丸海屋(Maruumiya), Ground floor west, JR Station, Sapporo

The prices of the seafood attracted me to come in for a try - JPY800-900 (apron. HK$50-55) net.  Not only it was such a bargain, but also it is of some very fresh sashimi and deep sea crab meat.  What's more, they have a complimentary coffee after the meal.  It's even cheaper than a set meal from some common fast food shops in HK.  The only draw back was this place doesn't have non-smoking section.

Green Tea ice cream with Tatsutano, Cha No Wa & Nana's, Sapporo, Hokkaido

Photo 1/2: 立田野茶寮 Tatsutano tea shop - among the 3 we tried, this one is the best as it's very aromatic with green tea and not too sweet.   Photo 2: Cha No Wa - it's branch in HK is one of the most visited place I have been to, but this outlet seems not so good as compared to the one in HK.  Photo 3: Nana's used to be my favourite one but after trying Tatsutano and Cha No Wa, it fell to no. 3.

十勝豚don, Tokachi grilled pork don, 6F Stella Place, Sapporo

Didn't get regretful for ordering a double sized don of this aromatic grilled pork.  No need to put on any sauce.  Just the scallion slices and the freshly grilled pork are simply the best to go with the steamed rice.  The soup with some semi fat pork and turnip and celery is also nice to go with the don.  Stella Place does have almost all the good restaurants on the same floor.  Must re-visit this place.

Torafuku stoned pot rice, 6F, Stella Place, Sapporo

Didn't get too much expectation about this place as I'm not much into stoned pot rice, probably because of my experience in HK and BKK.

Out of curiosity about this place highlighting their freshly cooked rice of the day.  They would choose the seasoned ingredients for the pot rice.  This time I noticed they chose chestnut - such a season.

So to go with the rice, we had some bentos - ginger pork and the other sashimi.  The ginger pork is very aromatic with wine and onion with honey glazed sauce.  The steamed egg is very yummy too, but the highlight is their pot rice.  It's evenly cooked that each rice is separate but yet very moist.  That really motivated me to try my cooking for this recipe.

Maisen, Tokyu Dept. Store, Sapporo

Got quite disappointed with its branches in BKK, due to the rice and the deep frying being not to my expectation.  As I noticed this one on the top floor of Tokyu dept. store in Sapporo offering a bargain set at just JPY980 (HK$60) net, I'd then decide to give it a try. Turned out it's way too different from the BKK branches.  Nicely cooked rice and the deep frying so crispy outside and juicy inside.  Even when it stood for a while, the coating was still very crispy, not mashy at all.

Sakana Isshin, 9F, Tokyu Dept Store, Sapporo, Hokkaido

It's good to check out restaurants on the top floor of most Japanese dept. stores because they wouldn't allow some lousy restaurants coming in together with other pretisgeous ones.  Noticed this one and Maisen and other pretty well-known restaurants are on the same floor in Tokyo Dept. store.  There I went for a try.  Got a very good deal at their bento set at just JPY1,800 net (approx. HK$120).  It comes with a coffee or tea too.  The sushi and tempura are really nice.  I love the way they use various salt to go with the tempura.

Garaku soup curry, Sapporo, Hokkaido

Noticed this shop was very busy in the last trip to Sapporo.  This time we came here earlier, at 6pm to avoid the crowd.  Got a soup curry with pork and a lassi as well as their house signature deep fried chicken in pomelo sauce.  The soup curry is a bit disappointing to me.  It was simply a soup curry base with the ingredients cooked separately.  So without shimmering in the soup curry, I really didn't find the pork and the veggie in a curry aroma.  Yet, the soup is a bit too much with turmeric and galangal.  What's more the rice was cooked with turmeric too.  So it's just tumeric all the way making it much too overwhelming.  The deep fried chicken wasn't nice either as the pomelo sauce was way too sweet.  Later on I found out most visitors here followed their smartphones' forums to come here.  Next time I need to check on the forums too to avoid those hot picks.  BTW, knew someone in some IT companies who could help servicing a million likes or AI comments on the forums and this kind of service really made them a business.  

See you Tomamu

HKG - New Chitose (Sapporo) New Business class, HK Airlines

HK Airlines was founded by the ex-Dragon Air team (after Dragon Air was sold to CX 9-10 years ago.  It once launched an all-business class service from HKG-Gatwick but unfortunately the majority still go to CX for long haul business class, regardless of its fare down to HK$15k (vs HK$50k of CX) on the HKG-London flights.  

To me, the seat would rather be my concern than the service and yet CX is really going down for their food and services.  Why not give it a try for HK Airlines, especially its business class on some routes is much cheaper than CX, and even a few hundred cheaper than CX y class.  In taking this route, CX is selling HK$7k for y class, but HK Airlines offers HK$6.5k something.  

The seat is quite similar to those of  EK with one on one with every seat accessible to the aisle.  HK Airlines offers a much more comfy quilt even for shorter flight routes, and a sandal.  Service-wise, the crew isn't bad though the captains seem to be a bit not so tidy and neat (hair and uniform).  However, the stewardees made that up.  The meal is at average but quite a small portion.  You may need to ask for more bread.  Overall, in terms of price, it's worth trying.  

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