On August 17th, I went out to hang in Sapporo with a couple friends. One of them is leaving Hokkaido for good, and so I was very grateful she arranged the hangout so we could see each other for the last time in a while. Originally, I was not planning on being in Sapporo so soon after getting back from my Taiwan trip, but I’m not saying no to socializing.
We were set to meet up for lunch at 11:30, and I arrived in Sapporo around an hour prior, in the meantime, I headed over to Baristart Coffee in hopes of grabbing a treat and a drink to tide over my hunger until actual lunch time. I had hoped it’d be a chill cafe with seats and wifi, but turns out, it’s more of a hole in the wall store, with only a standing counter area with room for 5 people max. What was more, was the mini line of tourists standing outside. This place does have 1000 reviews on Google, the menu is all in English, and I ended up next to an Australian couple inside, and sandwiched between a Chinese and Korean in line outside. I ended up with a regular iced matcha latte (650 yen) made with a Okumidori high quality matcha from Kyoto, and I chose to get a cocoa powder and chocolate chip cookie (500 yen) from the selection. The matcha latte was really good, smooth, not too bitter, and was perfect. I took the cookie home, microwaved it a bit the next day, although it was quite soft, was very chocolate-y, not too sweet, and huge. A bit of touristy destination, the goods are yummy, but a bit expensive. They do have wifi though.
I did try chilling at the cafe when I found an open counter space, but standing just doesn’t hit the same as sitting and lounging around, so with the leftover time I had, I headed over to the Norbesa building nearby in hopes of scoring some newly released gacha.
When 11:30 was nearing, I headed over to Sorriso dell’ Orso, recommended by my friend, and also a gelato place in my bookmarks I’ve been meaning to try out. All of us got the Pizza Fritta set (1200 yen), which came with a folded fried pizza calzone-type situation (flavor of choice, I got margherita), a salad, a drink (I got iced tea), and a double scoop of gelato, which by itself would probably already be around 600 yen.
The iced tea was very refreshing, and I liked that it wasn’t the sweetened kind, and actually tasted like pure tea. The salad was although a basic leaf, cherry tomato and bell pepper salad, the light simple oil dressing actually made it really good. The fried pizza calzone thing was pretty good, nicely crispy from being fried, and with not too much sauce inside, some nice mozzarella cheese pulls, and even a few basil leaves. For my gelato, I sampled a few of their flavors (everything was so good and they had some interesting ones!), I ended up with the peach since it’s peach season, and the hojicha chocolate chip. The peach literally tasted like I was eating a peach, but in creamy gelato form. I’d say it tastes like peach juice, but not a juice or concentrate you’d buy, but a literal bite-into-a-peach taste. The hojicha was super roasty, and the chocolate pieces were like various sizes of chocolate shards throughout. Super yummy, all the gelato was creamy, and I’d definitely recommend.
We didn’t really have any other set plans, so we decided to take a stroll down to and around Nakajima Park. Since it was a nice day out, we decided to rent a paddle boat in the lake. One boat is 800 yen, and up to three adults can fit in one boat (though 2 children can take the place of one adult, so you can theoretically fit 6 kids on a boat?).
We walked around for a bit, browsed some gacha for a bit, and although I just came back from Taiwan, we ended up at Din Tai Fung, because one of my friends wanted to eat some xiao long bao. I was also feeling snacky at that point, so my other friend and I shared a pork egg fried rice. Rice was yummy, a bit oily, but the pork strips in it tasted very good and added an extra element to the dish.
My friend felt like next train would have been good timing to go home, so we parted ways with her at the station. Meanwhile, it was around 4:30, I decided to head to Akarenga Terrace to grab some free boba at Gong Cha and then wait for my bus too. Read about my boba here!
I got on the bus at 5 to go home, and officially said goodbye to my friend leaving Japan. It’s a goodbye for now, and I wish her the best of luck!
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