Place
Fukuoka
福岡県
39 items
● 34 born here(Abutte Kamo, Amagi no Kawatake, Beta Mochi, and more) / ● 2 raised here(Hakata Jidori, Hakata Wagyu) / ● 3 prepared here(Achara Zuke, Nosaba, Yame-cha) / ○ 6 known for it here
Born here34
- Abutte Kamoあぶってかもsmall damselfish salted overnight and grilled wholeSmall damselfish are salted overnight, then grilled whole, scales and innards left on — a bony fish often passed over elsewhere, but said to have caught on in Hakata Bay after a Meiji-era glut led someone to salt and grill the excess.
- Amagi no KawatakeあまぎのかわたけKawatake — a rare freshwater algae found only in one small river, dressed in sweet vinegarA rare wild freshwater algae, found only in the Kogane River in Asakura, is dressed with sweet or three-flavor vinegar — said to have once been presented to the shogun, and now conservation efforts continue as it's listed as endangered.
- Beta Mochiべたもちa flattened wheat-flour cake dusted with kinako or draped in sweet red beanWheat dough is flattened, steamed, and topped with soybean flour or sweet red bean paste — named, it's said, for its resemblance to a flat local sole called 'beta', and tied to the feast marking the end of rice planting.
- Kabocha no Dango Jiruかぼちゃのだんご汁wheat dumplings torn into a pumpkin and dried-sardine soupA giant local pumpkin from Buzen's Mikkado district is simmered soft, then torn wheat dumplings are dropped in — the pumpkin, said to trace some 450 years back to Portuguese traders, was once a lifeline in leaner years.
- ChanraaちゃんらーBesides shoyu, miso, shio and tonkotsuchanpon noodles dropped into a Japanese-style brothA noodle dish said to have started at a diner in Moji, Kitakyushu. Chanpon-style noodles go into a Japanese dried-sardine broth closer to udon than to the original pork-and-seafood soup, devised, it's said, for a student who wanted Nagasaki champon but couldn't afford it.
- Ebi Zakkoえびざっこa mix of small shrimp simmered in sweet soy, the broth then used to cook somenSeveral kinds of small shrimp are quickly simmered in sweetened soy, and the leftover broth then cooks somen noodles — a fisherman's way of using up the mixed catch of small shrimp hauled from the Buzen Sea while it's still fresh.
- Etsu no Nanban Zukeエツの南蛮漬けa fried river fish found only at one estuary, marinated sweet and sourEtsu — a fish found nowhere but the Chikugo River estuary — is fried and steeped in a sweet-and-sour marinade. Caught only during a short open season from May to July, it sets this dish apart from the more common mackerel or horse-mackerel version of nanban-zuke.
- Gameniがめ煮chicken and root vegetables simmered together, Fukuoka's own take on chikuzen-niChicken and root vegetables — burdock, lotus root, bamboo shoot — are stir-fried, then simmered down for New Year and celebrations. Known elsewhere as chikuzen-ni, this Fukuoka version is said to sometimes keep the bone in.
- Kutsuzoko no Nitsukeくつぞこの煮つけsole simmered in a seasoned broth, named for its shoe-sole shapeSole caught in the Ariake Sea, called 'kutsuzoko' — shoe-sole — for its flat shape, is simmered soft in a soy broth. Locals are said to prize the darker-skinned variety as the finer catch.
- Toriniku no Sukiyaki鶏肉のすき焼きSukiyaki-style (simmered in warishita)a whole chicken, offal included, simmered sweet and salty in a potA whole chicken, offal included, is piled onto a platter with napa cabbage and chrysanthemum greens and simmered in a bold sugar-and-soy broth — a gathering-day hot pot from the Kasuya-to-Munakata area, where poultry-raising is said to have taken off after an Edo-era famine.
- Gamenoha Manjuがめの葉饅頭sweet bean-paste dumplings steamed inside a wild sarsaparilla leafSweet bean paste is wrapped in rice-flour dough and steamed between leaves of wild sarsaparilla, nicknamed 'turtle-shell leaf' for its shape — said to have taken root as a stand-in for oak leaves, which don't grow wild in Fukuoka, for the Boys' Festival.
- Hakata Ramen博多ラーメンTonkotsu — pork bonecloudy pork broth with very thin noodles and refillsA cloudy broth from hard-boiled pork bones with very thin, straight noodles. Diners can order kaedama, an extra portion of noodles alone.
- Hakata no Gomasaba博多の胡麻鯖Goma saba — thin-sliced raw mackerel dressed with sesame and soyThin-sliced raw mackerel is tossed with ground sesame, soy, and mirin — an unusual way to eat a fish that spoils fast, but one long practiced in Hakata's fresh-catch waters, sometimes poured over rice as a tea-soaked dish.
- Hakata Udon博多うどんSoft noodles from the temple town where udon itself beganSaid to have spread from the area around Shofuku-ji, the temple linked to the monk who brought milling techniques back from China. Shops typically pair soft noodles and mild broth with burdock or fish-cake tempura.
- Hakata Zoni博多雑煮a New Year mochi soup built around yellowtail and a leafy green called katsuo-naGrilled flying-fish stock carries yellowtail, round mochi, and a bitter green called katsuo-na — Hakata's New Year soup. Yellowtail, a fish that changes names as it grows, is said to be added for luck, and busy merchant households once pre-skewered the ingredients for quick serving.
- Imo Manjuいも饅頭a whole taro wrapped in wheat dough and steamedA whole peeled taro is wrapped in wheat dough and steamed — a snack from the upper Yabe River villages of Yame, once eaten to bridge the wait for dinner or in place of rice, grilled hot over a net fire in winter.
- Kamasu Zushiかます寿司salt-cured barracuda pressed around vinegared rice for an autumn shrine festivalSalt-cured barracuda is steeped in sweet vinegar and pressed around sushi rice — long sold alongside chestnut rice along the approach to Kurume's Kora-san shrine festival, its name said to play on a straw sack called 'kamasu', once filled with rice for offering.
- Kashiwa Meshiかしわめしrice mixed with simmered chicken and burdockChicken and burdock, simmered together, are mixed into freshly cooked rice — named for the Kyushu word 'kashiwa' for chicken. Said to taste just as good cold, it has long traveled as a station bento.
- Kurume Ramen久留米ラーメンTonkotsu — pork bonethe origin point of Kyushu pork-bone ramenRegarded as the origin of Kyushu's pork-bone ramen. The broth is kept going by continually topping up the pot.
- Kurume Yakitori久留米焼きとりthe skewer town where everything goes on a stickChicken is only the start — pork, beef and horse all go on the stick, with local names like darumu.
- Mitori Manjuみとり饅頭steamed buns leavened with baking soda and filled with summer red beanBaking soda puffs these steamed buns up round, giving them a faint bitter edge — filled with paste from a summer-harvested bean called mitori, and said to be offered to ancestors at Obon in the Kitakyushu area.
- Mizutaki若鶏の水炊きMizutaki & chiri (light broth)bone-in chicken simmered into a milky broth and dipped in ponzuBone-in chicken and vegetables simmer slowly into a milky broth, eaten with a citrus-soy dip — said to have taken shape in Hakata from a foreign chicken soup that first landed in Nagasaki, and now inseparable from the closing feast of the city's summer festival.
- Motsunabeもつ鍋Soy-based & yosenabebeef offal hot pot with cabbage and garlic chives, a Hakata specialtyA Fukuoka and Hakata hot pot in which beef offal, mainly small intestine, simmers with cabbage, garlic chives, garlic, and chili in a soy or miso broth. It is said to have started after the war with mine workers cooking offal and chives in soy seasoning in aluminum pots.
- Nagahama Ramen長浜ラーメンTonkotsu — pork bonethe fish-market bowl behind Hakata's thin noodleA pork-bone ramen that grew up beside Fukuoka's fish market. The 1954 shop Ganso Nagahamaya is said to have pushed the broth toward a thick, cloudy white, and the style is often named as a root of Hakata's ultra-thin noodle and kaedama refill culture.
- Niguiにぐいa broth-heavy simmered dish eaten first as soup, then again as a stewTaro, lotus root, and other ingredients — always an odd number of them — are cut small and simmered in a broth-heavy pot from the Buzen area. Eaten once as a soup and again once the liquid reduces, its name is said to come from 'eating it twice'.
- Nukamiso Dakiぬかみそ炊きsardine or mackerel simmered in an aged rice-bran pickling pasteSardine or mackerel simmers in a soy broth until a family's aged rice-bran pickling bed is stirred in — the fish's oiliness softens into the bed's savor, in a Kitakyushu tradition where the bed itself was once passed to a daughter as she married out.
- Okyutoおきゅうとa firm seaweed jelly sliced thin and dressed with vinegar-soyEgonori seaweed is boiled down and set into a firm jelly, sliced thin and dressed with vinegar-soy — once so central to Hakata mornings that vendors are said to have sold it door to door before the war.
- Senbuki Mageせんぶきまげblanched Welsh onion folded and dressed with mustard-vinegar-miso, alongside river snailsWelsh onion, called 'senbuki' locally, is blanched and folded, then dressed with vinegared miso alongside river snails — a dish for the Hinamatsuri doll festival in the Chikuho area, timed to a late-winter cold snap said to be the snails' season.
- Su Mochi酢もちfreshly pounded New Year mochi torn by hand into grated daikon and citrusThe last batch of New Year mochi pounding is torn by hand — no starch dusting — and tossed with grated daikon, bitter-orange juice, and soy. In the Buzen area, it's said to be shared out as the pounding session's finale.
- Tobata Champon戸畑ちゃんぽんFukuoka champon built on steamed noodles made for long keepingWhen Tobata was one of Japan's major deep-sea fishing bases, local noodle makers developed steamed noodles that would keep well on long voyages. Restaurants that used those noodles for champon gave rise to a version distinct from the Nagasaki original.
- Tohei Nabeとうへい鍋Miso-basedTouhei nabe — a miso hot pot built from a giant conger eel once thrown back for being unprofitableBones from a giant conger eel called touhei flavor a miso broth for cabbage and other vegetables — said to have begun when fishermen potted a fish too bony to sell, and now kept alive only on Oshima island off Munakata.
- Yaki Ramen焼きラーメンTonkotsu — pork bonepork-bone ramen noodles grilled with sauce on an iron plateBoiled ramen noodles tossed with pork-bone broth and a house sauce, then seared on an iron plate. Credited to Kokin-chan, a food stall founded in 1968 in Fukuoka's Tenjin district, and eaten both as a late-night dish and a drinking companion.
- Yama Konnyaku no Sashimiやまごんにゃくの刺身Yama konnyaku sashimi — mountain-grown konjac sliced raw and dipped in wasabi-soy or vinegar-misoKonjac made straight from the tuber, prized for its firm bite and stronger flavor than the powdered kind, is sliced like sashimi and dipped in wasabi-soy or vinegared miso — grown over three to four years in the mountains of northern Yame.
- Yanagawa Nabe柳川なべSukiyaki-style (simmered in warishita)loach and burdock simmered in a pot and finished with beaten eggLoach, carefully cleaned, simmers with burdock in a clay pot and is finished with beaten egg — a dish of Yanagawa, the canal city, kept locally as its own even though a Tokyo hot pot shares the same name.
Raised here2
- Hakata Jidoriはかた地どりbred to suit Fukuoka's mizutaki hot potSaid to have been bred from shamo fowl by a Fukuoka prefectural research station specifically to suit local dishes like mizutaki hot pot; the standard sets a minimum 80 days, with average shipment reportedly around 85.
- Hakata Wagyu博多和牛calves bought in from across Kyushu, finished on Fukuoka's own rice strawJapanese Black raised by around 50 registered producers in Fukuoka — calves bought in from across Kyushu, finished carefully over roughly 20 months mainly on locally grown rice straw.
Prepared here3
- Achara Zukeあちゃら漬けsummer vegetables in a sweet-and-sour pickle spiced with chiliWhite melon, eggplant, and lotus root are pickled in a sweet vinegar spiked with red chili — the name is said to trace to the Portuguese 'achar', carried in through Hakata Bay's old trade, and an odd number of vegetables is used for Obon hospitality.
- NosabaのうさばNousaba — sun-dried shark cured in a New Year marinadeStar-spotted smooth-hound shark is opened up, sun-dried for weeks, then steeped in a seasoned marinade before New Year — said to have once stood in for herring roe when it was scarce, and still known in Kanezaki as 'Kanezaki herring roe'.
- Yame-cha八女茶By growing regionFukuoka's straw-shaded gyokuro regionA Fukuoka tea region said to trace back roughly 600 years to a tea-making technique brought home from Ming China. In the mountain districts of Kurogi, Joyo, and Hoshino, traditional straw-shaded cultivation continues, and the area is known as a gyokuro-producing region.
Known for it here8
- Kyushu amakuchi shoyu九州甘口醤油Known sourcethe sugar-rounded sweet soy sauce of KyushuA sweetened soy sauce popular across Kyushu, made with added sugar or other sweeteners. Its roots are often traced to sugar arriving early via Edo-era trade with Portuguese and Dutch merchants, and to a local habit of using sweetness to complement very fresh raw fish — it remains the everyday sashimi soy sauce of the region.Said to have more soy sauce breweries than any other prefecture, and a major producer of sweet soy sauce.
- Genki Tsukushi元気つくしKnown sourceFukuoka's brand rice bred for consistent qualitySaid to have been bred by Fukuoka for consistent quality and good taste, with somewhat large grains and balanced stickiness said not to tire the palate. Its name blends 'genki' (vigor) with 'Tsukushi', an old name for the region, one of Fukuoka's flagship varieties.Said to be a core variety in the prefecture's branding strategy.
- UnagiウナギFreshwater fishfreshwater eel — grilled and glazed for a summer stamina mealGrilled and glazed as kabayaki, traditionally eaten on the midsummer Day of the Ox for stamina. Eastern Japan steams before grilling while the west grills straight through — towns by brackish lakes rich in glass eels built eel-farming into local fame.In this canal-laced water town, the steamed-then-served 'seiromushi' style of eel took root, softening the fish further.
- Yakitori焼き鳥chicken, or sometimes pork, grilled on skewers by cutChicken, mostly, cut by part and skewered over charcoal or a wire rack — prime cuts like thigh and breast take heat very differently from offal such as neck meat, gizzard, or liver. In some regions the skewers hold pork instead, yet the dish keeps the name yakitori.In Kurume, not just chicken but pork, beef, and even horse go on the skewer, with some offal cuts carrying distinct local names such as "darumu." The city's history as a castle town with a broad meat culture is said to underlie a style of yakitori not limited to chicken.
- Takana-zuke高菜漬けmustard greens pickled with chili, a Kyushu everyday stapleMustard greens salted with chili — a pickle found across Kyushu. There is a lightly salted fresh version and an aged one fermented for half a year, and both get chopped into rice, stir-fries, and more.A warm, fertile district where Mike takana — a cross of a green brought from China and a native strain — took hold as a crop in the Meiji era.
- Nukazukeぬか漬けvegetables (and sometimes fish) fermented in a living rice-bran bedVegetables (and in some regions, fish) fermented in a nuka-doko — rice bran mixed with salt. Lactic bacteria and yeast in the bed give it a distinctive sourness, and the bed itself is stirred daily and passed down as a household's own particular flavor.A nuka-doko bed once kept as a preserve by the Kokura domain has been passed down through old households and lives on as nukamiso-daki, fish simmered in aged bran.
- Mentaiko明太子chili-marinated pollock roePollock roe cured in a chili marinade, its popping texture and heat said to pair naturally with plain rice. It's said to have spread from postwar Hakata and today ranges from gift boxes to everyday packs.Fukuya was founded here in 1948, and the following year began making and selling karashi mentaiko — said to be the origin of the mentaiko eaten today. Close to Hakata Port, this district is home to the headquarters and factories of makers like Kanefuku, forming a production cluster that handles everything from importing frozen roe to finished mentaiko.
- Sencha煎茶Green teaJapan's everyday unshaded green teaGreen tea made from young leaves grown without shading, steamed and rolled dry in what's considered the most basic Japanese tea process. It's said to account for the bulk of the country's tea production, prized for a balance of fresh aroma and gentle astringency.Continues traditional straw-shaded cultivation and is known as a producer of premium tea that has placed highly in national tea competitions for many years.