Hokkaido Winter 2013 北海道冬季之旅 - Kani Shogun かに将軍

Visited 09.02.2013

Crabs! A delicacy that is well liked by many people. In Singapore, we are more familiar with Sri Lankan crabs, which are cooked in various sauces - chili, black pepper, salted eggs, etc. Crabs found in Hokkaido is generally very much larger in size, such as king crabs, snow crabs and hairy crabs. As compared to what we get in Singapore, crabs are typically not cooked in savoury sauces here, but boiled/steamed to retain natural flavours of the meat. And because of the abundance of crabs here, crab feasting has become one of the main highlights of tour packages in Hokkaido. There are many restaurants in Sapporo specialising in crabs cuisine (quite easily identified by the gigantic crab replicas hung outside their shops). Followed recommendation in travel guide book and came to Kani Shogun, which is located Susukino district. Managed to also download a discount voucher for selected set meals from their website.

Bottom right: Crab sashimi

Kani Shogun comprised of four levels of dining space. Despite that, we had to queue for quite a while (at least 20 minutes) as the restaurant was full house that day (most probably due to the crowd from nearby Susukino Ice Festival as well).

Ordered their 8 and 9 course snow crab suki course as we wanted to have a steamboat equivalent on CNY eve (another reason was that this set meal was featured on the discount voucher that month...). This crab meal was definitely not cheap - cost about 5000 yen per person. Course came with tofu with crab meat, fried crab dumplings, fried crab meat stuffed in shell, steamed crab, crab sashimi and a steamboat to "shabu shabu" juicy crab legs. Tried raw crab for the very first time - meat was fresh but was not used to the texture of sashimi version. With the help of the waitress, the leftover soup was transformed to a porridge that contained rich flavours of seafood and vegetables and I like it a lot.

Dinning experience was not at its best that day as waiting time between dishes were longer than usual. Will love to try hairy crabs next time, though need to save up for such extravagant meal again!

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Kani Shogun かに将軍
札幌市中央区南4西2-14-6
Opening hours: 1100 - 2300 hrs
Walk out from Susukino subway station (on Tozai line) Exit 1; or Hosuisusukino subway station (on Toho line) Exit 2
http://www.kani-syougun.com/

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