Hokkaido Super Local Gourmet: A unique yakitori experience at Tatsumi in Bibai.
It has become a custom for us to spend about a week every summer vacation in the countryside of Hokkaido, where my husband is from.
My parents-in-law have already passed away and we don't really have any business there, but since we've been coming every year since our son was one, it has somehow become a matter of course.
When people think of Hokkaido, they likely have a strong image of crab or seafood, but my husband's hometown is in the central part of the prefecture, which is inland. The culture is different from the coastal regions, and it is truly the countryside.
We arrived in that 'true countryside' again this year. Since we rarely do any special sightseeing, our main pleasure is the local gourmet food that my husband researches.
As with the 'Yakitori Kamijo' in Takikawa that I introduced the other day, the inland area's specialty is chicken.
The town of Bibai, which we pass through on the way from Chitose Airport to my husband's hometown, is a town that once flourished as a coal mining area and is also famous for its yakitori.
We decided to visit a popular restaurant called 'Yakitori Tatsumi'.
We visited by car, but it seems to be very close to the station and is a popular local spot. When we entered, we were guided to a seat with a tablecloth that had a Showa-era vibe.
By the way, when people think of yakitori here, they usually imagine 'thigh skewers,' but it seems that 'motsu (offal) skewers' are the standard here.
A website explaining Bibai yakitori had this written on it. I see.
Generally, when ordering yakitori, you choose the parts you want to eat, but in Bibai yakitori, various parts of the meat are skewered onto a single stick.
Skin, liver, heart, gizzard, neck, egg yolk, and thigh meat—the characteristic of Bibai yakitori is that you can enjoy the whole chicken without waste on a single skewer.
In Bibai, there remains a custom of welcoming guests from afar by cooking and serving the entire chicken without waste, and that legacy is reflected in Bibai yakitori.
I thought it was unusual to have various parts on a single skewer, but since I'm not very good with offal, I was a little hesitant to order it.
However, I thought I'd give it a try, so I ordered it.
The two skewers in the back are the motsu skewers, and the regular meat is listed on the menu as 'seiniku' (plain meat). The two skewers in the front are the seiniku.
I started with the motsu skewers. I don't know what parts they are, but if they taste good, that's fine! So I gave them a try.
Every part was tender, delicious, and had no gamey flavor. The strong salt seasoning makes it a perfect accompaniment for beer and other alcoholic drinks.
I thought the seiniku might be more standard, but when I tried it, it was perhaps breast meat? It was light but a little dry, and I realized that this restaurant is definitely known for its 'motsu skewers'.
Looking around, many people were drinking alcohol with piles of chicken giblet skewers as their snack.
Checking review sites, I saw that the chicken rice and chicken soba were also delicious, so I asked about them. The chicken rice was sold out, but they had chicken soba. Since the portion size was about half, I ordered it.
The rich chicken broth had a wonderful aroma.
Since my parents are from the Kansai region, I am basically a noodle person who prefers udon. I rarely eat soba, but perhaps because Hokkaido produces buckwheat flour, the soba was firm and delicious. The broth had a rich, full-bodied flavor from the chicken. The strong flavor paired perfectly with the crunchy green onions.
The very concept of yakitori here is different, so it felt like I had encountered a 'different culture.' While I still prefer regular chicken, the experience of realizing that this is what they call 'yakitori' was a fun cross-cultural experience, and I realized that exploring ultra-local gourmet food is quite enjoyable.
As for regular yakitori, the one at 'Yakitori Kamijo' in Takikawa was exquisite.
As I wrote in this article as well, I have a feeling that chicken gourmet food flourished in towns that prospered from coal mining because it was a salty food that hard manual laborers could eat with alcohol on their way home from work.
In the town of Mikasa, which is not far from here, chicken rice and yakitori have also become local specialties, so there seems to be a common thread after all.
In any case, these days I find it interesting to experience food cultures that are deeply rooted in a region.
Thank you for reading again today!