The scallops we sell are from Aomori, not Hokkaido — it says so in the product name itself: Japanese Aomori Sashimi-Grade Large Hotate Scallops. Miss A's Handpick Fine Food is a Singapore premium grocer founded in 2017, online at missa.sg with a store at 421 East Coast Road. The mix-up is an easy one to make, and worth clearing up, because origin is the first thing to check on any scallop listing — ours or anyone's.
Why everyone assumes Hokkaido
As general knowledge, Hokkaido is Japan's most famous scallop region — for many shoppers "Japanese scallop" and "Hokkaido" have become the same word. So a page titled "Hokkaido scallop" feels right even when the scallops in the bag are from somewhere else entirely. Aomori, at the northern tip of Honshu, fishes the same cold northern waters and produces hotate of the same style: large, sweet, and graded for raw eating. The honest answer to "which is better?" is that both are respected origins — what matters is that the label tells you which one you're actually buying.
How to read a scallop label
Three things, in order. First, the origin should be in the product name, not buried or implied — the fine print is a friend here: it names where the scallops truly come from, and that is the detail worth trusting. Second, the grade: ours are sold as sashimi-grade, which is the claim that matters if you plan to eat them raw. Third, size and format: our Aomori hotate come as a 220g pack of large scallops, sized for searing whole or slicing for sashimi. You'll find them in the Seafood collection alongside the rest of the Japanese catch.
What our Aomori hotate are like
Large, sashimi-grade scallops from Aomori — sweet-fleshed, firm, and sold ready for the two jobs hotate do best: a hard, fast sear that leaves the centre translucent, or sliced thick and raw over warm rice. For the cooking itself — pan temperature, timing, and why you should never crowd the pan — our scallop cooking guide walks through it step by step, and the scallop and uni don recipe puts them over rice with uni, the way we'd serve them at home.
And what here really is Hokkaido
Two things on our shelves genuinely carry the Hokkaido name. Our bafun uni is harvested from Hokkaido's waters and fed on kombu — find it in the Uni collection. And our dried scallops, the 200g M-size packs for soups and stocks, state "Country of Origin: Hokkaido, Japan" on the product page. Sashimi-grade hotate from Aomori, dried scallops and uni from Hokkaido: each labelled as what it is. That's the standard to hold every shop to — starting with us.
FAQ
Are Miss A's scallops from Hokkaido?
No — our hotate are from Aomori, and the product name says so: Japanese Aomori Sashimi-Grade Large Hotate Scallops (220g). Our Hokkaido shellfish are the bafun uni and the dried scallops, whose page states Hokkaido as the country of origin.
Are Aomori scallops good for sashimi?
Yes. Ours are sold as sashimi-grade and large, which is the grade intended for raw eating; slice them thickly and serve cold. If you'd rather cook them, a fast sear in a very hot pan keeps the centre sweet and just-set.
Why do so many listings say "Hokkaido scallop"?
Because Hokkaido is Japan's best-known scallop region, its name is sometimes borrowed for the style rather than the origin. We label ours by where they are truly from: Aomori. Read the product name and origin line rather than the headline: a trustworthy listing puts the true origin where you can't miss it.
