54. Hakodate Morning Fish Market (Hokkaido, Japan)
Japanese fishermen arrive at Hakodate fish market before 5am. Surrounding sushi stands bustle to life to serve them food. Some of the day’s catch shows up immediately at the breakfast table.
The Hokkaido region is famous for its snowy crab and salty uni (sea urchin). We tasted them in many preparations as we wandered from stall to stall. They were barbecued, in triangle onigiris, and served raw on top of rice donburis. The fish stall owners, dressed in rubber boots and plastic aprons, would pause from hosing down their stands to serve us a sublime small bite for breakfast.
I was impressed by Arnau's ability to eat raw fish for breakfast. The only time he freaked out was when we realized that the head of our squid sashimi was still moving, 20 minutes into our meal.
Squid Calamari head still moving.
snowy crab soup, uni + ikura donburi, ebi sashimi, and calamari sashimi for breakfast!
Barbecuing a crab leg
Escaping snow crab
