The tables, pit stops, ice cream parlours and tempura maestros to know on Japan's tastiest island

"My friend Megumi, a classical musician from Tokyo who really likes to eat, takes trips to Sapporo "just for the food". She is not alone: the route between Tokyo's Haneda and Sapporo's New Chitose airports is one of the busiest domestic flight paths in Japan. Before I visited Sapporo, I called her. "Make sure to bring two stomachs," she advised. The city is the capital of Hokkaido, the most northerly of Japan's main islands, which contains more than 20 per cent of the country's landmass, but only about four per cent of its population. The island's cold waters are home to some of the world's most prized sea urchins and crabs, as well as much of the fish used by top sushi chefs. Fed by mountain springs, its unspoilt valleys are home to remarkably flavourful produce. And with its swathes of grazing land, Hokkaido is also the country's leading producer of beef, lamb and dairy: the last two ingredients are rarely used elsewhere in Japan, something that accounts for the character of eating in Sapporo."

"Sapporo looks and feels newer than much of Japan. A lot of its centre is the result of a boom spurred on by the 1972 Winter Olympics, and its skyline is a monument to this rather prosaic moment in architectural history. The traditional order palpable in the rest of Japan, with its myriad unspoken rules, seems remote here. Residents wear shorts in four-degree weather and are far more likely to strike up a conversation with a foreigner than locals in Osaka or Kyoto."

Sapporo serves as Hokkaido's capital and showcases the island's rich food resources. Cold northern waters provide prized sea urchins, crabs and fish used by top sushi chefs. Mountain-fed valleys yield notably flavorful produce, while extensive grazing land makes Hokkaido a leading producer of beef, lamb and dairy. Those dairy and lamb ingredients shape a distinctive local cuisine. The city is known for hearty dishes such as ramen, barbecue and spicy soup curry, alongside increasingly ambitious restaurants. Rapid postwar development around the 1972 Winter Olympics gives Sapporo a newer, more informal, frontier-like atmosphere.

Read at CN Traveller