On August 31st, I went out for a casual day-trip to Sapporo to catch some of the last remaining summer seasonal treats, and run some shopping errands. September’s just about to start, which means all the fall festivities are coming soon, along with two long weekends, and new fall foods.
First thing after getting off the bus was grabbing a Starbucks. I was going to make the seasonal pasta my brunch of the day, but I was hungry and couldn’t wait to get something in my stomach, so it was also a good opportunity to get the Sunshine Pineapple Frappucino before it gets replaced on September 4th with the new one (which I’m definitely getting). The “Sunshine” version is the one mainly advertised, but apparently within the last week of the availability, there’s a “Sunset” version, using yuzu sauce to give it an orange-y, more sunset apearance. I’m not a huge yuzu fan, so I just went with the basic Sunshine version.
Made up of just whipped cream, blended pineapple juice as the base, and sea salt jelly, the drink was really refreshing! The jelly was less salty than I thought it would, and tasted a lot like a sports drink (I guess that’s where the salt comes in?), vaguely grape-y, but not fruity at the same time. The rest of the drink was essentially a a pineapple smoothie, but still light with no milk or anything mixed in. Pretty cool (literally).
The thing I was looking forward to most was actually this seasonal scallop pasta from Afternoon Tea. It’s been around for a couple months, but I never had the opportunity to go try it, and it’s ending on September 4th, so this would be the last weekend to get it. I wanted to get the peach oolong tea as a drink set with it, but it seems like this location had sold out of it early (it was also supposed to be available until 9/4…so I just got the pasta by itself, which actually comes with bread.
The bread came actually warm and seemingly fresh, and it was super fluffy on the inside. It seemed like it was some sort of grain or wheat bread, because it definitely had a bit of that slightly nutty flavor, and definitely was not pure white bread. The pasta was very yummy, with a light buttery and lemony sauce, small scallops, and a couple sashimi-like big scallop pieces, with some mizuna leaves and parmesan sprinkled on top. A light pasta, wish there was some more scallops, but overall, very good.
After brunch, I went to the Tokyu Building to get a Kirby gacha for my sister, and they made an impromptu stop by GU where I made an impromptu purchase after seeing these ear cuffs (what can I say, I’m in my earcuff era).
I made my way down to the Tanukikoji area, and while I was there, I discovered a small gyoza festival happening next to Nijo Market. I had no idea this was happening, and popped in to see what kind of gyoza was there since I like gyoza. There were quite a few interesting selections, including beef, chicken, green onion, cheese, and a surprising amount of stands, all serving gyoza (along with a beer stand). I wanted to get something, so I went with a stand that advertised juicy meat-filled gyoza using garlic from Aomori, and opted to add their saue on top.
Now, when you think of gyoza, you think of that crispy brown bottom right? Seems like they had gyoza sitting on their griddle (yay fresh and fast!), but as I watched them package my order, my gyoza was very much not brown or crispy on the bottom, and instead they were soft, normal plump dumplings. I understand they want to get it out fast, but all the pictures had the normal crispiness, and I would be willing to wait for legit gyoza instead of the sad box I got…they packaged it so fast that I didn’t have time or the heart to ask if I could wait for a crispy one. They certainly were juicy, the skin was plump, soft, and just the right amount of thickness, and the sauce was slightly savory and tangy. Crispy gyoza would have made it so much better…
I was really in this area to search for a new manga that came out recently at Melonbooks for my boyfriend, but after scouring both Melonbooks and Animate for an hour, I could not find what he wanted. Oh well.
When in Sapporo, time to get a parfait, and while parfait-acceptable season is still around! I have a few parfait places on my list of places to-go, and after checking their social medias to see if they were doing anything seasonal, I saw that Cafe Noymond was doing a peach pistachio parfait as of a few days ago, and that sealed the deal. I actually went at a good time, when there was an open small table. and pretty soon after everyone else who came either had a reservation or were told needed to wait.
The Peach and Pistachio Parfait, came with their specialty gelato, specifically peach, pistachio, and milk, peach cheeseccake, a hard candy decoration, peach jelly at the bottom, corn flakes, and shiratama. The cheesecake was fine (as someone who is not a huge cheesecake person), with a vague peach aroma to it, and in the very thin slice, there was a peach piece in it. The peach gelato though, was very refreshing! It was sorbet-like in taste, not too sweet, and not too artificial. The pistachio gelato was really good, perfect punch of pistachio-ness, without being too nutty at the same time. The fresh peach slices on top were super juicy, and the milk gelato was light and silky. I think this is the first parfait I’ve had where the corn flakes actually got soggy, which was interesting.
On my way back to the station area, I took the underground and purchased an apple jam muffin from this small business vendor. The muffin was a bit dry and crumbly, and there was no apple or jammy taste at all. It might as well have been a plain one for cheaper. I felt scammed and very sad.
I was going to get boba at The Tea and then check out the China Festival over at Akarenga Terrace, but it turns out, they closed up this location Ausgut 22 and plan to move to Cocono September 12. I knew they were opening a location in Cocono with no real expected date, but I didn’t realize it would be entirely moving and no a new location. A bit frazzled from the plot twist of the century, I had to make do with boba from Gong Cha for the day.
I briefly checked out this year’s China Festival, and saw that there were cosplayers wearing traditional Chinese outfits (wasn’t sure if they were from some media or just dress-up), but it turns out they were all actual Chinese people. I could have sworn the one last year had boba and some more Taiwanese-cuisine, but this year it was a lot more mainland China stuff with all the cumin skewers and spicy stuff.
I bought my earl grey milk tea from Gong Cha, and got on the bus at 4 to go home. Read about my boba here!
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