Travel Series Episode 4: Niseko

desserts to dream about, Japan's soba mecca, dairy jewels

We are perhaps the only family that went to Niseko in the summer and traded ski boots for hiking ones, but I’ll take it again any day. If you didn’t already know, Hokkaido (where Niseko is located) is the bread basket of Japan, supplying the rest of the country with its freshest ingredients, so there is always so much to try. Without further ado…

1. Teppanyaki at Teppan

conger eel and foie gras

grilled peaches, chantilly cream, hokkaido milk ice cream

There’s nothing like a meal and show in one. There were two options: the Hanazono and Niseko sets, both comprising similar ingredients and the same number of courses, the latter just having less premium ingredients like uni or ikura. Both aren’t cheap, but, as you witness the chef’s golden expertise captured in the blur of his hibachi spatula performance, you understand why. Nothing but you, him, the unconscious mastery as he flips and swipes, and unadulterated ingredients on a flat iron slate. Nothing hidden away in a kitchen you can’t see. Everything at Teppan at Park Hyatt was spectacular, but there were two serious standouts: the conger eel, leaner than your typical marinated unagi, topped with a fat slab of foie gras, and the dessert of grilled caramelised peaches on delicate grilled toast topped with hokkaido milk ice cream, chantilly cream, and flaked almonds for crunch, both pictured above. It was something about the dessert– perhaps the presentation, or watching it being made from start to finish, that got me thinking about and re-appreciating the humble grilled bread for the next few days. The peaches were aggressively flambéed, so the whole dish was like a dainty take on rum baba, the baba being a well-drenched 3-inch piece of bread so soft it looked like it could’ve fallen apart any second, appropriately crowned with in-season white peaches and two variations of full-fat dairy that Hokkaido is too well-known for. Hot, cold, crunch, sweet, all perfectly thrown together.

2. Convenience store snacks and dairy farm

just in case you were wondering, Lim Ivor is my very cool father who treated us to this crazy cool getaway

the only cheese tart you need, from the Niseko Takaheshi Dairy Farm

Did you know that 7-Eleven is Japanese? There’s no Japan without its convenience stores, be it Lawson, 7-Eleven or FamilyMart. Even Chitose Airport had a large floor dedicated to just food, as alive and bustling at the bright hour of 7am as it would be at any other hour. People here are passionate about their produce and they want to show that off from the minute you land. Snacks-wise, my personal favourites were the various caramel corn flavours, and these surprisingly full-flavoured ‘cheese-stix’ that we all agreed ‘tastes like real cheese is in there’.

Next, you can’t pass through Hokkaido without trying their dairy products, which have a distinctly smooth, buttery, round flavour. The Niseko Takaheshi Dairy Farm was one of my highlights on this trip, where we enjoyed bulging pointed hats of silky hokkaido milk and matcha soft serve, and these gorgeous cheese tarts with a wobbly middle and crisp edges. These tarts are it! And they are just as good the next morning– the crust stays firm and the middle is less wobbly but just as creamy and soft. It was right up there with the other high class desserts mentioned in this letter.

3. Lunch course at Moliere Montagne

corn soup served with fresh corn

charcoal-grilled pork spare ribs and roasted potato

Here at the bright and beautiful Moliere it’s okay if you don’t have the dinner course, because the lunch course, which is at least half the price, was incredible and unique. Everything came in quick succession, and you leave satisfied but not sickly full, which can be the case at the aforementioned Teppan if you’re not ravenous. The soup was sweet and creamy and surprisingly cold, genius with the piping hot fresh Hokkaido corn. The next star was the pork which they serve you straight from the white-hot fiery charcoal embers– a dainty portion but packed with plenty of fat. The dessert of fried doughnuts (which resembled beignets) with salted milk ice cream did it for me, the kind of course which made me go, oh, I need to talk to someone about this and write about it. You tear the brioche-like doughnut into stretched feathers and let it soak in the ice cream, that full-fat dairy melting into the crevices of steaming bread.

4. Soba at Rakuichi Soba

It’s called Japan’s soba mecca for a reason. Well at least I read that it’s called so somewhere, and if not, it starts here with my silly little newsletter.