Snacks & Food from Fukuoka

On May 5, 2019March 18, 2021 By YummyDelightIn Japan, SnacksLeave a comment

If you are lost as to what snacks to buy when in Japan, the best bet is to go to the main JR station of the city you are visiting. Chances are you can find a huge variety of souvenir and gifts to bring back all at one-stop.

For me, I like to visit them as one of my first stop to buy some snacks to try locally before deciding what to re-purchase to bring back for friends and family.

Being a warabi mochi lover, Josuian 如水庵 Tsukushi Mochi was the first item I went on a hunt for within the confectionery area of the departmental store. It’s available in packs of 3, 6, 12, 18 etc…all the way to packs of whopping 45!

Each piece of the mochi is wrapped with a colourful paper resembling the Furoshiki wrapping used to carry Japanese bentos. Within each tiny package is a bamboo pick, a sachet of sweet black sugar syrup to be poured over the mochi covered with kinako (roasted soy bean) powder. I really loved the texture of the smooth, silky yet chewy mochi. The best part is it is individually packed in a modest portion good for ladies who wish to end their meal with something sweet but concerned about eating too much. The shelve life of this product is also much longer than the freshly made ones I bought from confectioneries, making it a good souvenir to bring back for friends/family.

The next item on my shopping list is the Fukutaro Menbei Mentaiko Senbei. The star product is rice crackers with spiced cod roe (plain), although they have introduced a variety of other flavours as well.

There are some samples available for tasting in the store, but I only tried the “plain” flavour before deciding that its too crowded (I visited during the Golden Week) to squeeze my way to reach all the sampling containers scattered around. So I decided to buy a box of mixed flavours including the classic “plain“, popular “mayonnaise“, “hot & spicy” and “green onion/leek” so that I could try them in the comfort of my hotel room. While I couldn’t taste much of the mayonnaise flavour, the “hot & spicy” might be a little too spicy for some people. The “plain” flavour was tasty enough for me to buy a few more boxes as gifts, this flavour is available conveniently even at the airport. But if you would like to purchase other flavours, its wiser to purchase them at the downtown stores.

The next snack was actually very famous and popular in Tokyo because the confectionery opened an outlet there. Little did people know that this product originated from Fukuoka. Honpo Yoshinodo Meika Hiyoko is a thin dough shell wrapped around a mixture of egg yolk and bean paste.

It tastes very much like our savoury mung bean paste （咸豆沙) wrapped with a thin mooncake-liked pastry skin. The simple flavour made it suitable for children along with it’s kawaii (cute) little chick form. I enjoyed this as it has an old-school taste, but didn’t buy more as the boxes were pretty bulky to hand-carry.

One of my interesting find was this Mentaiko French Fries from Calbee as it’s in crinkle cut rather than the usual Jagarico type (straight fries). The crinkle cut resulted in more surface area to coat the savoury mentaiko seasoning and is crispier than the straight fries.

While wandering around Daiso I spotted this nostalgic treat (pic above, right)! I bet most kids now would not have seen this before – cos Singapore banned sale, import and manufacture of chewing gum since 1992.

I always make an effort to visit the supermarkets in Japan, especially if they have a food hall. It’s a foodie paradise for the fresh produces, fruits as well as the cooked food. Here I chanced upon a stall selling Kumamon shaped waffle – although I’m in Hakata, Fukuoka Prefecture. Even the wrapper is printed with the famous mascot of Kumamoto Prefecture.

Fruits are notoriously expensive in Japan, but its comparatively cheaper than getting them at imported price in Singapore. So we typically buy strawberries to munch on during our trip. We headed over to the supermarket on the last day of our trip to bring back strawberries and more importantly Miyazaki Mangoes. The mangoes are produced in Miyazaki Prefecture on Kyushu Island. With a peak harvest between April and August, they are really juicy, sweet and sold when they are at the right ripeness. These mangos are even featured in the Miyazaki Prefecture regional postcard.

Since we made a day trip to Kagoshima, we also stopped by Kumamoto train station to stock up on some cute snacks.

I also randomly picked up the Annouimo Sweet Potato Pie for my mum who loves sweet potatoes. Being the largest producer of sweet potatoes in Japan, Kagoshima is the “Land of Sweet Potatoes”. Although I didn’t get to taste it, she was happy with this omiyage.

Even the red bean cakes has the Kumamon mascot imprinted on it~ Bought these to snack on for our ride back to Hakata.

Despite spending many hours travelling on the Shinkansen across Kyushu Island, we were spoilt by the abundance of sumptuous food right from the start of the day. I look forward to the healthy porridge breakfast served with an array of Japanese side dishes.

With Children’s Day being celebrated on 5th May in Japan, there were Koinobori (鯉のぼり), “carp streamers” hung because carp are known for their ability to swim upstream, they symbolise courage and determination for the kids.

The hotel had a pancake stand filled with cute designs for the kids! Don’t they look too pretty to be eaten?

On the late night whereby the queue for the famous ramen stall was too long, we gave up and decided to just buy some takeaway back to our room to fill our stomach. We found a shop selling 一口餃子 Hitokuchi gyoza. These bite-sized gyozas are much smaller than the regular ones so that you can stuff them in 1 mouth. I guessed they looked slightly soggy after being brought back to our room.

Food is easily available 24/7 in Fukuoka as some ramen shops that only opened for late night supper into the wee hours. We were too tired to venture out for food hunt, but was satisfied with what I could grab from konbinis. I’m always amazed by the variety of cup noodles (posts on cup noodles 1, 2) and their ever evolving innovative flavours such as this Lan Zhou Beef Noodles. It has a beef-based soup with mildly special spicy chilli oil and “fake beef cubes”.

Chanced upon these cute Komeda’s Coffee miniature gashapon (toy capsule) and decided to try my luck. Got pretty lucky to pick the signature dish Shiro-Noir at first attempt! It’s the little surprises and the excitement of opening up the capsules that make gashapon so addictive. Got the coffee set on the second attempt. Very satisfied. Yeah.

Picked up these two Gotochi Craftholic keychains because I was attracted to the food badges: Watermelon and Ramen.

Not forgetting these Fukuoka regional postcards. It wasn’t easy to purchase them during the Golden Week as only the main post office was opened and with limited opening hours.

Our hands are really quite full from having to hand-carry so many confectionery snacks and yet I was tempted to buy the LeTao Melon Double Fromage frozen cake from the Fukuoka airport. Although this cake originates in Hokkaido, it is also available in Tokyo‘s airport, I didn’t buy it cos the ice pack provided can only last 6 hours – not enough to cover our flight time back to Singapore. The opportunity cannot be missed when departing from Kyushu as the flight time is only about 6 hours.

Japan‘s taxi fare is notoriously exorbitant but this was the first time we took a taxi from our hotel downtown to the airport. This is because the Fukuoka airport is only a 15-mins ride away and it only cost around ¥1500 (S$20). Although it was a morning flight, we arrived at the airport effortlessly and was able to enjoy our inflight meal in good spirit (instead of being super tired). The highlight was the mini bottle of Dassai 23!

Canape of Singapore Chicken and Beef Satay, Appetizer of Smoked Duck with Braised Daikon and Yuzu Dressing, Main Course of Wok Fried Seafood with Kung Pao Sauce and dessert of Sakura Ice Cream.

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La Maison de la Nature Goh, Fukuoka

On May 4, 2019March 18, 2021 By YummyDelightIn Asia's 50 Best Restaurant, Degustation Menu, Fusion, Japan, Japanese, RestaurantLeave a comment

We marked our last night in Fukuoka with a dinner at La Maison de la Nature Goh. At the time of our visit (in May 2019), the plan of closing this place to open a joint collaboration restaurant with Chef Gaggan Anand was still the talk of the town. Unpredictably about 6 months later, it was unveiled that the plan had since been shelved due to a sensational turn of events widely-publicized in the foodie scene.

As with a few other fine dining restaurants we’ve been to in Japan, this place is nestled in a quiet alley with a nondescript signage. Once we stepped inside the restaurant, I was surprised that the dining hall was pretty compact and the ambience was pretty casual – a stark contrast to stereotypical formal french dining setting.

The restaurant offer a omakase fixed menu comprising 6 courses – 3 Appetizers, 2 Mains and 1 Dessert.

Teriyaki eel, Vegetable terrine layered with coriander & celery and Ice cream gazpacho made with green tomato, coriander & celery. This appetizer was interesting to me as most Japanese broiled eel are served warm with rice. Instead this is paired with cold gazpacho along with the refreshing taste of the vegetable.

Up next was a quartet of small bites (from bottom left anti-clockwise):

Quiche made with Japanese mushroom and bacon and green beans
Flounder sashimi encased in green tea chips with green tea sauce
Wasabi cookie to be eaten in 1 bite – I think most diners who had visited Gaggan would agree this might be inspired by Chef’s good friend =)
Japanese leek

We round up the appetizer courses with a light and slightly minty Green pea cold soup consomme jelly with fried squid, topped with kinome leaves (a kind of Japanese spice).

Mains started with Lobster with chicken & shrimp broth with five spice powder Notably the use of five spice powder and coriander topping is pretty novel. Although I have the five spice powder condiment at home, I only use it to cook braised pork belly. Chef has added an Asian twist to this lobster dish.

Kagoshima beef black vinegar sauce with black pepper, onion cooked for 2 hours with celeriac puree The sweetness from the onion was the highlight to complement the tender beef.

Before progressing to the desserts, sous chef Andy prepared a citrus-based palate cleanser.

Followed by Miso Creme Brulée with salted caramel, Amao strawberries, chocolate ice cream, and soy sauce powder.

Gohdiva sake ice cream, sake jelly. I sensed the funny side of Chef Fukuyama with this tongue-in-cheek lacquer box design. It reminded me of the Starbucks cup by Chef Zaiyu Hasegawa at Den.

P.S The restaurant was awarded one star in the Michelin Guide Fukuoka-Saga-Nagasaki 2019 Special Edition

Photos Taken Earlier:

Since we were on Kyushu Island, we took a 2-hour long Shinkansen ride from Hakata to Kagoshima to see one of Japan‘s most active volcanoes – Sakurajima.

Bought another ekiben to eat onboard our train ride – Mentaiko Gyu Don. The marinated cod roe is a specialty of Kyushu and originates from Fukuoka and it goes very well with even plain riceball (onigiri).

When we step outside Kagoshima station, I was excited to see a huge plume of smoke in the air. However by the time we reached the vantage point, the Sakurajima volcano was quiet…

As it is widely known that the volcano smokes regularly, supposedly takes place multiple times per day, we waited…and waited…for this moment! It’s amazing that the volcano is just a short ferry ride away (4km) from Kagoshima city and is open for visitors. Being a risk averse traveller, I was satisfied with witnessing an active volcano spewing ash/smoke. P.S we visited this place prior to the fatal volcano eruption New Zealand that occurred in Jan 2020.

The Kagoshima Prefecture regional postcard looks similar to the actual view isn’t it?

Kagoshima Shinkansen Station stamp also featured the Sakurajima volcano.

We stopped by Kumamoto Station as well to buy some omiyage (next post). The Kumamoto Castle featured on the stamp which was damaged by powerful earthquakes in April 2016. It was undergoing restoration work during the period of our visit.

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Mikado Shokudo みかど食堂 by Narisawa, Fukuoka

On May 3, 2019May 27, 2020 By YummyDelightIn Fusion, Japan, Japanese, RestaurantLeave a comment

We truly experience the challenges of travelling during Japan‘s Golden Week holiday on this trip. As our itinerary was to visit the Kawachi Fuji Garden in the morning, we were not confident of planning ahead for lunch reservation. By the time we arrived at Mojiko station at about 11+am, we were disappointed to see Mikado Shokudo by Narisawa fully booked for lunch. That was the story of our first attempt to visit them.

Since we didn’t manage to secure any reservation for our meals the following day, we decided to try our luck to make a reservation through a concierge service. Surprisingly we were informed that the restaurant has an available seating at 6pm the next evening. Thankfully we purchased JR Pass for this trip which allowed us to take the 40-min Shinkansen (vs 1.5hrs using JR Kagoshima line) from Fukuoka to Kita-Kyushu for the early dinner.

The restaurant housed inside the recently restored Mojiko station was only opened in Mar/Apr 2019 there were limited reviews/coverage on this place before our visit. However we were confident of the quality of food since it is supervised by the Chef of reputable Narisawa.

What attracted me to visit the restaurant was their key concept of focusing on the ingredients of Kyushu.

Assorted Hors-d’oeuvre Mojiko Seafood Salad and Escabeche, Kagoshima Chami Pork Pate de champagne One of the most distinctive feature of Chami pork (茶美豚) is they are reared using green tea and sweet potato.

100% Fukuoka Flour Milk Bread & Butter

Kitakyushu Seafood rolled in Spring Cabbage, Kumamoto Clam Cream Sauce was an elegant dish featuring wonderful combination of vegetables and local seafood.

“Menchi-Katsu” Deep Fried Kagoshima Beef and Miyazaki Kijonyama Pork was a breaded meat ball made using a combination of top quality ground beef and pork patty. 季じょん山豚 is pork meat with soft and firm chewing fat. Hence the meat ball retained its juiciness inside.

We were also impressed with the tender and melt-in-your-mouth Kagoshima Nozaki Beef Steak. Nozaki is an agricultural cooperative specialising in fattening Japanese Black cattle in Kagoshima. Only those of Grade 4 (A-4, B-4) or higher are stamped with the “Nozaki” brand name. Approximately 70% of the beef shipped by Nozaki is graded A-5.

Last but not least, we had the Kagoshima Beef Curry with Nagasaki Isahaya Rice. Since we didn’t get to try the Mojiko Yaki Curry (a local western specialty) we thought we should at least try the beef curry here. It was not as sweet and typical Jap curry and has more spices in them.

Round up our meal with Smooth Fresh Cheese Cake and Fukuoka Amao Strawberry Gelato and Valrhona Chocolate Cake. The desserts seemed to be lacking in finesse in terms of presentation relative to the attractive courses earlier. Perhaps these retro-style desserts were created for guests to reminisce about old times.

Photos at Mojiko Retro

As mentioned, we visited Mojikō area the day before but the restaurant was already fully booked for lunch. We then spent a short time exploring the port area hoping to find another lunch spot. Unfortunately the area was bustling with visitors with snaking queues at nearby eateries. One of the more notable one with long queue was Curry Honpo Mojikō Retro. Mojiko Yaki Curry is a local western delicacy which is curry baked rice topped with cheese and/or egg heated in oven. This cuisine was unique to the area as it used to be an international trading port, hence the food was influenced by foreign cuisine.

At the port area, we can see the Kanmon Bridge – a suspended bridge crossing linking island of Honshu and Kyushu. Interestingly there is also a Kanmon pedestrian-use undersea tunnel offering a photo spot at the boundary line of two prefectures.

We didn’t find anything that interest us enough to stay long at this retro port…

In line with the retro theme, the Starbucks housed in the Mojikō Station featured evolution of Starbucks logo over the years.

The Neo-Renaissance style building housing the Mojikō Station was built in 1914, the wooden two-story building was designated as a national important cultural property in 1988. It undergone a 6-year restoration before re-opening in Mar 19. They even restored the old ticketing counters.

Collected a stamp at Kokura Station.

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Hakata Issou 博多一双博多駅東本店, Fukuoka

On May 2, 2019May 17, 2020 By YummyDelightIn Casual, Japan, JapaneseLeave a comment

Fukuoka city is saturated with tons of tonkotsu (pork bone broth) ramen joints but I had my eyes set on Hakata Issou. This was the 2nd attempt to try their ramen as we turned away after seeing the snaking long queue on our 1st attempt. Photo below was the queue situation on our 1st attempt at 9+pm and we gave up cos we were too tired. We visited the outlet near the Hakata Station again the next day at 10+pm to see a queue slightly shorter queue.

The outlet has about 20 seats in the compact shop space, most of the seats are along a bar counter with only about 4 tables for larger groups. After about 40mins wait, we reached the front door where we were ushered to a vending machine to purchase our food order.

The complimentary condiments on the table featured spicy pickled vegetable and ginger that can be added to the ramen.

Look at the frothy broth~ while I do find it sinful to slurp down this bowl of pork broth for supper, this shop is a must-visit!

Unlike Hakata Ikkousha (another famous chain originating from Fukuoka) where they have outlets in Singapore, the Hakata Issou only has outlets in Fukuoka.

We were recommended by a local chef to visit a ramen joint called Buta Soba Tsukiya, however we didn’t manage to squeeze it into our itinerary.

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Yoshizuka Unagi 博多名代吉塚うなぎ屋, Fukuoka

On May 2, 2019May 12, 2020 By YummyDelightIn Japan, Japanese, RestaurantLeave a comment

Other than wanting to eat Hakata ramen in Fukuoka, the other specialty which was high on our To-Eat list was Unagi. We shortlisted a restaurant in Yanagawa which was about 1 hour train ride away from Hakata. As we didn’t make the effort to secure a reservation during the Golden Week holiday, we did not want to make a wasted trip there. Instead we opted to try the Yoshizuka Unagi which was conveniently located within the Hakata city.

The first thing that surprised me was the scale of the restaurant. I was pretty surprised that the restaurant is housed in a 3-storey building on its own! When we entered the lobby it was filled with guests seemingly waiting for their turn. As we walked up the staircase, it was lined with more waiting crowd. When we finally reached the reception area of the restaurant, the waitlist displayed an estimated waiting time of 45 mins. The wait was not too surprising as we had previously queued 1.5 hours for an unagi meal in Kyoto (see post) during peak Sakura season.

As this place was located right next to the Hakata river, one can take a leisure stroll along it or cross over for some shopping at the Kawabata Shopping Arcade while passing time.

About 1 hour later, our name was called and we were led into the spacious dining hall. I was impressed that each table are well-spaced out and the restaurant didn’t squeeze more tables to maximise the floor space. In fact we were given a large table, which can seat 4 pax, right next to the window.

English menu with pictures was available, making it a breeze to place our order. We need not wait long for our orders to be served.

We started our meal with appetizer of Kimoyaki (grilled eel liver) and a Chawanmushi (egg custard). The perfectly grilled eel liver basted with the tare sauce offered a sneak preview of the main unagi course to come.

Here’s my Deluxe Kabayaki box (5 pieces of unagi) with rice and soup. They provide extra sauce on a side plate for dipping. The meat was firm and juicy. Each piece of the unagi had a nice crisp on the surface along with a slight smoky aroma from the charcoal-grill. Immediately I regretted not ordering the 6 pieces box instead!!

The picky eater ordered the Makunouchi set comprising of a variety of other smaller dishes in order to avoid being overwhelmed by unagi. Guess what…he regretted his choice too! The unagi was so tasty that two miserable pieces were not enough…I offered one of mine to him…

I shared about the difference between Kansai style unagi and Kanto style unagi in my Kyoto post. Although I eat both types, the picky eater only likes the Kansai style unagi.

Earlier photos taken:

My main reason for visiting Kyushu island was to see the famous wisteria tunnel at Kawachi Fuji Garden 河内藤園.

The flowers in the tunnel looked more sparse than what I expected.

Other than the 2 tunnels, there are other areas for wisteria viewing in the compound.

They also feature different varieties of wisteria.

As the garden do not have proper footpath, it might be challenging for elderly who would need to walk up the gentle pebble trail slope.

This garden is small compared to the Ashikaga Flower Park that we visited near Tokyo. It is also more challenging to plan for a visit here as tickets for a specific date and time slot have to be purchased in advance in order to enter this private Garden (no restriction on exit time). This ticketing management certainly help in crowd control as the garden was never too crowded during our visit. It is also worthy to note that this garden is located on the mountain with limited traffic accessibility. We used the shuttle bus service provided during the peak season which is available at every half-hour interval from JR Yahata Station. In a way, we were lucky to be able to board the bus without a long wait but had to stand throughout the bus journey for both ways through the winding road (around 20 mins each way).

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Isokko Syouten Hakata Branch, Fukuoka

On May 1, 2019May 8, 2020 By YummyDelightIn Casual, Japan, SeafoodLeave a comment

Researching for eateries in less touristy regions of Japan (compared to major cities of Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hokkaido etc.) had prove to be more challenging due to limited information/reviews online.

I shortlisted Isokko Syouten because I read somewhere that they have an All-you-can-eat Oysters Buffet deal. However the staff informed us that it was a seasonal promotion and also need to make advanced reservations for it. Nonetheless the place seemed to specialise in fresh seafood with live tanks in the shop as well. As we reached at a rather off-peak hour, there was not many diners around. I could not tell whether this place is worth giving a try. As I was keen to try my hands on grilling my own oysters, we decided to settle down for some snacking.

Ordering could be done using ipad in Japanese/English/Chinese with photos, so it was quite straightforward. I took the opportunity to order a Goma Saba – a quintessential Fukuoka dish made with raw mackerel dressed with sesame, soy sauce, wasabi and topped with seaweed. I really liked this dish for its simple yet aromatic dressing! Highly recommended to try if you are in Fukuoka.

Although we didn’t get to eat the oyster buffet, the ala carte bucket of oysters for ¥1,058 (about S$13) was quite a steal for about a dozen fresh oysters. They were pretty fresh and juicy. We also ordered some scallops with butter.

The place became more lively when we left as the dinner crowd started to flow in.

Photos Taken Earlier:

Visited the Uminonakamichi Seaside Park but the scale of the nemophila was not as impressive as the display at Hitachi Seaside Park near Tokyo. Unlike the latter which has flora displays which were well-curated and manicured, this park seemed more like a leisure park for locals to enjoy the outdoor activities. It is actually recommended to rent a bicycle as the park was sooooo huge…and the flora areas are spread far apart. Unfortunately since we visited during the Golden Week holiday, there were no available bicycles for rental when we arrived. There was a waitlist and we’ll need to wait until people return their bicycles at the centre.