Yoichi Sagra

Yoichi, home to this issue’s featured restaurant, is a small town of 18,000 in northwestern Hokkaido, past Otaru from Sapporo. The drive from New Chitose Airport takes an hour and a half, or two hours with snow on the ground. The town’s name has roots in the language of Hokkaido’s Indigenous Ainu people, and according to various theories may mean either “place with a hot spring,” after the springs in the upper reaches of the Yoichi River, or “place with snakes.” From the middle of the Edo Period through the 1950s, the port town had a thriving herring fishery, but today the boats bring in mainly shrimp, squid and flounder. The town is known for its apples, cherries, pears and other fruits, and for being one of Japan’s few centers of production for Western-style alcohol; its first whisky distillery was established in the 1930s and its first winery in the 1970s. Today Yoichi boasts the highest wine production in all of Hokkaido.

Yoichi Sagra is an Italian-style inn with three guestrooms, costing ¥38,500 ($290) for one night and two meals. Chef-owner Hiroto Murai shapes his cuisine around wines from Yoichi and other parts of Hokkaido. The prix fixe dinner (¥15,000) includes about 10 innovative courses, many of which make use of the region’s traditional food-preserving techniques.

“Although this area is blessed with abundant nature and foodstuffs, the climate is harsh. In winter, when the sea is rough, there are times when fishing boats can only go out twice a month, so we focus on vegetables and preserved foods as well,” Murai said.

For instance, the appetizer one December day was saba (mackerel) rui-be, a dish of fish frozen to preserve it and distribute the fat more evenly, which improves flavor. It paired perfectly with a local cider. Cannelloni stuffed with hatahata (Japanese sandfish) and wrapped in a dough made with mukago, the propagules of wild root vegetables, was served with salty, umami-rich shirogai mollusks fermented in salt and paired with wine made from aromatic Kerner white wine grapes.