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

FUKUOKA: Yatai 屋台

Fukuoka is very popular for Yatasi. And I think it's citizens are really proud of them because when we were in the taxi from the airport to the hotel on the first day, our taxi driver kept telling us how we have to go to Yatais and marked out areas on the map where yatais are located at for us i.e along Tenjin, Nakasu, and Nagahama . 

What is a Yatai ?

A Yatai is a small, mobile food stall ( food cart) selling typically ramen or other small food i.e yakitori set up in the early evening around 5pm on pedestrain walkways and removed around 2am latest in the morning. 

After having our satisfying meal at Ichiran Main store ( read post here), we decided to take a walk down Tenjin ( a district of fukuoka) because with the amount of food we are eating, we REALLY need to increase our exercise count to keep the weight gain minimal 

I was telling Nicholas after we ended our meal " Sigh, this yatai business seems like it's a very hard life.. It's really hard earned money. I wonder if they make much at all" 

Then I realised... Holycow, They would actually be making quite abit. I mean, it's such low overhead costs for Yatai. It's essentially a push cart, so no rent. Or rather minimal rent because perhaps they need to pay for yatai license ?  Some yatai owners are the chef themselves ( one man show = 100% profit goes to him) or at most they hire another assistant. 

The food price to be honest... is not VERY cheap, it's just slightly cheaper than a restaurant. 

Let's say they make a profit of 100bucks a night, in a month that will be.. 3000? BUT, they definitely make more than 100bucks a night just looking at how busy they are ( some yatai need to queue one ok !) 

Sigh, this is an example of professions that you think are hard work and make little, but they actually make alot! On the contrary, people like to think that doctors like myself make alot, however mine is HARD WORK and for the amount of pay I get for the time and effort i put in ... It is really not worth it. By the way... It's not like I'm getting paid heaps as well zzzzzz

Anyway, back to Yatai... A highly recommended experience if you're ever in fukuoka !

FUKUOKA: Ichiran Original/Main store 一蘭本社総本店（九州)

I'm 3 days behind my blogging schedule already! Ohno! And it's really stressful when you have a manager ( Nick lol) breathing down your Neck going " Eh, you haven't blogged for a long time already ah? " 

Wah, but you know how travelling and eating can be quite tiring? By the time I retreat back to the hotel I was just relax on the bed and then I fall asleep hahahaha. okay excuses. I shall aim to blog during every shinkansen ride instead of falling asleep. 

I've never really been a tonkatsu ramen fan, I believe my first encounter with ramen was Ippudo, and while it was REALLY tasty the first few bites, after drinking more than half the soup, I was like urghhhh okay feels very rich, I feel unwell. 

Then everybody was raving about Ichiran, and so I decided to give it a try, and goodness, the broth was richer than Ippudo and indigestion was induced almost instantly after I ended the meal. 

And that ended my adventures with Tonkatsu ramen UNTIL I was introduced to Mutekiya Ramen in Ikebukero Tokyo ( click to read)  - In summary, Mutekiya served a very oishi broth that was not too rich and didn't induce any indigestion symptoms at all ! :D My favourite Tonkatsu ramen of all time. 

But given that we are in Fukuoka, and it's the birth place of Ichiran, it would be a waste if we didn't try ramen from the original store itself? Perhaps the experience will be different? I mean, we have all heard of stalls that franchises themselves out and the franchise just tastes really bad and then you go to the original store and it's like WOW 100% improvement! A good example would be Tim Ho Wan in Hongkong.

So we made our way to the multi storey Ichiran main shop. 

There's 2 kinds of Ichiran experience you can find here 

1) Yatai ( Roadside store ) - where you'll be on the ground floor and it's just replicating famous roadside store feel

2) Original single cubicle eating space like as though you are being punished for being hungry. lol  can you imagine the teacher going " Why are you playing during lesson time? GO. GO TO THE NAUGHTY CORNER. NO, not facing the wall, I meant, go to the single cubicle and stuff your face with ramen and may you grow so fat you have no more energy to play " 

We decided to go with the original single cubicle eating which is on level 2. 

As usual, order from the vending machine outside the shop first. 

We recommend ordering the special Ichiran 5. 

Hungry Nicholas waiting for his food. He was sent to the naughty corner for being too cute :p 

In front of the cubicle is this Japanese writing

And Finally our bowl of ramen arrives

What is this Ichiran 5 that we ordered? Essentially it's Ichiran ramen with extra sides - 1) egg 2) extra pork 3) seaweed, 4) black fungus

I think they named it Ichiran 5 because it's these 4 sides + a bowl of noodles. Total 5 items.

Ichiran is fully customisable, you can choose how rich you want your broth, how spicy, how hard your noodles. I believe a restaurant knows it's food best, So I always go with the recommended. 

Verdict: This Ichiran shop did not disappoint! I wouldn't say Ichiran has suddenly jumped to become the top of my scoreboard because the other branches really is torturing for me to visit. But just for experimentation, I drank up half the soup, and I felt alright all night! I even had the appetite to stop by a Yatai afterwards for some other snacks. 

This broth was really tasty with just a right amount of richness. I enjoyed myself here. And the best part is... THERE WAS NO QUEUE TO GET INTO THE SHOP :D 

Ichiran Main store 一蘭本社総本店（九州)

〒810-0801
5-3-2 Nakasu Hakata-ku Fukuoka-shi Fukuoka-ken

24 hours

FUKUOKA: Hajimenoippo はじめの一歩

I think there's 3 main area that ought to be explored in Fukuoka 

1) Hakata Station 

2) Tenjin 

3) Nakasu 

We decided that our first night was going to be exploring Hakata station since we needed to check out where to board our Shinkansen for our upcoming trips. 

We had dinner at this well known restaurant called Hajimenoippo which is popular for their gomasaba ( mackerel in special soya sauce) 

Upon entering, the service staff immediately told me not to take the Japanese menu, and handed me an english menu. 

From my multiple trips to Japanese restaurants, I KNOW that the menu differs between the english and Japanese menu. How can I let myself be deprived of good food right? So I insisted on a copy of the Japanese menu as well I mean... I read chinese characters, I will definitely be able to make out some of the Japanese menu haha. 

Photo proof of how much is in the Japanese menu, and what the english menu offers. As with all izakayas, they have a daily menu.

Japanese menu for the day

Super unfortunate that we were unable to have any goma saba as the menu says no mackerel came in that morning. Whilst I was super disappointed, at least we know that the restaurant only uses fresh fish.

Fried yam/taro 580yen

White bait 

Simmered Amedai ( also known as horse tile fish) 4000yen

This is SO GOOD. I could have eaten this whole fish by myself. 

Only available on the Japanese menu 

Assorted Sashimi 3500yen

No gomasaba available yesterday, but there's gomakampachi

Amberjack in special soy sauce with sesame and spring onions

I've never had something like that before, it was SO GOOD. 

Highly highly highly recommended. We ordered the medium size 1980yen which is perfect for 2 people sharing 

I really recommend this restaurant to anybody who's hanging around Hakata Station area. Our bill added up to 11700 yen which for the quality of food, really is pretty reasonable. Super healthy 0 carbs if you followed my order combination as well :p

Hajimenoippo はじめの一歩
3 Chome-7-15 Hakata Ekimae, Hakata Ward, Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture 812-0011, Japan
Opens everyday 11am - 2pm, 5.30pm - 12am 

FUKUOKA: Donmai どん舞

We are currently staying at Canal City Washington city hotel which is a really convenient hotel to stay in because it's located just beside canal city shopping mall. There's another hotel located beside this huge mall, however... it's... Grand Hyatt....
And we rather waste that additional 100bucks per night eating supper or topping up for something better than to spend in on a better known overnight accommodation.

I GOT NEW KICKS :D

My boots was totally destroyed once we were done walking back from Yanagibashi market ( see previous post here click ). It was already pretty bad, but the usual clumsy Nick just had to give it a nice step from the back, and..... 3.99/4 was flapping by the time I got to a sports shop.

Look, I didn't want to opt for any fashionable boots since we will be heading over to the Snow ( yay niseko ) in a couple of weeks time, so I opted for something which is less fashionable but I know will be really useful for me.

SOREL.

A canadian shoe brand specially for the snow. No pictures for now yet I shall leave you guessing but I got the Japan only edition kicks :D

My mood was instantly lifted after the shoe problem was fixed, and the next thing was to decide on lunch. There's a huge ramen museum in canal city shopping centre but nicholas was fixated on having seafood bowl ( Kaisendon), since that was what was initially planned but Yanagabashi market is closed for the New Year ):

Walked around Canal city and were were blessed enough to stumble across Donmai. It may not be special or popular enough to make it into any blogs for reviews but, come on, if you're a regular traveller of Japan, its SO difficult to walk into a restaurant and go " wow, this food sucks"
Trust me, it's however pretty easy to walk into a restaurant in lets say... Adelaide or Singapore and go " wtf, I could cook better "


Ordered a serve of ala carte mentaiko for 400 yen because Fukuoka is known for good mentaikos. And I love Mentaikos

And our food arrived!

Wow please look at my seafood bowl, I haven't had such fresh seafood in ages already!

1700yen ( Also the most expensive on the menu )

The shop front - upon exit we realised that tourists get 5% off upon showing their passport. So please remember to do that! 

Donmai どん舞
B1F Number 73 Canal City Fukuoka
11am -11pm open veryday