FUKUOKA: Hanamidori ( Nakasu main store) 華味鳥 おじや

I shall let you in to one of Nicholas' secrets - just in case you wanted to get into his good books for whatever reasons.
He is a chicken lover. If you ever need a favour from him and are thinking of buying him a meal, just buy him something chicken related. If you can't stretch your budget, just buy him chicken rice. He will enjoy it more than.... idk, live seafood. lol

In Fukuoka, there's 2 types of hotpot every guidebook recommends you to try

1) Mizutaki
made with chicken broth

2) Motsunabe
Made with innards

I don't ever eat innards so motsunabe is out for me. I remember my first time trying pig intestines.
I must be either 15 or 16 at that time, it was late at night, I texted Eliseus if he was keen for supper at the now defunct xin wang hongkong cafe along Katong. And for some reason he ordered fried pig intestines. I kid you not, it was like putting a lump of turd into my mouth.
I cant remember if I swallowed it but it was certainly so unpleasant.

Moving on.....

So, we had Mizutaki. There's 2 restaurants that's really popular. We couldn't get into our first choice (Toriden Hakata ) sadly. Apparently you need to make reservations about a week in advance :o
Thankfully we easily found another which also has raving reviews - Hanamidori.

There's multiple branches of Hanamidori all over Fukuoka, but we decided to go to the main store.

We decided to go for the Hana course 4500yen each

Started off with 2 small bowl side dishes that included mentaiko ( fukuoka is also really popular for that !) 

3 assorted appetizers

Hanamidori chicken raw ham and lightly roasted chicken

Being a medical professional I'm actually quite scared of eating raw chicken. The number of salmonella cases I've seen in Australia secondary to raw meat. However I highly trust in my Japanese restaurants, I believe they will never harm me hahahahaah. 

Another chicken side dish - ?terriyaki

And the long awaited hanamidori mizutaki nabe

(chicken chunks, chicken meat ball, chicken strip, chicken liver, assorted vegetables and noodles)

Goodness, this hotpot was beyond delicious! Usually I'm quite skeptical of boiled chicken without any seasoning because they usually have chicken smell. This chicken is odourless and the meat was so sweet 

Highly recommended restaurant to try if you're in Fukuoka. It's perfectly heart warming especially on a cold winter night :D