Delicious, Muslim-Friendly Donburi in Sapporo Airport

I love Japanese food and it saddens me sometimes how I can't eat many of the delicious food that Japan has to offer. This is why whenever I discover a new muslim-friendly restaurants in Japan, I become very excited!

While waiting for our flight to Tokyo in the New Chitose Airport, we found a muslim-friendly restaurant called Donburi Chaya in the domestic departures terminal. I was elated! Never before have I tried an authentic Donburi in Japan! So, I embarked on a little adventure, trying to find this restaurant with a name that is written in a mix of Hiragana and Kanji letters. At last, with the help of the airport map and my rusty knowledge on Hiragana, we were able to find it!

The restaurant offers a lot of muslim-friendly meals, as most of the dishes in their menu are seafood-based. Having missed breakfast, we were extremely hungry, so we ordered a lot from the menu: salmon sashimi and tamago over rice, scallops, grilled fish and grilled squid. The plates and tablewares for muslim-friendly meals are treated separately from the general ones, they even had halal soy sauce, too! ( I could eat salmon sashimi with shoyu!!)

The salmon and tamago donburi that I ordered was simply delicious. It was served with a generous amount of fresh and thick salmon slices! The scallops donburi ordered by my mom was another crowd pleaer, too. It was sauteed with scallions and each scallop was very tender!

Both the grilled fish and squid came as a set, served with white rice and a bowl of soup. The two dishes are perfect for sharing! I especially liked the grilled squid, as it was cooked in a savoury sauce and topped with bonito flakes. It reminded me a lot of takoyaki, sans the batter!

I hope that there will soon be more restaurants like this around Japan, as I am starting to get bored of having to eat Indian food (don't get me wrong though, I love cheese nan and saag paneer with all my heart!) every time we go to Japan. If you're flying domestic from the New Chitose Airport, drop by Donburi Chaya for their fresh and authentic dishes!

Donburi Chaya
New Chitose Airport
Domestic Terminal Building 3F
http://www.new-chitose-airport.jp/en/spend/shop/s117.html

Halal Ramen in Sapporo

It's that time of the year again, it's time for our annual Japan trip!

This time, I visited Japan in summer. The perfect time to visit Hokkaido and enjoy the beautiful view of blooming lavender. In this post, however, I'll be writing about an exciting part of our journey to Hokkaido: food. Particularly, the halal ramen that we had in Susukino, Sapporo. 

If you're travelling to Sapporo, I highly recommend staying in the city center around the Sapporo station area. The area is near numerous shopping destinations (there is a huge shopping complex nearby, which includes a gigantic Daimaru, Stellar Place, Tokyu Department Store and a Bic Camera). More importantly, the Sapporo station is only two stops away from Susukino, a vibrant area of the city. 

In Susukino, nestled an authentic Japanese ramen restaurant called Ramen Horyu. After discovering the fact that the restaurant was established in 1957, I became even more excited to try their ramen! 

The inside of the shop was pretty small, with a capacity of around 30 people. So, we were lucky that we didn't have to queue outside. Summer evening in Sapporo was still pretty cold!

The restaurant have four selections of ramen that are muslim-friendly, served with two main types of broth: miso-based (not spicy and peppery-bean paste broth (spicy). I highly recommend the Genghis Khan in peppery bean-paste broth, which is a ramen served in spicy borth and generous slices of lamb meat. 

The ramen was servced with mushroom and slices of scallions. It was the perfect meal for a chilly evening! However, the portion of the ramen was a lot, despite us ordering the normal-size portion. Personally, I think that the normal-size portion can definitely be shared by two or three people! 

Ramen Horyu has one or a few more branches across Sapporo. However, the only branch that serves muslim-friendly ramen is this one in Susukino. If you're interested to come and have a taste of this delicious ramen, don't forget to save this address!

Ramen Horyu Souhonten 

Minami 6 jo Nishi 3, Chuo-ku, Sapporo-city, Hokkaido

Halal Yakiniku in Tokyo

During my trip to Japan last December, I stumbled upon a cool Yakiniku place in Yoyogi that had such an authentic Japanese feel to it. The place is called Satsuma Tanden Yoyogi, a Japanese restaurant that serves Halal-ceritified Yakiniku. Of course, the most exciting part of visiting the restaurant is the part where I got to experience the taste of Japanese wagyu while actually being in Japan itself. 

The restaurant exterior and interior looked so amazing to me because it gave off the vibe of traditional Japanese restaurants, which made tourists like me feel like I was being adventurous (it is hard for moslems to be adventurous when traveling abroad because a lot of the 'authentic' food places or restaurants are not halal-certified!). I was really glad to see the restaurant's confidence in placing the halal sign right at the entrance. In the sign, it was also mentioned that it is Tokyo's first halal Yakiniku restaurant. 

From a wide range of cut choices, we settled for wagyu steak, which was greatly marbled and tender. What made the dining experience even more amazing was the savory sesame soy sauce that we used as the Yakiniku dip. The sauce was so good that we ended up buying two bottles of it to consume at home. We were so happy to find the soy sauce to be halal-certified as well because Japanese seasoning, especially sauces, are usually made with hints of alcohol or mirin (some sort of Japanese sweet cooking wine). 

The prices of the food can be a little expensive, but it all depends on the kind of cuts that you choose. The wagyu steak price could go up to about 2000 yen per serving! I would recommend getting the lunch/dinner set, as it comes with a choice of drinks, rice, soup and salad. However, I would also highly suggest you to splurge in the restaurant because it's seriously that good and we don't get to experience halal yet authentic Japanese Yakiniku everyday, do we?