The 4th Otaru Mantis Prawn Festival （第4回おたる産しゃこ祭）

This is one of my favorite festivals in Hokkaido. Do you like mantis prawns? If so, or you never tried them, why don't you go to the Otaru Mantis Prawn Festival!!!

First, plz park your car at a city parking lot near the ocean, and follow the arrows.

Go along the canal, and

you will reach the venue! Wow! Wow! Wow! It's packed with a lot of people even though it is raining!!

As I join this festival every year, I know which food stall is popular!
First, I stood in a loooooooooooooong line in order to get "mantis prawn paella"!

See!!! It looks delicious, isn't it??? The rice absorbs the mantis juice a lot!

I love it! I really recommend this paella! Mantis prawns caught off Otaru are very big and tasty!!

Next, we will eat..................

"mantis prawn soup"!!! Yummy x 2!!

It has two big mantis prawns!!

We were getting thirsty! Look at the local beer stall!

Otaru beer, a microbrewery, has three kinds of beer↓

I chose "Donkel". Cheers!

We continued to eating mantis prawn dishes. Hahaha! Actually there are more than 20 food stalls in the venue.
How about "mantis prawn dumplings"↓ Hot! Hot! Hot!

Do you have any idea what the people are waiting for???

Boiled mantis prawns!!! The dish is very simple, but I really recommend it!The prawns were boiled just after being caught from the ocean! Sounds perfect, doesn't it??

Get rid of the shell, and eat it!! You don't have to put any seasonings on it! It is boiled in the salty water!

Next we enjoyed "mantis prawn buchimgae (Korean pancake)". Did we eat a lot??? (Yes!!!)

Don't forget abalones!!! They were caught off Otaru and very tender!!!

Are we in the heaven now???

We also bought "grilled mantis prawns"! Need another beer!!!

Last but not least, we bought "smoked saury sushi" produced by Mr. Mikuni, a famous French chef from Hokkaido!

They use cherry and oak chips for smoking. We really enjoyed the distinctive aroma!

We'll be back next year!!

■Where is Otaru?

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■Tour guide information■

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