Enjoying Hokkaido’s famous soup curry at Garaku Chitose Branch

22 August 2023

Our plan for our arrival day in Hokkaido is simple. Collect our rental car from Toyota-Rent a Car at the airport, check into our hotel, savour one of Hokkaido’s local cuisines during dinner and rest early. I did not fancy a long drive after picking up our rental car at the airport and chose to stay in Chitose instead of Sapporo as it is only a 5 minutes drive from Hokkaido’s New Chitose Airport.

We arrived in the evening after a 10-hour flight from Singapore that included an hour stopover in Taipei. Our hotel at Chitose is the Queen’s Chitose Hotel, a business hotel with free parking and good clean rooms.

Hokkaido has long been known throughout Japan for its food and soup curry is one of the great Hokkaido dishes that visitors should try. The dish is totally different from regular, thick Japanese-style curry with rice. The curry is watery, making it more of a soup dish than a curry. Hence the name.

There are many soup curry restaurants in Hokkaido serving this dish, each with their own secret recipe for the curry broth.

Garaku serves one of the best soup curries in Sapporo. I read somewhere that the primary reason behind the popularity of GARAKU is its original soup.

“The soup bouillon is made from flavours extracted by slowly boiling pork, chicken, and vegetables combined with a Japanese-style ‘dashi’ soup of dried skipjack tuna and mackerel further flavored with 21 different spices”.

Prior to our trip, I found that there is a branch of the popular restaurant located in Chitose. That was where we went for our dinner.

Unlike the main branch located in Sapporo, there are ample free parking spaces and no queue at the Garaku restaurant in Chitose.

Upon entry, I could smell the familiar smell of fragrant curry spices.

Waiting to be seated at the Garaku Chitose Branch even though there is no queue.

The decor of the restaurant is quite homely and warm. A chandelier with antelope horns hangs from the ceiling at the lobby area with wood panels and a small cactus garden.

Once seated, we were quickly served cups of iced water (typical of all Japanese restaurants in Hokkaido) and given an English menu.

We wanted to try the popular and limited quantities “Roasted Tender and Moist Pork Squares” and were not surprised to find that they were sold out.  All three of us ordered the “Yoichi wine fed pork shabu shabu with 7 kinds of mushrooms” instead.

    

Next, we were to choose the spiciness levels. As shown in the menu, 01 (not spicy) to 05 (very spicy) does not have additional charges. Those who breathe and eat fire can opt to pay extra yen for spiciness level from 06 to as high as 40!

All three of us chose level 05.

Rice is served in a separate bowl and we could also choose the amount of rice we wanted. The small (100g of rice) and medium (200g of rice) options have no additional charge while an additional 110 yen is charged for the large option with 350g of rice.

We chose 2 medium and 1 small portions. On hindsight, we should have chosen 3 medium portions as Sam has a good appetite.

We also have the options to add toppings. 

After a short wait, our soup curries with rice were served. Although this was our first time trying this dish, our expectations were high.

Love at first sight!

Our first soup curry in Hokkaido - Yoichi wine fed pork shabu shabu with 7 kinds of mushrooms. 

Hokkaido-grown rice, blended with 5 main healthy cereals and flavourfully finished with tumeric.

In addition to the 7 kinds of mushrooms, the beautiful bowl of yummy goodness included a boiled quail egg, broccoli, potatoes, a slice of crunchy lotus root, slices of carrot, some green sprouts and red paprika.

First sip the broth and taste the spices within. Unlike South East Asian curries, the curry broth has no coconut milk added and is hence watery in comparison. However, the spices within still pack a punch and are full of flavour.

Even although I am used to South East Asian spicy food, I was perspiring throughout my meal. Partly because there is little or no air-con in the restaurant during a hot summer night but mostly because I tends to perspire when I eat spicy food. Spice level 05 is very spicy! I think level 03 or 04 would have been ideal for me. 

I am normally not a fan of mushrooms but I enjoyed the fresh mushrooms and vegetables that came in the bowl. Especially delicious was the deep fried broccoli with its charred smoky flavour.

We finished every drop of the broth in all our bowls.

Before leaving, we actually bought a small bottle of Garaku’s premixed curry spices to bring home. I doubt we could recreate what we ate at home but we could always try.

Overall, our first taste of Hokkaido’s soup curry had been very positive. We would definitely try more soup curries when we visit Sapporo later during this trip.