Best of Hakodate food part 2

On our last evening in Hakodate we went to Kira, one of our fave restaurants. The course there is one of the best in Hakodate, I think... and the price is very reasonable. In Europe I would pay 3-4 times more for such an excellent course and atmosphere.

dish 1... Yuba with king-crab topping, plum-juice and a special tea.

followed by an excellent pate with pickles and herbs.

dish 3 was king-crab dumpling soup with fresh bamboo.

 

dish 4 was a course with excellent sashimi...

dish 5 potatoe-dumpling filled with shrimp and shiitake.

and dish 6 was lemon-sorbet for refreshment...

here comes the main-dish... a BIG king-crab leg baked with cream, egg and sauce... it's one of the best king-crab dishes in the whole world !!!

and here comes dish 8 a delicious fruit pudding...

When I come back to Hakodate someday I definetelly will eat there again !!!

Best of Hakodate food part 1

I'm already in Fukuoka... and I have plenty to tell all of you, but before I do so, I want to share some pics of our farewell-food we had... Here you see king-crab with tomato/garlic sauce at Hakodate beer-hall.

Followed by king-crab with cream in puff pastry.

Then we had delicious seafood salad in Hakodate beer.

and "last, but not least" the Hakodate Shio-Ramen are a must...

The next day we went to a restaurant named "Kira", which is one of the best in Hakodate.

I will write about the fantastic course we had there, soon. 

bye, bye Hokkaido... bye, bye Hakodate and thank you so much !!!

On Monday, my husband wanted to drive one last time through Dounan. Here in the mountains it's still like Winter...

...but when you look closely, you can see Spring coming. Those green dots are Fukinoto...

and here you see, that the blossom is already open.

After driving through the mountains, we reached the other side and went to a beautiful beach near Otobe. There, it was much warmer and the snow was already gone. The kids and we enjoyed to walk trough the sand.

 

 

 

 

Michi no eki at Esan

Today we went to an Onsen at Esan. After so much packing and stress in the past days it felt good to relax a little bit in the hot spa there. Afterwards we went to our fave restaurant at Esan.

You can find it at Natowa michi no eki.

http://www.hkd.mlit.go.jp/zigyoka/z_doro/station/eng/061/index.html

they have the best Hokke menu and all you see here costs just about 12 Euro and tastes like in a gourmet restaurant... I must always laugh, when I hear those weird stories about "expensive Japan"... I want to ask you, what do you get in Germany for 12 Euro? In most cases a plain "Wiener Schnitzel"...

Well, personally I prefer this delicious Japanese menu here, together with a beautiful view on the shore.

Later, we decided to visit a good old friend of ours, Horie-sensei.

He and his wife live at Esan and both lived in Germany for a long time. He was Professor for German language and is a fantastic painter, too.

We talked the whole afternoon about mushrooms, plants, painting and had so much fun. We will miss them so much , but I hope we can stay in touch by writing letters.

Still busy...

The last days have been busy for me again and the next surely will... One room is ready, empty and all stuff is packed. the other ones still look like a mess. And today I will renew my driving license... I have no car at the moment, so I need to walk for shopping, which is o.k and I don't really mind the walk, but it costs some more time... the next big supermarket is 1km away.

Fortunatelly I don't have to go outside today (exept for the driving license), because it's snowing again. So I will fling myself into packing and hopefully finish everything on the second floor and maybe start packing some stuff in the kitchen as well. *whew*

So everyone, whom I owe an e-mail, mail, phonecall or reply, please be patient... >_<

here is another old work... did this in the beginning of 2008 inspired by the akamatsudori here in Hakodate, a big alley with red pinetrees. They look especially beautiful in Winter, when it just has snowed.

Murasaki-shimeji cooking

After so many wonderful farewell-parties with our great friends and the biggest and most delicious Kegani, I have ever eaten, we felt so stuffed, that we decided to cook mushroom-soup this Sunday.

This is one of my fave soup with mushrooms and I always wanted to share it with you. 

I once wrote in my blog about Murasaki-shimeji (lepista nuda).

http://yuriatakagi.blogspot.com/2009/10/colors-of-autumn.html

and here is, how you cook the soup...

at first, you take duck-filets (or chicken) and boil it for a good fond (dashi), about at least 45 minutes.

Then take the duck or chicken out.

Put in the murasaki-shimeji and some consome... best is the "Delikatess-Bruehe" from Knorr, but any other one will do.

Let the mushrooms and consome boil a little and then add some chinese noodles...

Voila, this is how it looks like.

Murasaki-shimeji have a very strong, perfume-like flavour, so they really taste best with chicken or duck-soup.

And... you have another meal later... if you put the cooked duck in the stove or grill until it's golden and crispy, you can eat another dish... the trick is... when you cook duck before, you won't only have a delicious soup, but the duck (or chicken) will stay juicy inside, when you grill it.

Mizubasho

One of the earliest, but most impressive flowers you can see in early April til May here. Even before the fresh green on the trees, even before the cherry blossom, you have the season of Mizubasho at Onuma lake.

At some parts of the shore, where the snow melts and the shore is like a swamp, you can see those beautiul blossoms everywhere...

 

 

And here is a close-up of Mizubasho...

someday I want to paint it.

When people come to Hakodate during April and May, it seems that there is still no spring. So I recommend to everybody, who arrives in that season to make a trip to lake Onuma and enjoy Mizubasho there.

...and more Sakura

Here are some Sakura no Hana pics from 2005. Today is such a rainy and dark day. I woke up with a headache and I still don't feel well.

Looking through old pictures and photos cheered me up a little and I would like to share some cherry-blossom pics with you.

This is at Komagatake in Mori

and this wonderful old tree is at Goryokaku-park in Hakodate.

This was at my first Hanami in Japan and I was totally overwhelmed !!! I really pity those people, who just stay "cool and untouched"  watching this and the whole atmosphere of Hanami. They miss so much in life... nature has so many beautiful things to offer, but for some it is more easy to laugh about others, who enjoy this and other things in life, than doing something positive themselves.

I am looking forward to see the Hanami in Fukuoka soon ^______^ and I will take a lot of pictures and do a lot of sketches... can't wait !!!!

Oh, and I'm looking forward to this evening. The kids and I will watch "Police Academy 2" together. It's so much fun to watch some movies together, which I liked as a kid... ^_^

Sakura in 2006

Before I leave, I want to share with you some cherry-blossom pics, I took in 2006 here in Hakodate. I won't see this place in Spring for a long time... maybe never ever again, so I decided to upload my "best of Hakodate" from time to time.

I still recall that evening. My husband came home from work earlier and brought me and the kids to that spot, so we could enjoy the sunset with cherry-blossom together.

 

But there was also something else he was up to...

...looking for morels and with some luck we found one at that spot ^_^

So when we arrive in Fukuoka, the cherry-blossom will just be there, so we have to hurry to find new morel-hunting-grounds.

Bye,bye Onuma-Park

On Sunday, we went to Onuma-park... probably the last time before we move.

Here you see people doing ice-fishing. They are fishing little fish, called Wakasagi, which are normally fried and eaten as tempura right there on the ice, instantly after they are caughed.

I love every season at Onuma-park... even the Winterscenery is so nice and magical...

and here, you see Komagatake... the volcano I use to paint from time to time. This is my favorite spot for making sketches...

Before we returned, we met the first sign of Spring at Onuma. A flower called Fukujusou... a lovely couple had it in their garden and when I took that photo, they instantly invited us to their house and showed us some beautiful pictures of flowers they took over the years. I'm always overwhelmed by the hospitality and friendlyness of people here in Japan...

In the evening we had a wonderful farewell-party with some great friends... I prepared woodruff-wine (Maibowle in German) and the cheese and other wine and foods we tasted there, were all soooo delicious.

I will never forget this wonderful evening...

Whoever in Hakodate reads this... THANK YOU ALL for everything !!! Thank you for your hospitality and kindness !!! I will miss Hakodate very, very much and I promise to come back from time to time !!!

Cherry blossom

Just packed my colors for the moving :(

So I can not paint anything before April... I just kept my sketch-pad, if my muse strikes.

Here are some older works.

When we leave here, there will still be a lot of snow and when we arrive in Fukuoka, we will already see the cherry blossom.

Both paintings are done with pen, watercolor and airbrush on paper... size is B4 both originals are available.

more yummy foods

Just uploading some pics of yesterday evening to give you some impressions of the tasty food we had ^_^.

Tsuyoshi and I had a hard week... he was in Tokyo and I was busy packing more boxes and so we decided to go to the harbor again. It's always best for us to relax after a busy week and we still want to enjoy Hakodate food before we leave.

Here you see some delicious tapa at Brasserie Carillon. I will miss this restaurant... the chef really is an artist of creating wonderful foods.

Fukinoto and some thoughts about the seasons

When I read those posts about Germans in Japan, who are always wondering, why for Japaneses the seasons of the year are so important, I can always shake my head in disbelief about those specific Germans. Some seem to come to Japan, maybe speak better Japanese than me, but somehow never "arrived" here and I'm not only referring to the most stupid, annoying and untrue book there is about Japan, going by the title "Darum nerven Japaner", this is another story, which always drives me mad at so much ignorance and arrogance... so I will try here to to tell people a little bit more about seasons and their importance, starting with this post about Fukinoto...

The wonderful thing about Japanese seasons is, that they are very clear to distinguish... and each season has it's own special food.

One season I'm especially looking forward to is the beginning of Fukinoto-season. After a long Winter, this ist the first flower, which is so strong, that it already starts growing under the snow and people use to eat it as first fresh vegetable of the year.

That flower is called "Fukinoto", it's the flower of Japanese Butterbur (Pestwurz in German) and it has a bitter, but very pleasant taste.

Here in Hakodate, it grows everywhere in March-May... and you best pick it, before it completely opens.

People cook it with Miso-soup or as Tempura.

Here, I prepared Tempura with it, but made a cold tomato-sauce with different flavours as dip for the Fukinoto. Today my husband and kids wanted to have steak with goose-pate topping and Gorgonzola-pasta, so I needed to think of cooking Fukinoto European-style. It worked out very nice and tasted good.

Actually I wanted to take some more pics of the main-course, but everybody was so hungry, so I had no chance to make pictures ^o^.