Food Trends

Born in Sapporo, this is ramen built for the cold: a rich, fragrant miso broth slicked with melting butter and sweet corn, holding thick, curly noodles and toppings of pork and bean sprouts. Hearty, savory and deeply warming with every slurp.

Sapporo's modern obsession: a light, spiced consommé-like curry, brothy rather than thick, ladled around tender bone-in chicken and chunky roasted Hokkaido vegetables like pumpkin, lotus root and broccoli. You choose your spice level and spoon it over fluffy rice.

Hokkaido's beloved soul food: lamb and mutton grilled at your table on a domed cast-iron skillet, the juices running down into a mound of cabbage, onion and bean sprouts. Dipped in a sweet-savory soy sauce, it's smoky, communal and endlessly addictive.

A glistening bowl of vinegared rice buried under the day's freshest catch: sweet sea urchin, salmon roe, fatty salmon, scallops and crab. Sold at morning markets in Hakodate and Otaru, each spoonful tastes of Hokkaido's frigid, plankton-rich waters.

The island's prized treasure: red king crab with thick, sweet legs, snow crab with delicate flesh, and rich hairy crab. Served steamed, grilled, in hot pot or raw as sashimi, the cold-water meat is tender and luxuriously sweet, often dipped in melted butter.

Hokkaido uni is legendary, fattened on the abundant kombu kelp drifting in its cold seas. The creamy golden lobes melt on the tongue with a clean, briny sweetness and zero bitterness, served over rice, on sushi, or eaten straight from the shell.

Hakodate's port specialty, squid so fresh it shimmers. Served as ika-somen, sliced into translucent noodle-thin strands with soy and ginger, or as the famous dancing-squid bowl. Sweet, snappy and clean, it's the taste of the southern Hokkaido coast.

Hokkaido's punchy take on karaage: juicy chunks of chicken marinated in soy, garlic and ginger, then fried to a crackling, deeply seasoned crust. A pub-and-home favorite across the island, often squeezed with lemon and served with ice-cold beer.

Made from the island's famously rich dairy, this soft serve is impossibly creamy and milky. Beyond pure milk, look for iconic local flavors like purple Furano lavender, sweet corn and Yubari melon, swirled tall into a cone and devoured even in the snow.

Hokkaido's luxury fruit: an orange-fleshed cantaloupe grown in Yubari, prized for its intense aroma, honeyed juice and silky melting texture. Enjoyed as chilled wedges, melon parfaits or soft-serve, premium specimens fetch jaw-dropping prices at auction.