Fukuoka in Five - Jay's Tonkatsu Dinner at Hamakatsu, a Kyushu Original

My husband Jay could eat tonkatsu all day, every day if he could.  When we're in Japan, a tonkatsu meal (or two or even three) is a requirement.

Since it was our first time in Fukuoka, we wanted to try a local brand. Googling "best tonkatsu 

in Fukuoka" led us to Hamakatsu which originally hails from Nagasaki thus making it local to

Kyushu island.

Hamakatsu's closest branch to the hotel was at the basement of the MUFG Bank in Tenjin.  

While the building itself is along the wide avenue of Watanabe dori, the entrance to the basement is along the side street. 

This is how the store front looks like. Nothing fancy, it must be well suited to the lunch crowd of employees in the area.

The lights are bright and the interiors are very "workmanlike" -- no fuss, no frills.  Tables and

chairs are set up close together.   A long counter divides the dining area, perfect for solo diners.

The menu features a number of set meals and some side dishes like soup, curry, prawns, croquettes.  

There is a luscious looking stewed pork set meal that looks particularly inviting.

But we're here for the tonkatsu and nothing else. The waitress brought us the english menu which 

had the basic items listed.  For both hire and rosu set meals, you can choose from a 100 or 150 gram cutlet with a choice of white or red rice.   For the uninitiated, there's even a how-to on the proper 

way of enjoying tonkatsu.

Jay always orders hire or fillet which is pork tenderloin bereft of any fat.  The tray comes with the requisite cabbage, assorted tsukemono, miso soup and a bowl of hot rice.  As in most tonkatsu places, the rice, soup and cabbage are refillable.

Tonkatsu goes best with a good sized glass of cold nama beer.  Hamakatsu's serves Ebisu on tap.

Where Jay has to have hire or fillet, I always order rosu or pork loin, which has a thin layer 

of fat.  Hamakatsu's rosu was encased in crunchy crisp panko,  moist with that unmistakeable 

taste of fat melting around tender pork meat.  Every bite made me think I had died and flown 

off to heaven on the wings of a pig.

Nothing left of Jay's tonkatsu.  That's the smile of pure pork pleasure.  Hamakatsu certainly lived 

up to its google billing.   And yes, the next day, we would have tonkatsu again, for our last lunch 

in Fukuoka.

SaveSave

Fukuoka in Five - My dinner in a yatai, fun dining Fukuoka style!

Before I left for Fukuoka,  I e-mailed my Japanese gourmet friend Abe san who lives in Tokyo 
for some food and travel advice.  He said just one thing to me ... "Nonna san, eat in a yatai!
It is so much fun!"   Just what is a yatai?  We Pinoys would be very familiar with it as we see
many of versions of it all over  Metro Manila.

A yatai is an outdoor makeshift  stall that sprouts up in busy streets at dusk and usually 

remains open till way after midnight.  While they have permanent locations, the stands are 

very much temporary.   Like Cinderella, they disappear at a certain hour and the area is left bare 

and clean, as if the yatai was never there. 

Fukuoka has over 140 yatai, the most of any city in Japan,  no wonder they call it the iconic 

Fukuoka dining experience.

There are yatai in several places around the city but I went to the ones clustered around  

the Tenjin shopping district.  This was just a convenient 20 minute walk from our hotel.  

It was almost 7 p.m on a weekday evening but it was still light outside.  With a seating capacity 

of just 8 to 10 people, several yatai were already quite full, this early in the evening. 

I crossed the street in search of my own happy hunting ground.  Near the corner of 

Showa-dori and Watanabe-dori, I found a yatai that seemed to have just opened for the 

night.  There were no other customers yet and Chef san seemed happy enough to see me ... 

his buena mano for the evening.

Yatai have become so popular with tourists,  that some stalls have english speakers manning 

the counter and some  have english menus.  

But in this case, Chef san hardly spoke any English and I of course could only get by with my 

limited  Nihongo.  But food is the universal language  so we understood each other quite well.

 I am not sure if this is the yatai's name but on the front of the menu it clearly states 

Tenjin Yatai Shun.  

While the menu was in Japanese, the photos clearly showed what was on offer.  

Hakata style ramen, yakitori, karaage, stir fries  -- these are the most common things on 

offer at  a yatai as  I suppose they are popular and easy to cook.

Even if this is indeed a temporary and improvised "restaurant" care is given to ensure that 

the food you eat  is always in the best condition.  There is a mini chiller where perishable 

ingredients  like the chicken for the yakitori, dumplings,  fresh noodles etc are kept.  

In Fukuoka, yatai do not serve anything raw so food quality and safety are never  compromised.

Right beside the small chiller was a vat of oden.  This is a traditional japanese dish with eggs, vegetables, tofu and fish cakes boiled and simmered in a clear dashi broth.  It's usually a winter 

food but because the ingredients are quite light -- slices of daikon, boiled eggs, konnyaku, chikuwa, etc., it works just as well during warmer seasons. And yes, it goes very well with alcohol!

Other diners had arrived who ordered yakitori and the chef set about cooking the 

skewers over an open charcoal grill. It smelled delicious and for a moment, I was struck with

food envy.  

Nom nom nom!  There were shy smiles all around  but I guess we were too focused on our food 

to engage in any light conversation.  

Some yatai are mom-and-pop operations and some have two people working together.  

Tenjin Yatai Shun had just this one multi-tasker who I presumed was the owner.  

He took down orders, sliced and diced, grilled and sautéed, served everyone, washed the 

dishes,  wiped down the counter, received payments,  made change... and mixed drinks too.  

He did all this very cooly, he even had time for casual banter with all of us. 

Such an amazing one man yatai show!

I ordered a bowl of Hakata tonkotsu ramen without  expecting much because well -- 

this was a yatai so perhaps the ramen would just be so-so or as the Japanese like to say 

"ma-ma".   My bowl had all the ingredients -- the milky rich tonkotsu broth,  thin slices of 

chashu,  scallions, lots of garlic, green onions and sesame seeds.  

Well I was in for a pleasant surprise!  The ramen was very good - the broth had that deep and complex flavour that you expect from of simmering pork bones for 12 hours. The noodles were springy.  It was a bit skimpy on the chashu slices -- just two pieces but I only paid 600 yen for 

the bowl so I had no right to complain. 

I also ordered a dish of deep fried tofu which came with a generous topping of sliced fried

garlic, fresh ginger and lots of spring onions.  

I can never resist konnyaku when it is on the table.  I was already quite full but I saw it 

simmering in the vat of oden.    I enjoy the slightly gummy, slightly chewy texture of this 

root vegetable.  The Japanese say it is the perfect diet food -- zero calories and zero taste.  

I disagree about the zero taste specially when it has been simmering in an umami-ful dashi 

broth and served with a smudge of hot mustard on the side. 

Yatai are essentially outdoor pubs so all sorts of drinks are available.  Yatai Shun's bar was 

actually a plastic bin by my feet, stocked high with bottles.  There is oolong tea for 

non-drinkers plus beer, sake, whisky, shochu  for the imbibers.  You can even order  mixed 

drink like shochu with orange juice or tea.  

I wanted a regular bottle of beer but there were only large bottles on hand. 

Mondai nai, Chef san ... daijobu desu.  Kanpai!

Fukuoka in Five - Lunch at Washoku Yohira in Nagasaki (with a few detours on the side)

After our visit to the Atomic Bomb Museum in Nagasaki, our Tours by Locals guide, Miyuki san brought us to lunch.  She had previously asked me what we would like to eat and I told her that 

I would prefer a place where the locals go,  that served Japanese cuisine, preferably accented 

with Nagasaki flavours.   

She made reservations at Washoku Yohira -- washoku means traditional Japanese cuisine,  and 

that is exactly what we enjoyed for lunch that day.

But first we made a  detour to the original store of Fukusaya,  makers of castela since 1624.  

Castela, a delicate honey spongecake with a Portuguese pedigree originated in Nagasaki and 

has since become a Japanese  favourite. 

You can find castela sold in Tokyo and other major cities in Japan.  I had always bought 

Fukusaya castela both to eat at home and as omiyage for friends.  

I was not about to pass up a chance to visit its oldest existing store in Yamanokuchi in Nagasaki. 

The store which dates back to the 1800s retains a quaint,  nostalgic air.   Fukusaya's  castela are displayed inside an old fashioned wood and glass case.  There are two kinds -- the original honey cake and  a cocoa castela -- a concession perhaps to modernity and chocolate lovers.   Both come in two sizes -- a 1000 gram box and a 600 gram box.  

I managed to control myself and bought only six of the 600 gram boxes -- which immediately 

added  3.6 kilos to the weight of my shopping bag.  But Miyuki san was so nice, she offered to 

lug two of the boxes for me.    Here we are with the friendly staff of Fukusaya -- can you see 

my happy grin?  I look just like the  cat who swallowed the castela -- honey and cocoa flavoured!

Purchases done, we headed off to lunch.  Around the corner from Fukusaya is Maruyama 

Park,  a quiet neighbourhood square with benches, trees, hydrangea bushes and in one corner, 

a bronze statue of Ryoma Sakamoto.  

Sakamoto san is a heroic  figure in Japan's history towards modernisation.  

He is typically shown wearing Japanese garb paired with very western boots.

Miyuki san said this area used to be a red light district.  Now it has been gentrified -- with 

restaurants, cafes and the city's oldest (and most expensive) restaurant.  

A few hundred meters from Maruyama Park, Miyuki san led us down these stone steps to a 

narrow alley that we would never have noticed,  if we were wandering around on our own.  

Actually, because the area does not have any famous touristy sites,  I didn't see any 

foreigners walking around.

Just at the bottom of the steps was this narrow wooden gate.  If not for the stand with the restaurant's menu done in a  pretty water-colour style stationed right in front,   I would have thought that this was a private residence.

We walked down a few steps and a small stone statue (was it a jizo?) stood by a waterfall. 

It was a peaceful and charming way to welcome guests in. 

Washoku Yohira used to be a private house, admittedly a rather large house, until it was 

transformed into  this restaurant.  There were renovations and repairs being done so there was lots of scaffolding in the front and side of the property.

We entered through sliding doors into a small foyer. Because this is a traditional Japanese 

restaurant,  we had to take off our shoes and change into slippers that the receptionist had 

graciously placed on the floor,  right in front of our feet.  A wooden cabinet off to the side is 

where guests' footwear are kept. 

Later on  as we were ready to leave,  we found our shoes again placed on the marble floor, 

ready for us to put back on.  

I am always amazed that the staff  can remember which shoes belong to which feet.

A cabinet with pieces of antique plates is the only decor at the front lobby.   

Yohira's walls are painted in a mutedly elegant golden yellow. A cream carpeted  

hallway stretches out towards the  back, with private dining rooms on both sides.   

There are more dining rooms upstairs, on the second floor.

I asked permission to peek into one of the rooms.  This mid sized room sits 6 diners on a tatami 

floor.  Windows look out onto a small pocket garden and a bamboo fence.

I had told Miyuki san that Jay and I found it difficult to eat on a tatami mat, unless it was a 

dropped floor. We were ushered into a room right at the front of the house -- a bright cheerful dining room surrounded by floor to ceiling windows.  There were just two tables for four and a
long counter that seats  six.

Washoku Yohira does not have an a la carte menu but offers several kinds of set menus -- 

starting at 1,800 yen all the way to 7,000 yen per person.  Washoku or traditional Japanese 

cuisine always works with what is in season, with deep respect for nature's bounty.  Only the 

freshest seasonal ingredients are used.   After a few minutes, we were each brought a lovely 

basket filled with different kinds of pretty little plates and bowls, each filled with an assortment of tidbits. This was just for starters, Miyuki san assured us.

One of the appetisers was this small plate of sashimi, with a couple of  slices of tai (sea bream), 

ika (squid)  and hamachi ( amberjack).  Freshly grated yellow green wasabi, which tastes nothing
like commercial bright green wasabi  from a tube,  is placed on one side.  

I specially enjoyed this small garden fresh bite of mashed and pureed peas.  I wish it had been 

big enough for two bites.  A cold terrine made of white asparagus was so easy on the palate with a delicate lingering taste.  These two small appetisers alone made the dining experience at Yohira 

so unique and delicious.  And yes, that simmered bit of tako (octopus) was tender and sweet. 

Chawanmushi is a Nagasaki specialty -- Yohira's version was smooth and slid deliciously down 

my throat.  The dashi that went into this dish was first rate, you could taste its umami rich flavour 

adding depth to the creamy custardy goodness.  That small dish on the right contains a sesame infused tofu square resting on a mild slightly jellied sauce.

All these starters were meant to complement the two entrees that came with the meal.  

Entree one, shown in the background was a slice of perfectly broiled fish topped with thinly 

shaved green onions and accompanied by a small piece of  sweet corn.  

Entree two in the foreground was a dish filled with the makings of a pork shabu shabu -- 

with thin slices of pork, mushrooms, tofu and vegetables.

If you're wondering how we cooked our shabu shabu, each of us had been given this tiny  stove. 

The candle flame gave off just the right heat. The thin pork slices cooked in seconds  --  

shabu,  shabu (swish, swish)  and they were done!

Dipped in the accompanying yuzu flavoured sauce, each bite just melted in the mouth.  

This was my entire lunch -- a basket of more than a dozen different small zensai (appetisers)  plus the entrees of grilled fish and shabu shabu.  It was a harmonious blending  of colours, textures and  tastes  -- all for just 2,500 yen  per person.  I can only imagine that Yohira's most expensive 7,000 yen menu must be a spectacular gastronomic feast. 

Washoku or traditional Japanese cuisine is served in small and perfect bites -- there may 

be  many dishes on your tray but they are small portions and each mouthful is a prelude to
the next.   Definitely ...  quality over quantity.  

At the end of our meal, there was room left for a couple of delicious desserts ...  a green tea 

pudding enhanced with mango flavours -- light, refreshing and tasting of summer plus 

a very traditional  red bean dessert,  not as heavy or sweet, in keeping with the season's tastes.

A cup of very good coffee ended this faultless and flawless meal.

Yohira's moss covered stone steps led us back out into the alleyway.  What a delightful lunch interlude that was!

To walk off some of the calories from lunch, we took a bus with Miyuki san to Kazagashira Park.

Located on top of Mt Kazagashira, it was just a twenty minute ride from downtown. 

The scenic winding roads reminded me of Baguio in earlier and greener times.  

The park is a ten minute walk from the bus stop and on a hot and sunny day, I was thankful for the shaded areas along the way.

Big beautiful hydrangeas lined the walkway in Kazagashira Park.  It was difficult not to stop 

and take photos of each and every marvellous  bloom.

The observation platform gives great views of Nagasaki harbour, albeit slightly obscured by the 

thick growth of trees.  Can you see Megami Ohashi in the distance, Kyushu's longest cable bridge.

Jay and I were happy to see our old friend, Ryoma Sakamoto once again here at the top of 

Mt. Kazagashira.  We tried to copy his trademark stance but we didn't do so well,  to omoimasu. 

Otsukare sama deshita  Miyuki san!    It was an amazing first visit to her city.  I wish we could have explored more places with her but we will definitely do that the next time around.

P.S.

Here is Fukusaya's castela in honey and cocoa flavours --  sliced and ready to eat.  

Moist and delectable --  hmmm, it's so light ... perhaps I'll just have one more slice. 

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave