Sapporo Food: Daruma Jingisukan

I was um-ing and ah-ing for a while over the best way to write jingisukan in roma-ji, and I'm delighted that my straight phoneticization of it is the same way that wikipedia went. Since wikipedia is never wrong, I think I'm probably on safe ground.

So yes, I've probably mentioned it before: jingisukan is basically mutton barbecue (named after Genghis Khan, of course), cooked on a dome-shaped hotplate and accompanied with a special jingisukan sauce that's a little different everywhere. It's a local speciality in Hokkaido, and - as meat seared on hot metal is wont to be - it's generally delicious.

Daruma's jingisukan is especially delicious.

Daruma has three stores around Susukino and is, I think, one of the more famous jingisukan restaurants. The meat is good, the sauce is delicious and it's really worth going if you like meat and/or smoke.

Because the Daruma that I've been to twice (the one I'm going to mark on the map - not the original store but one nearby) is one smoky-ass place. There are so many burnt sheep particles floating around above your head as you eat that - under the same probability laws that say a million monkeys bashing away on typewriters will eventually write the complete works of Shakespeare - eventually the billions of sheep atoms in the air there will spontaneously align in such a way as to recreate a whole sheep. Seriously, if you're going then be ready to throw your clothes in the wash straight after. Or invest heavily in Febreze.

After we went there we ended up in some shops, then karaoke and all the while leaving this miasma of burnt sheep everywhere we went. It's a small store - just one bar, no tables - and it's been packed and full of people waiting to eat both times I've been. I think their extractor fans do their best but they just can't keep up.

Doesn't help that apparently lamb is a stinky, smoky meat to cook.

But all that's really by the by because it's a great place.

I always love places with menus that don't mess around (witness Hamburger Risa's entire menu: Hamburger) and this place has jingisukan... and then side dishes such as rice and kimchee. And that's it. Their kimchee was very good too, but not exactly the point. You can also get those great dai-jockey beers (as illustrated above) that are about the size of your head. In that photo everything looks pretty small, but it's really not, it's just that the beers are comically large.

It's famous for good reason, it's the best jingisukan I've had and I've stuck at least one of their stores on my map so off you go. Go stink of dead sheep like I did.

Sunday via Monday No. 2

This Sunday post is brought to you by Alex, Monday, the grace of the blogger date function, the letters S, B and the number 7.

Having stayed up all night Saturday, my weekend continued apace when Conrad and Yoko arrived from Tokyo. We did a few sights and some Ramen and some catching up, then for dinner we went out to Sapporo Bier Garten, the Genghis Khan / Jingiskan beer hall by the beer museum. Here are Conrad and Yoko, sure, sure, they look like nice people, but I draw your attention to the fishtank Conrad got:


I'm pretty sure that in the time of Genghis Khan, that would have been an actual human skull. Seriously, later on he drowned an otter in there. I have no idea where he got the otter from, but it was awesome.

The beer garden involves eating lots of lamb and drinking beer, but more than that it involves a lot of inhaling lamb. It's two floors, each a big banquet hall full of lots of Hokkaido-shaped hot plates giving off great gouts of meat-smoke. Holy moly that smell's gonna take some time to come out of my clothes, and I probably breathed in about two and a half sheep. This photo captures some of the smoke in the air:


After that karaoke for the second day in a row, which is always awesome with Conrad, and then onto Precious Hall. Precious Hall, which is probably my favourite club in the world, was made even more awesome than usual because it was the 5th Birthday of Synapse, a great electronic promotions company in Sapporo and Ryuta, the organiser, had laid on free food (and a free make-up corner) for everyone. This time I didn't stay until the first train, but I was never gonna be able to post after that.

Andy's Continuing Adventures in the Distant North

So hey Andy, since we went to the zoo you've experienced even more of the dazzling, glittering life that awaits all denizens of Hokkaido when they step out of their front doors. Today we ate Jingiskan (aka: Genghis Khan, a kind of mutton yaki-niku that's famous in Sapporo) how was that?

It was good. We ate a lot of meat, but it was delicious, and we also had some Hokkaido potatoes. They were very tasty. And lots of onion. I think I can still taste onion in my mouth.

Yeah, it was very satisfying I thought. Remember that was Hokkaido lamb too. You might as well have been eating Hokkaido SOIL Andy, that's how authentic it was. As real as the dirt beneath your Grandfather's fingernails. Also you walked the whole length of Odori park, how was that?

It was pretty good. Like you said, every section had something of interest, and I think there were 12 sections to it, if I remember correctly. there were some fountains, some statues, and a slide which I slid down. We saw the TV Tower and we could see Sapporo Battle Tower. I liked the trees, and seeing the colours of the autumn leaves on a crisp, sunny day.

That's pretty much it you know, after you see the Sapporo Beer Museum tomorrow you can probably just turn up and ask for your official Sapporo resident's permit. Then you can get free Sapporo beer and potatoes everywhere you go. FACT. Also yesterday we went out to Geijutsu no Mori, Sapporo Art Park, way south of the city and had a good look around the sculpture park. I really liked it, especially the Antony Gormley hidden away at the top of the hill. How about you?


I liked that one too. I also liked the big shiny steel poles with loops of wire between them. I could imagine lying underneath and looking up at the clouds through the loops. Looking at the picture will help you understand:


Then there was the secret hidden garden, including the seven water fountains, the cone in which our voices echoed wonderfully, and the stream which seemed to work by magic, because it took a long time to figure out where the water was coming from.


Do you remember this one Alex? It was called 'Woman with Cock'.


Yes. Yes, I do remember that one Andy. If I remember rightly the description in the guide referred to her as "mannish" or "manly" which put the fox amongst the chickens even more as it were.

Sheep: Sinister, Delicious

Tonight we had Jingiskan (the spelling is pretty much up for grabs on that one, it's a loose japanized derivation of Genghis Khan) for the first time in ages. Jingiskan being a Sapporo speciality, a sort of Mongolian mutton/lamb barbecue that's pretty close to Japanese yakiniku. Also it probably evolved in Hokkaido because the island is positively brimming with sheep. Well, there are a few.

It was fantastic, but the place had actually sold out of the Hokkaido lamb, so we had to opt for the imported stuff from Iceland. Which inspired this post, because it was also delicious, but even when both kinds are on the menu the Icelandic lamb is half the price of the Hokkaido lamb.

Half the price! What do you think the food miles are on that Icelandic stuff? I'll tell you! From the capital of Hokkaido to the capital of Iceland: 4988.7 miles. That stuff had travelled almost 5000 miles, and it was half the price of the lamb from the same island we're on. And it was delicious too! Which means that either Iceland is covered from shore to shore with sheep so that they're pretty much giving the meat away, or actual Hokkaido lamb tastes like the flesh of the Gods.

Or, of course, they know that people round here are very proud of their local produce... still, 5000 miles!

In other news, sheeps eyes are freaky and unnerving.