delicious UK – April 2018

In 2005 I was awarded

a research grant to

study noodles in

Japan. It was amazing

fun, if uncomfortable

becauseofmyshoestringbudget.

For example, I stayed at a hostel

called Kyoto Cheapest Inn, where

I slept on a linoleum floor and was

charged extra for pillows. I also

recall a gruelling 13-hour train

journey that made me feel like my

asswasgoingtofalloff.

My research took me to noodle

hotspots around Japan. I loved

everywhere I went but Sapporo, on

Japan’s northernmost island of

Hokkaido, was my favourite. As a

Wisconsin boy who loves Japanese

food, Sapporo resonates with me.

Letmeexplain:Hokkaidowas

once considered a frozen, barbaric

wasteland, largely because the

climate there doesn’t support many

Japanese staples, particularly rice.

But in the late 1800s, the Japanese

government hired European and

American agriculturalists to help

establish food industries suited to

Hokkaido’s chilly prairies, and the

island became known for foods

atypical of a traditional Japanese

diet, including sausages, sweetcorn,

lamb,potatoes,milkand,ofcourse,

barley and hops, to be made into

the world-famous Sapporo beer.

Bizarrely, many of these are the

samethingsIgrewupwithin

Wisconsin, which has a similar

climateandterrain,andasimilar

history of Northern European-style

farming. And when these hearty,

Germanic-Midwestern flavours

combine with Japanese ingredients

and dishes, you get some of the

most satisfying and delicious food

on the planet.

Butitisn’tjusttheWisconsinian

comfort foods that make Sapporo

special. I fondly recall dining at an

Ainu restaurant there, a once-in-a-

lifetime experience considering how

fewexist.TheAinu,indigenousto

Hokkaido, now number just 25,000

and the restaurant I went to was

actually in an Ainu family’s home.

Their generosity and warmth stood

out. I was their only guest, so I got

to spend a lot of time talking to

them – in severely broken Japanese

and English. It was a wonderful

experience, the food was lovely

• simple dishes featuring foraged
  vegetables, game and salmon – but
  the memory that stands out the
  most is when the patriarch learned
  I was from Wisconsin and said,
  “Ah!GreenBayPackers!”–our

beloved football team. That was just

one of many highlights from my

first trip to Sapporo.

I loved the city so much that

I went back in 2007. The local

speciality known as Genghis Khan

• thinly sliced lamb and vegetables,
  barbecued at the table – is
  unmissable, especially if you have it
  inside the 19th-century beer hall at

NOODLE NIRVANA IN JAPAN

5JN "OEFSTPO àOET IJT TQJSJUVBM IPNFGSPNIPNF JO 4BQQPSP

The food resonates

with me personally, as

a Wisconsin boy who

loves Japanese food

SAPPORO, A NORTHERN

STAR, CLOCKWISE FROM

TOP LEFT City lights and

nightlife; ramen shop;

Sapporo brewery beer

hall; quirky Mugishutei

beer bar; spiny crabs

ready for cooking

118 deliciousmagazine.co.uk