What do you expect the most to taste during the trip to Hokkaido?

Hokkaido is one of the most recommendable places in Japan for foodies, famous for a variety of seafood, healthy and tasty vegetables and fruits, and unique sweets.

Wait. These are not enough. Let me put one more on your list. Hove you ever heard about “Soup Curry”? It is definitely one of those you shouldn’t miss if you visit Hokkaido.

Before start talking about soup curry, let me mention how much curry is loved by Japanese people. As you might think, curry is not original Japanese cuisine. They are imported culture originally from India. But once it is imported, it was rapidly accepted and arranged into Japanese tastes.

Now you can find them everywhere in Japan. Japanese curry is usually thick, contains small pieces of vegetables or meats, and comes on the same plate as rice. If you drop into an Indian restaurant, you can have those in Indian style, which is also thick, in a small bowl, and comes with rice or naan bread.

Soup curry is not likely to neither of them. Firstly, it is thin and smooth which is the reason why it’s called “soup” curry. People make it with various spices and herbs, and plenty of broth which is made from chicken, beef, vegetables, seafoods, and so on. Recipe of soup is the hidden secret of each restaurant. Literally every restaurant has its special recipes, and unique taste or flavour.

Secondly, it is full of big chunks of ingredients. No matter they are vegetables, meats, or some other, the sizes of their chunk are always big in soup curry. Deep-fried vegetables and entire one chicken leg are so popular in it. Normally Soup Curry comes with a plate of rice and eaten by dumping the rice into, but sometimes it has quite enough quantity with itself even without rice. Trying it with an empty stomach is strongly recommended.

The very first soup curry was created in Sapporo city, which is the capital city of Hokkaido, where you can find hundreds of soup curry restaurants today. The fist soup curry was made by combining the techniques of Indian curry and Chinese medicinal cuisine, aiming at health and healing purpose. Therefore, many soup currys made with healthy and medicinal recipes still now.

Recently, soup curry is widely spread in not only in Hokkaido but entire Japan. You can find restaurants in other parts of Japan as well, but I personally would like to recommend you to visit one of the old, long-lasting restaurants in Sapporo to taste the original, authentic taste of it.