Hokkaido is home to Japan’s farm fresh vegetables, meat, and dairy produce. As such, they have an abundance of amazing exclusive delicacies!
Hokkaido Cheese Soft Serve
Hokkaido is the home of Seicomart, an exclusive Japanese convenience store that you won’t find outside the northern island.
There, you can find an abundance of Hokkaido-specialty items such as this delicious “Hokkaido Cheese Soft Serve” made using the freshest milk in Japan.
The flavor is truly immaculate and resembles something of a frozen cheesecake with a milky richness!
Hokkaido Butter Cookies
Another Seicomart classic is these Hokkaido Butter Cookies which are made with fresh milk sourced from the region.
A scrumptious, buttery milk flavor and a melt-in-your-mouth texture, these tasty treats are everything you’d want in a cookie!
Perfect with a hot beverage, it’s one of the many delicacies that keep you warm and cozy in the colder climate of Hokkaido.
Hot Chef Bento Box
Japanese convenience stores are known for their bento box or “lunch packs” that are ready to heat and eat.
Hokkaido has a special range of bento boxes as part of the “Hot Chef” series, typically found at local Seicomart stores.
Unlike your typical bento box, Hot Chef is prepared fresh in-house, much like a food stall at a night market, featuring delicious meals such as this fried fish and egg on top of seaweed rice!
Soup Curry
Moving onto the real local delicacies of Hokkaido, an absolute must-try is their famous soup curry dish.
Featuring a lightly seasoned curry base, fresh whole vegetables including carrot, capsicum, potato, onion, and eggplant, and a crispy roasted chicken, it truly is the “soul food” of the region.
You can find soup curry restaurants all over Hokkaido, though I recommend this one in Sapporo just outside Maruyama Park.
“Genghis Khan” Lamb BBQ
Last but not least is Hokkaido’s iconic lamb barbecue restaurants known as Jingisukan or “Genghis Khan,” inspired by the Northeastern Chinese style of grilling mutton.
Yakiniku or “Japanese BBQ” restaurants can be found all over Japan, but you’ll seldom find one like Jingisukan that features lamb and mutton instead of beef and a huge emphasis on whole vegetables.
For a more tender meat-eating experience featuring succulent slices of lamb with plenty of nutritious onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers to go with it, Hokkaido’s Genghis Khan restaurants offer a unique barbecuing experience!
Of course, if you are planning to visit Japan, you’ll need a way to get around the country as efficiently and affordably as possible. Japan Rail provides an abundance of travel passes to suit your travel needs. So whether you are traveling individually or as a group, the JR Pass is every traveler’s go-to for getting around and making the most of your time in Japan!