The best rice I've ever had - Warakuen, Ureshino Onsen, Saga

Warakuen 和楽園 in Ureshino, Japan, decked out for the New Year

Months after our road trip in Kyushu (the western-ish side: Fukuoka - Nagasaki - Ureshino - Saga - Fukuoka), there is only one thing that keeps coming up in conversation - the rice we had at our ryokan in Ureshino.

Shinya Shokudo - Food Manga Du Jour

Shinya Shokudo book 1, via official website

Sweeping the Asian food manga (comic) circles in the past year or so is Shinya Shokudo (深夜食堂 or Shinya Shokudou, and seemingly called Midnight Dining in English), a Japanese comic about a late night diner in the notorious nightlife district of Kabukicho, Tokyo. I'm not a comic obsessive, but since Les Gouttes de Dieu, this is the second food or wine-related comic I've been stuck into. In fact, it's the second comics series I've gotten stuck into in at least 5 years, full stop.

Ippudo Fukuoka - Everything Tastes Better At Home

Ippudo shiro

I guess you could call it a ramen lover's Mecca, going to Ippudo, but that Mecca is almost only relevant to foreigners. We know Ippudo because it's in New York, Singapore, Hong Kong etc., and it's often true that the better ramen in these cities is from Ippudo. Hell, people are lining up for two hours to get in in Hong Kong! But in Fukuoka, or even Japan? I'm sorry to burst the bubble, but Ippudo simply doesn't rate.

Hachibei, yummy yaki - Fukuoka, Kyushu

Yakitori! Lots of smoke, but no mirrors

For work, we did an interview with Chef Matt of Yardbird, dubbed "Hong Kong's 'it' restaurant" (well...), and one of my questions was, "What are some of your favourite places to eat in Tokyo?" to which he replied that he actually thought food in Fukuoka was better. This was a few days before I was about to set off to Fukuoka - Helloooooo Lady Luck - so I asked my boss to kindly find out where exactly his fave restaurants in Fukuoka were. Of course, Matt's super busy, but he did manage one name - Hachibei. (And no, I don't think those questions appeared in the Q&A in the end.)

Hakata Kurogane - Late night chicken wings at Hakata Station, Fukuoka, Kyushu

Chicken wings!

We arrived in Fukuoka in the evening and it took us a while to find our hotel (despite it being right next to Hakata Station), so by the time we did and put our bags down we were pretty tired. Without any plans, we wandered around the area as it seemed quite lively still. If all else failed we could have still gone to the myriad Lawsons, Family Marts and 7-Elevens - Japanese convenience stores are amazing; an onigiri from any one of those would have been better than one at the largest Japanese restaurant in any medium-sized Australian town. Seriously.