20 Jan

For dinner we wanted to try shippoku, which is a banquet particular to Nagasaki and takes cues from Japanese, Chinese and Western cuisine. One of the famous shippoku restaurants in Nagasaki is Hamakatsu. All the waitresses were dressed traditionally and there was a choice of Japanese or Western seating. We thought of sitting on the tatami mats, but because of A2’s knee we settled on Western furniture. I didn’t see anyone in the Japanese section. All of us ordered the third cheapest option, which was called Bura-bura shippoku (¥3750)....

20:25 / Food / Hamakatsu / Japan / Japanese / Nagasaki / Restaurants / Travel
20 Jan

We bought these from a small grocery store we passed on the way to Arita along with another large punnet of Amaou strawberries. One bun was white with many pieces of purple sweet potato. Another was a green tea bun with red bean paste. The red bean paste wasn’t as sweet as normal, and I prefer it that way. I liked the sweet potato one better through. Later on during one of our many car drives we ate the rest of the bao. All of them had red...

20:19 / Dessert/Sweets / Japan / Japanese / Misc. Snacks / Travel
20 Jan

Arita is a small pottery town. We drove up and down different streets looking for restaurants, but almost every shop was a pottery shop and the one restaurant we did see was a Chinese restaurant, which mum wasn’t keen on. In the end we went into the tourist information centre to ask where the restaurants were. The ladies directed us to a store around the corner. We walked around but couldn’t find it so we had to go back and ask them again. It turned out that the...

20:00 / Arita / Japan / Japanese / Pottery Store / Travel
20 Jan

Amao strawberries from Fukuoka are supposedly famous. The small tub of 4.5 strawberries was ¥198 from the Parco supermarket. Larger punnets were ¥580 – about 7AUD. The strawberries were a very pale, red colour and the inside was also very pale – almost completely white – but they were worth the expense as they were incredibly sweet. There are also Amao strawberries that look and taste more like the ones at home. Later in HK I spotted 500g punnets of imported Fukuoka Amao strawberries selling for nearly 20AUD each. [gallery...

19:57 / Fruit / Fukuoka / Japan / Travel / Whole Foods
19 Jan

After missing out on the opportunity to try this restaurant earlier today, we returned for dinner. This restaurant was a nicely decorated and cleaner restaurant, which also had Japanese-style private rooms available. The waitress convinced mum to order a small platter of various fish paste items for ¥1000. We also ordered two bowls of udon – one with the ‘original’ broth and the other with miso (¥890 each). Having curry broth costs extra. Mum thought the udon at West was nicer because hers was a bit ‘soggy’. I...

19:25 / Food / Fukuoka / Japan / Japanese / Minematsuhonke / Restaurants / Travel
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