life's bits and pieces: Hokkaido Day 6 - Ishiya Chocolate Museum + Kobe Beef

Friday, February 15, 2013

Hokkaido Day 6 - Ishiya Chocolate Museum + Kobe Beef

Here we are at Ishiya Chocolate Museum. i think it's a wonderful place for children during Spring because of all the rides (it's called the Shiroi Koibito Park) they have here on the outside. But it's winter time now, so the rides are all stopped, the men are clearing snow from the roof, the weather is freezingly cold.

the scenary on the other hand is just perfect. beautiful. peaceful and calm.

Shiroi Koibito Park is a theme park by Ishiya, a local chocolate company. The company's flagship product is teh Shiroi Koibito cookie, which consists of two thin butter cookies and a layer of white chochocolate in between. It is one of the most famous souvenirs from Hokkaido.

But you can always purchase a box or two from Li Xiao Lu 狸小路 in Sapporo city. And loads more of the local snacks and candies from there too.

Shiroi Koibito Park is a theme park by Ishiya, a local chocolate company. The company’s flagship product is the Shiroi Koibito cookie, which consists of two thin butter cookies and a layer of white chocolate in between. It is one of the most famous souvenirs from Hokkaido.
The park consists of a free area with a shop, cafe and restaurant and a paid area with various chocolate related exhibits and, most interestingly, a few large windows through which visitors can observe the cookie production process in the factory. It is also possible to create your own cookies in hands-on workshops.
- See more at: http://gosapporo.com/things-to-do/history/ishiya-chocolate-factory/#sthash.jvHvj0Gj.dpuf

and on the insides, WOW. The workers are like christmas elves in their spacesuits, all geared up for serious quality checks on the wafer chocolates.

here's the cookie cutter machine...chomp chomp chomp.

that's me watching from above at the workers down below.

as the path in the museum is small, our guide told us to follow the cat's print and we will not lose our direction.

so many ornate tea cups here to serve chocolate. and gifts of tea cups from all over the world too.

The museum has a cafe where they serve drinks and cakes. It has this awesome view towards the mountains and it's truly picturesque.

after the short visit to the museum, it's time to settle our growling stomachs and we are having

THE ALL YOU CAN EAT YAKINIKU LUNCH!!!

And we have ordered a slice of KOBE BEEF which cost us 7000Yen. can't wait! I simply must try my mouth on this infamous Kobe beef.

momo, our guide told us to leave our winter jackets on the coach and make a dash for the restaurant so that we wouldn't come back to the coach smelling heavily like a piece of BBQ on our jackets. Ritey! I'm going to make a dash into the Asahi Beer Community Hall and since it's still the Lunar New Year, we were going to get a complimentary mug of Asahi beer to go with our BBQ!

a piece of fat to oil the Genghis Khan BBQ plate.

momo, showing hubs our piece of Kobe Beef...OMG, quickly give it to me!!!

here's a zoom in on the piece of meat. well marbled .. i can't rem what grade of Kobe Beef i ordered , somewhere in between A3 to A4... the fattier the meat, the smaller the number. It goes from A1 all the way to A7.