Field Trip: Otaru

(Visited in February, 2011)

Sapporo is the capital city of Hokkaido Prefecture, and from here, it takes less than one hour to get to one of popular sight-seeing spots called Otaru (小樽). “Otaru” means “River running through the sandy beach”, in Ainu origin. (Most of city names in Hokkaido are from Ainu language.) This day, my friend and I took a train and went to Otaru, just hanging out.

Lunch at Very Very Strawberry

Otaru faces the Ishikari Bay, and people always enjoy fresh seafood. My friend took me one of popular Italian restaurant in Otaru, called Very Very Strawberry. This brick house restaurant has special atmosphere; once we entered the restaurant, warmness of the restaurant and good smell of pizza wrapped us.

Pizza Margherita

Pizza Margherita, 1180 yen, was a bit smaller than I expected, but it was delicious. It would have been better if there were a bit more basil on the pizza. Simple, but good.

Tagliatelle with Jumbo Fresh Shrimp and Tomato sauce

This Botan Ebi (ぼたんエビ) was from Mashike area. Tomato sauce was in perfect condition, but why they cut the shrimp in half? Sorry to say, but this costs 1680 yen. I was expected to eat a bit more shrimp… Can they use at least 3 or 4 shrimps?

I really liked this restaurant, but I thought it was a bit pricy. Did I expect too much for their fresh seafood?

Walking on a street

Main street. There are many souvenir shops, especially Otaru’s famous arts and crafts. Everytime I visit Otaru, I always go to this Otaru Orgel Doh (小樽オルゴール堂: Music Box Museum). Some historical music boxes are displayed, and workers sometimes explain the functions and history for us, if you are lucky, you can hear the music as well. This building looks small, but once you entered the building, you will surprise how many music box you can try and buy as a souvenir. Don’t forget to check out this building, which was built in 1912.

Otaru Orgel Doh

http://www.otaru-orgel.co.jp/english/e_index.html

Some Yukidaruma (ゆきだるま: snowman) was displayed on the street. Cute!

Don’t forget to eat some seafood snack!

Besides music box, Otaru glass craft is also popular activity in Otaru. Taisho Glass House has several stores in this area, and my friend chose this Tombo Dama store to try out some small glass work. Yeah we made a bracelet with a glass ball~!

Taisho Glass House

http://taish847.tempdomainname.com/

Here is the bracelet I made. First, I chose one colored ball, which is sky blue. Then, choose two colors for added patterns. I chose green and pink. Under the instruction of a worker, I added 4 cute patterns on blue ball. My friend also made a same bracelet with different color patterns, and we chose small accessories to decorate besides the blue ball. We waited for a while to cool down, because we used a gas burner to heat up the glass ball. I am very satisfied this work. It was fun!!!

After all those, we stopped by at a small café and chatted for one hour. It was a nice weekend with my friend. If you have a chance to visit Sapporo, please don’t forget to stop by at Otaru.

Restaurant #10: Terrace Brasserie @ Grand Park Otaru, Otaru

Ocean View

The hotel, Grand Park Otaru, had been operated by Hilton group until a few years ago. Now, Park Hotel Group bought out this hotel as a first group owned in Japan. The group headquarter is in Singapore, therefore I was expecting that the restaurants in this hotel might have good Singapore/Chinese food. (I saw some people's good reviews about it.)

This hotel is located in front of the Ishikari Bay, and they operate several restaurants. Terrace Brasserie is one of them. It was a find day, and the view was beautiful from widely opened window. My friend and I went there for lunch buffet, at 11:30am, the time they just opened. We only saw a few people at first, but five minutes later, a group of around 50 people came in and it became chaos fighting for food.

First plate

A wide selection of foods. Limited space, but they sometimes change the items alternately during the lunch time, so it is better to go back to the food section and check it frequently! I wanted to eat most of the food, so I didn’t eat any bread this time. I saw, however, their bread section looked gorgeous, as well as the salad bar.

Unfortunately, there were no Singapore dishes this time; not that I aware of. They have some on their a la carte menu. In stead of that, Australian Fair held this time; they cook the Australian beef. Hmmm… The taste was fine, but I, to be honest, always prefer Japanese beef. Their Italian section had not have many choices, though seafood gratin was creamy and delicious, and new items were coming in and out.

Second Plate

Two things I really liked about this buffet. First, their Chinese dishes were tasty, especially shumai (シュウマイ). They prepared seafood fried rice, egg soup, fish and a few other dishes. Egg soup was also tasty, but the taste was light enough so that we can eat more. Second, their keema curry was delicious, especially the rice! Their rice was so tender. Restaurants’ rice is usually way overcooked, yet this rice was in perfect condition. How did they cook like this?

Third Plate

On the whole, all the foods were prepared well, and were tasty enough. I found that the quality of their food is high enough compared to other hotel buffets. Besides, beautiful ocean view easily made us satisfied.

After the amusing lunch, my friend and I went to Otaru city and enjoyed the relaxing holiday walking at Otaru promenade. It was a beautiful day.

p.s. Please check a 10% discount coupon on the Internet. Also, you may accumulate gourmet points on your ANA mileage club card.

Total: 3564 yen (1886 yen x 2, 10% discount, consumption tax 169 yen)

Terrace Brasserie @ Grand Park Otaru
11-3, Chikkou
Otaru, 047-0008
0134-21-3111
http://www.parkhotelgroup.com/Default.aspx?alias=www.parkhotelgroup.com/jp-gpot