After checking into my hotel for the night, I head out for dinner and seek out the second meibutsu of Fukuoka: motsu-nabe. Nabe is both the cooking vessel and name of the dish, meaning hot pot in Japanese. Nabe soup bases and ingredients can range from region to region and household to household. The most basic soy based yose-nabe is common at home, chige-nabe is a spicy Korean inspired version with kimchee, and chanko-nabe is the food of the sumo, but these are all posts for another time.
Motsu-nabe is usually made with a soy-based soup with cabbage, moyashi, nira, slices of dried red pepper and the main star, motsu cooked right at your table. Motsu is a type of offal, usually beef or pork intestines, and it is delicious. When cooked right they are soft, tender and have a supple chewy bite to them, which the Japanese would describe as puripuri. Don’t let the idea of offal, turn you away from this dish as really it is a mind over matter thing like skydiving or going to work on Monday mornings. What started out of necessity has now become a national favorite and some would argue the best nabe around.
I found a shop called Motsu Kou, that specializes in motsu-nabe. I was greeted by a sweet obaa-chan and was seated at the counter. I ordered a beer and a nabe. The waitress on the other side of the counter started asking me about my travels while she cooked my nabe in front of me. I told her I had about a week and was making my way around Kyushu, going to one prefecture a day. She told me she just got back from Tokyo that day, there for a little sightseeing and shopping.
Once the nabe is cooked, servings are ladled into smaller bowls to eat. After all the vegetables and motsu are finished the typical shime, a way of finishing a nabe by cooking a noodle or rice in the remaining broth to soak up the flavor, is added. In the case of mostu-nabe a thick round noodle called champon is the typical closer.
Leaving very happy, I headed away from Motsu Kou, passing canals now lit up by neon as I made my way to Nakasu.
Nakasu at night is fun. You may get a sly grin from many a Japanese business-man for saying that, as it has a reputation for being something of a red light district. But to me it’s a vibrant place where everybody, young and old, is out having a good time. Here you would have to try hard to not make friends, even if just for a beer, a song or plate of gyoza. That’s what Nakasu is about.
I grabbed a beer at a convenience store and sat down at an empty bench on a foot bridge overlooking the neon soaked river surface. I was taking it all in, enjoying the colors, laughter of groups out heading to their next destination when an older man with a guitar stares at me while he sets up on the other side of the stone table between us. Eventually he asks where I am from. I tell him the US, but live in Tokyo. He tells me his daughter is married and lives in New Jersey. He boasts that he can sing in English, saying he will dedicate a song to me, his new friend. He plays a Beatles song, not really getting the lyrics, but nailing the cadences.
As people passed I learned this guy is something of a local celebrity on this bridge. People would pass, request songs, stay for a few minutes, dance, hand him a can of beer or a few coins. A guy in a suit requested a song for his grandchild on FaceTime. It was a party, with different people passing by and saying hello. He would introduce me as his friend, as if we had known each other for years.
I finished my drink, so I went to the closest convenience store for another and got my new friend one too.
Before I left him, it was clear how much he loved Fukuoka. He lived in Tokyo many years ago working as a salary-man like most people. He said he quit, so he could come back to Fukuoka. The thing he said he missed the most was the food and, of course, the people. I could see then the kind of place Fukuoka is. Friendly people who will strike up a conversation, interested in hearing your story. And they care about their food.
I left my spot on the bridge passing another musician, a woman dressed in a kimono with an afro playing a shamisen. This is fun and whacky place. As a version of Yellow Submarine filled the air I headed up to the next bridge where I would see a guy about a plate of bite sized gyoza.
Although prominent throughout Asia, Japan does not really feature a lot of street food. For any uninitiated traveler, street food is some of the freshest, most delicious food you will find. I recommend searching it out wherever you find yourself as it is what the locals are eating and is always unique to that area. There are the night markets in Taipei, hawker’s centers in Singapore, and in Fukuoka, yatai.
Yatai are food stalls that line the river and streets of Nakasu. You go there for drinks, for food, of course, but it’s the close proximity to the other guests and the cooks that makes yatai so special. The counters are tiny, the chairs are cheap stools or crates, the decor is simple and the food is always great. It is an experience. One that you won’t find in Tokyo or Osaka despite being great food cities in their own right.
I waited in line that stretched about a block to try the hito-kuchi gyoza (one bite dumplings) from this famous ojii-san at this one stand on a corner at of an intersection. To my left was a group of college students on their summer break driving from the north to the south of Japan, to my right were a couple from Yokohama. After about a 40 minute wait I was seated between the couple and a few locals.
I ordered a plate of doteyaki (left) and the mini-gyoza (right). Doteyaki is another type of beef offal stewed in miso paste and mirin. I love these nimono (slow simmered) dishes, and again these beef tendons are cooked until soft and tender, topped with spring onions.
It didn’t take long to find out why this place was so popular, it was the master of this little shop. While folding these small bite-sized gyoza over and over again, he has time to joke and entertain the guests as well. He teased me for being a spy because I spoke Japanese a little too well and was taking pictures of everything.
It’s a place that you could stay at for hours, but knowing that there was a long line I finished up and moved along my way very satisfied.
Further down the river is a long line of yatai stands lit up with red laterns, each serving their own variation of the local specialties. Not only can you get tonkotsu ramen, motsu-nabe, mini-gyoza, but also mentaiko (spicy cod eggs), oden, kushi-yaki (grilled skewered meats) and more. Fukuoka has plenty more meibutsu than the average destination, so it’s hard to try everything in one visit.
These food stalls offer a place for locals, travelers, people visiting on business alike a place to enjoy themselves, connect and let go. You can go there alone, but you will never be alone. This is why Nakasu is a place I am happy to visit again and again. And to me it it epitomizes what Kyushu is, a warm place with friendly people and great food. What more could you want? What more could you need?