'll give the dishes by
their English names here. The standards - raw spring
rolls (580 yen) and fried rice noodles Thai style
(
phat thai; 780 yen) - are solid. The spicy
grilled chicken (1000 yen) has enough heat to let
you know they're not fooling around. The green chicken
curry will have you sweating, and the red pork curry,
marked with a triple-chili on the menu, will have
you crying like the woman in the Thai travel commercial
(Hontoni naku, yo!). My personal favorite is the minced
chicken salad (750 yen), whose light dressing captures
all the fire and subtlety of Thai cuisine: oniony
sweetness balanced by lime sourness, hot chilies balanced
by cool mint. The stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts
(780 yen) borrows from Chinese and is safer for those
with a delicate tongue. More unusual is the stir-fried
morning glory (850 yen), a classic Thai vegetable.
Order it in season, from spring through fall.
On weekends Jitrada caters to a sell-out crowd, so
it pays to make reservations. Unlike the restaurants
mentioned above, Jitrada is closed for lunch.
偽タコスに見るエスニック料理もどきにはうんざりだが、
ようやく札幌にも真のタイ料理店が登場した。タイ人コックが腕を
ふるう「ジッラダ」だ。メニューは3言語表記で、生春巻きと
タイスタイルの炒め麺は格別で、スパイシーグリルチキンや
グリーンカレーなど火を吹く辛さだ。個人的にはミントの
さわやかさやライムの酸っぱさ、玉ねぎの甘さのバランスが
絶妙なドレッシングの鶏挽肉のサラダなどがお勧め。
French food in Japan depresses me. It never seems
worth it to pay 5000 yen for expensive tablecloths
and food that looks better than it tastes. It's all
so superficial.
Ichiro is that rare French restaurant
of substance, worth the ten-minute hike from the Nishi
Nijuuhatchome Subway Station to Miyanomori 3-jo, 5-chome.
Named after the owner and not the baseball player,
this modestly priced gem belongs in the big leagues
of Sapporo French cuisine.
The menu, in Japanese, features a 3,500-yen set that
includes an appetizer, soup, main dish, bread, dessert
and coffee. (There is an extra charge of a couple
of hundred yen for a few entrèe selections.)
The list of appetizers and main dishes goes to only
seven each, but this is understandable for a neighborhood
restaurant like Ichiro. What's important is that every
dish is sublime. For seafood, don't miss the
saamon
marine (marinated salmon) appetizer. The
pooku
roosu niku no sumibiyaki entrèe is charbroiled
tender pork of a grade far above what you see in the
supermarket. The broiled
suzuki (sea bass)
entrèe is crisp and succulent, with an herbed
sauce. I can never figure out what's in it, but it
brings tears of joy to my eyes. It's the best fish
I've had anywhere in Japan.
The 4000-yen set entitles you to a second main dish
of your choice, but that might not leave room for
dessert - or, rather desserts. You see, Ichiro has
the sweetest of dilemmas. They're rightfully proud
of their crème brulèe, but they want to
leave you some choice. Their solution is to include
the crème brulèe with every set dinner,
but to give you an additional dessert of your choice.
Two desserts: dilemma solved.
The house wines are reliable, usually a Chilean for
600 yen per glass, a Californian for a little more,
and a French above that. Visit the cozy wine cellar
to see the fine collection, or just to steal a kiss
from your date.
Ichiro has lunch sets from about 1500 yen, but dinner
is a better value. The terra cotta walls and stone
floors are fancy enough for a romantic date, but casual
enough to make you feel comfortable. The service is
impeccable, and they take reservations. Although Ichiro
is the most expensive of the restaurants here, it
gives even greater value than the others, quite a
feat for a lineup like this.
見掛け倒しで高い料金を請求する日本のフランス料理にはいつも
がっかりさせられる。そんな中、「イチロー」は遠い立地にあっても
ぜひ行きたい珠玉のフランス料理店だ。どの料理も卓越して、
サーモンマリネはぜひ注文してほしい一皿。スズキのハーブソースも
涙が出るほど美味で、日本でこれ以上においしい魚は味わった事がない。
デザートのクリームブリュレは自慢の一品で、ワインの品揃えもよい。
ロマンティックなデートに十分通用する雰囲気だが堅苦しくなく、
サービスも申し分ない。これまで紹介した中では一番高価でもその価値は十分にある。
Phone
Ootoya: 011-219-1187
Hoshino: 011-221-8808
Chirorin Mura, Tanuki Koji Branch: 011-261-1112
Jitrada: 011-232-3150
Yohgenkyoh: 011-533-7751
Ichiro: 011-644-0610
