Hokkaido– tag –

The Uni Coast: Sea Urchin and the Geography of Japan's Cold Shores Four out of every five sea urchins landed in Japan come from two stretches of coastline. It is not an accident of fishing effort. It is a map of where kelp grows — and uni is, in the most literal sense, kelp that has been eaten and rearranged. On a g...

The Cold Waters of Hokkaido: Where Kombu Begins Before the dashi, before the soup, before the dish — there is the sea. Japan's kombu culture begins in the cold currents off Hokkaido, where three distinct coastlines produce three entirely different flavors. Pull a strip of dried kombu from its wrapping and hold it up...