the iceman.. cometh !!

(above, Schwarzenegger on how to make a cold place cold in Batman & Robin)

Yup, no doubts there, it is definitely becoming a colder and colder place yet ! Just a few weeks ago I remember thinking to myself, well, gosh, it really might be getting cold here.. Well, it is. It is !

So with everything being cold and getting colder I took advantage of the good weather that we had at the start of the weekend and tripped my way off to the second largest city in Hokkaido. Out there in Asahikawa, I and a good friend made our way in and out of a few stores in search of everything from clothing, to book accessories, to bookstores, and even designer belt shops?
Well, no doubts there. There is everything imaginable available here in Japan. And if you happen to think that they don’t have quite what you’re looking for than maybe you’re just not looking for the right thing. Whatever that may be..

In Asahikawa I had the divine opportunity to try two very new dishes. My menu of foods, let alone Japanese foods has been ever expanded ! I will of course try to attach both photos for your own viewing and future/present dining pleasure !

The first of the dishes was enjoyed with a glass of cold milk. In my glass of cold milk I was supplied no less than three ice cubes. I don’t know what side of the North Pole I grew up on but I can’t really recall being served ice with milk before. Maybe milk in a frosty glass? Anyways..

The dish was soup curry.

No, this is not a misspell. Soup curry is a rather tasty and savoury application of the Japanese favourite of curry rice. Curry rice also has its origins elsewhere I’m sure, but it has been made a unique and delicious favourite here in Japan. The soup curry variety is just that. Soup + curry. But the soup is really a curry which has been mixed, melded and blended somehow enough to make a curry that is a lot like a soup. Is that confusing?

Well, it should be. Because I wouldn’t be sure how to explain in right the dish itself. It is a mystery to me -but was topped with delicious veggies.
Plopped right in the middle of my dish was a croquet that was plumped full of cheese rice. That is, cheese and rice. My goodness do they know how to get creative with food here. Or maybe that’s just Asahikawa. Or maybe I just haven’t dined extravagantly enough yet.
Hmm.

Finally, at the end of our shopping day I enjoyed a pot of Kama-meishi. This dish is pronounced with the ‘awww’ of ‘Kharma’, but without the ‘R’. Does that one make sense? Don’t worry about it, just eat it if you can !

This very traditional and supremely subtle and satisfying pot of rice was sublime. No, not slimy. The flavours were, well.. they were ‘just’. Just right. I ordered the Japanese scallop variety. Inside the tiny cast iron urn in which the rice was served was a concoction of greens and the heavenly shellfish. The pot was lidded with a sort of Japanese pine traditional-style wooden cover.

Beside the dish we enjoyed a true dashi, or Japanese fish broth soup topped with nothing but a few green onion slivers. The color was of a caramel melt that shone like glazed butter. Throw in a few Japanese pickles in some tiny plates and you had you a meal. And that meal was right good.

One last note. About the weather, that is. I don’t know if it’s because we live so close to the continent of Europe or something that could be called the Torrid zone -not really sure, but we had a flash thunderstorm last night. It was just about ten p.m. and what I happened to think was the neighbor crawling in and out of our communal garbadge bin, I was instead surprised to find flashing lights, and pounding rains. Upon peeking outside my single-pane window and affording a deep sigh, I went to make some tea and sat and waited the weather out before going to bed.
At least the tea was good.

No, it’s not that I don’t like poor weather, it’s just that when you were enjoyed a rather modestly sunny day, you usually expect that your day will end just the same -a modestly sunny day. But, that’s okay. Maybe I was too vegged out and relaxed by that time to really notice what was going on outside.

Next time.. more on Japan to follow.
Comments appreciated.
Hope your adventure and Fall is swingin’ too !

(soup curry and Kama-meishi/pot-cured rice. Can you guess which is which?)