produce | Blue Lapis Road

BI.BLE, Biei (美瑛), Hokkaido (北海道), Japan, 2019.06.21

Day 7 (3/5).

Driving north from Farm Tomita in Nakafurano (中富良野) brought us to Biei (美瑛町) in half an hour. We followed the GPS to look for Bi.Ble, a French restaurant that caught our attention while we researched for the trip. Recommended by a guidebook, we were attracted by Bi.Ble’s dishes made from local ingredients, its pleasant timber interiors, and its picturesque setting surrounded by wheat fields. The entire compound is consisted of four buildings: a culinary school and a staff/student dormitory occupying two former school buildings, a new one-storey hotel and a new restaurant facing a wheat field. With the aid from GPS and Google Map, we didn’t have trouble finding the place and arrived at Bi.Ble at around 11:30am. We didn’t make a reservation, and were lucky to get the last table available. Other than the seafood of Shiretoko, dining at Bi.Ble to sample some of the best ingredients from Furano and Biei turned out to be one of the most remarkable meals we had throughout the trip.

Occupying the former Hokuei Elementary School, the Ecole Hoteliere Etude is a culinary school affiliated with Bi.Ble Restaurant.

It is green everywhere in Biei, even the school building.

Across from the school building stands a minimalist building cladded with green metal panels. This new addition to the school complex serves as a hotel with several guestrooms facing the wheat field.

Each hotel room has a decent window.

Each room enjoys the view of the picturesque wheat field below.

Bi.Ble Restaurant is located at the far end of the compound.

Biei is well known for its high quality wheat and flour. In July, the wheat would turn yellow. By August, the wheat would be ready for harvest.

The first things that greeted our arrival at Bi.Ble was the famous bakery and its fireplace.

Almost all tables in the restaurant had been reserved. Came without booking, we arrived just in time to sit down at the last available table facing the wheat field.

Beyond the wheat field lies the distant volcanic mountain ranges of Daisetsuzan and Tokachi, whose ashes produce the highly fertile soil of the area.

Perhaps the easiest way to appreciate the taste of Biei is to sample the simplest and purest ingredient of all, freshly baked bread made from the wheat of Biei.

Appetizers made with local pork and produces decorated with a touch of nature.

The dining experience at Bi.Ble was a fusion of French culinary techniques and Japanese aesthetics with the palette of Hokkaido.

From the local volcanic soil, even the most ordinary ingredients like carrot and potato tasted better.

Each dish was like a minimalist painting to us.

Each dish came in small portions, but it ended up quite a filling meal after all the courses.

A fine dessert to ended a special meal.

After visiting the lavender farms and floral fields of Furano, Bi.ble has given us another brilliant way to appreciate what the unique landscape of Central Hokkaido has to offer.

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Introduction
HOKKAIDO ROAD TRIP, Hokkaido (北海道)

Day 1 – from Tokyo to Shiretoko Peninsula
Day 1.1 TSUKIJI OUTER MARKET (築地場外市場)
Day 1.2 ARRIVAL IN SHIRETOKO, Utoro (ウトロ)

Day 2 – Utoro
Day 2.1 SHIRETOKO FIVE LAKES (知床五湖)
Day 2.2 UTORO FISHERMAN’S WIVES CO-OPERATIVE DINER (ウトロ漁協婦人部食堂)
Day 2.3 FUREPE FALLS (フレペの滝)

Day 3 – Rausu
Day 3.1 RUSA FIELD HOUSE (ルサフィールドハウス)
Day 3.2 JUN NO BANYA (純の番屋)

Day 4 – Rausu
Day 4.1 MOUNT RAUSU (羅臼岳)
Day 4.2 FANTASTIC ORCAS, Nemuro Strait (根室海峡)

Day 5 – Lake Mashu & Lake Akan
Day 5.1 SUNRISE AT LAKE MASHU (摩周湖)
Day 5.2 MOUNT MASHU TRAIL (摩周岳) , Teshikaga (弟子屈)
Day 5.3 SILENT NIGHT AT LAKE AKAN (阿寒湖)

Day 6 – On the road from Lake Akan to Furano
Day 6.1 FISHERMEN BELOW MISTY OAKAN (雄阿寒岳), Lake Akan (阿寒湖)
Day 6.2 TREATS OF OBIHIRO (帯広), Tokachi (十勝)
Day 6.3 ARRIVING IN FURANO (富良野)

Day 7 Furano & Biei
Day 7.1 LAVENDER BUDS, Nakafurano (中富良野)
Day 7.2 FARM TOMITA (ファーム富田), Nakafurano (中富良野)
Day 7.3 BI.BLE, Biei (美瑛)
Day 7.4 PATCHWORK ROAD & PANORAMA ROAD, Biei (美瑛)
Day 7.5 NINGLE TERRACE (ニングルテラス)

Day 8 – from Furano to Otaru
Day 8.1 CHURCH ON THE WATER (水の教会), Hoshino Resorts Tomamu (星野リゾートトマム)
Day 8.2 HILL OF THE BUDDHA (頭大仏), Makomanai Takino Cemetery (真駒内滝野霊園)
Day 8.3 SEAFOOD, CANAL, & HISTORY, Otaru (小樽)
Day 8.4 RAINY NIGHT IN OTARU, Otaru (小樽)

Day 9 – Yochi & Sapporo
Day 9.1 NIKKA YOICHI DISTILLERY (余市蒸溜所), Yoichi (余市)
Day 9.2 SOUP CURRY NIGHT

Day 10 – Sapporo
10.1 OKKAIDO SHRINE (北海道神宮 )
10.2 MORIHICO COFFEE (森彦珈琲本店)
10.3 KITAKARO SAPPORO HONKAN (北菓楼札幌本館)
10.4 SATURDAYS CHOCOLATE
10.5 GOTSUBO OYSTER BAR(五坪)
10.6 MOUNT MOIWA (藻岩山) & RAMEN HARUKA (ラーメン悠)

Day 11 – Sapporo
11.1 FORMER HOKKAIDO GOVERNMENT OFFICE (北海道庁旧本庁舎)
11.2 RED STAR & GENGKIS KHAN, Sapporo Beer Museum (サッポロビール株式会社)

October 4, 2019 | Categories: Furano and Biei, Hokkaido, Japan, Japan: Hokkaido 2019 | Tags: Architecture, bakery, Bi.Ble, Biei, bread, cuisine, culinary, 美瑛, farm, food, French, Furano, Hokkaido, Japan, Japanese, lunch, produce, restaurant, steak, wheat | Leave a comment

DAY 10 (2/2): FARMER’S MARKET, United Nations University (東京国連大学), Aoyama (青山), Tokyo (東京), Japan, 2018.06.03

While Oedo Market offers customers things that are meant to be kept for a long long time, the Farmer’s Market at United Nations University (UNU) is all about enjoying the moment with fresh local produces and food products. Held every Saturday and Sunday at the convenient location between Shibuya and Omotesando metro station, the UNU Farmer’s Market offered us an opportunity to sample the freshest local ingredients and snacks right at the trendy fashion district of Tokyo. Good coffee, refreshing apple juice, tasty roast pork, beef stew, juicy tomatoes, and fresh vegetables left a lovely final remark in the memories of our Japan trip 2018, a journey that brought us onto the Alpine trails of Kamikochi, into milky onsens of Shirahone, fairy-tale villages of Gokayama and Shirakawa-go, lovely cities of Matsumoto, Takayama and Kanazawa, and then back to the lively metropolis of Tokyo.

We arrived at the Farmer’s Market at UNU at around 11:30.

Local honey, fruit jam, and apple juice were sold at the first few market stalls that we encountered.

At one end of the market, a small seating area was set up for customers who bought the snacks or drinks from the vendors or fast food vans.

Depending on the season, Japan is one of the best places in the world to sample high quality fruits.

The fresh green peppercorns reminded us of the peppercorn fields we visited years ago in Cambodia.

Lavender is widely available in Japan in the summer.

The roast pork of Kome Shiru Na is a must-try at the market.

The high quality roasted pork definitely worth the waiting time.

The roasted pork became the first dish of our lunch at the market.

Local apple juice and fresh ice coffee, perfect for the sunny afternoon.

Too bad we couldn’t bring any flowers back to Hong Kong.

On the other side of the market, clothing and handcrafts could also be found.

The van of books was a cute feature at the market. We sat down at a table for some beef stew. The air was relaxing but we knew it was about time for us to call it a day and return to our hotel to pick up our backpacks for the airport. Our amazing ten-day journey in Central Honshu was coming to an end.