Fukuoka Gourmet Recommendation - Motsunabe Edition

Hello! When you travel abroad, where do you want to visit? It's the perfect time for a holiday, and students are on vacation, making it the ideal season. Some people go on a European tour, while others head to Southeast Asia to enjoy summer activities. However, many people travel to East Asian countries that are closer to Korea.

Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, and of course, Japan!

Originally, the capital cities like Tokyo and Osaka were the most famous tourist destinations, but recently, all corners of Japan have become popular. Many people are visiting the northern Hokkaido region or the southern Okinawa region. However, the place I'm going to introduce is Fukuoka, which is the closest to Korea and offers a lot for young people and shoppers!

Fukuoka is a popular destination because it feels like a short trip to Jeju Island, it's a fun place to visit, and it's known to be safe. It's a city that offers shopping, food, and entertainment. Recently, the Japanese yen exchange rate has also fallen, making it an even more attractive and recommended destination.

Today, I'd like to introduce some of Fukuoka's delicious restaurants. I'll introduce the must-eat dishes in Fukuoka and some of the best restaurants to experience Fukuoka's culinary scene!

First, Japan has representative dishes for each region. Osaka is famous for takoyaki and okonomiyaki, Hiroshima for oysters, Tokyo for monjayaki, Okinawa for Okinawa soba, and Hokkaido for Jingisukan (ジンギスカン), etc. Each region has its own specialties.

Fukuoka is famous for Motsunabe (もつ鍋). Motsunabe is a Japanese-style hot pot dish. 'Mots' (もつ) refers to beef or pork offal, and 'nabe' (鍋) means hot pot.

It's considered one of the top three dishes in Fukuoka. The three main dishes are Motsunabe, Tonkotsu Ramen, and Mentaiko (明太子). Motsunabe is a Japanese-style beef offal hot pot made with beef tripe, bean sprouts, cabbage, chives, mushrooms, and various other vegetables according to preference. The broth is simmered until it reduces to a flavorful base. It uses a dashi broth made with bonito flakes and kelp, and the base is usually soy sauce or miso. The vegetables and offal cooked in this broth have a deep and clean umami flavor. However, the Japanese typically only eat the solids and don't drink the broth. For Koreans who love broth, it might be a bit salty, so keep that in mind. Usually, you finish the meal by adding noodles or rice to the remaining broth.

When I visited Fukuoka, I heard that I absolutely had to try the famous Motsunabe, so I went to a Motsunabe specialty restaurant. I had never eaten large intestine before, and I wasn't a big fan of offal, so I was a bit worried.

Actually, large intestine has a lot more fat than regular offal, and eating it on its own is like eating fatty, greasy meat. However, since it's not a very strong dish, the large intestine blended well with the plain broth. I enjoyed the chives and cabbage as I love vegetables. It felt like a shabu-shabu with large intestine in a clear broth.

This familiar-seeming dish has a history that dates back to the Japanese colonial period. Korean laborers who were brought to the coal mining villages during the colonial period started making the offal that the Japanese didn't eat into a hot pot dish. This is how it spread to the Japanese. In the early 1990s, a Motsunabe restaurant in Tokyo became incredibly popular, and it became a nationwide hit as an affordable food for the common people. Today, there are many Motsunabe restaurants across the country, and there are quite a few restaurants in Fukuoka city that serve single portions, making it a must-try dish for solo travelers.

If you search for 'Motsunabe' on Google Maps, tons of restaurants will pop up. Honestly, they're all quite similar, so you can probably just go to any one. But, I'll share some links to the restaurant I went to and a few other popular restaurants.

The restaurant I went to was Motsunabe Shoraku Fukuoka Main Store (もつ鍋 笑楽 福岡本店 天神西中洲). It's located at 11-4, Shoraku Building 1F, Nishinakasu, Chuo Ward, Fukuoka, Japan 〒810-0002. The first floor is a bar-style seating area, and the second and third floors have table seating. I went late at night, so it wasn't crowded, but I've heard that there's usually a wait.

https://www.google.co.kr/maps/place/Motsunabe Shoraku Fukuoka Main Store

I'll share the link.

Another restaurant I recommend is Hakatan Sakana-ya Gorosaka (博多ん肴屋 五六桜).

This restaurant is famous because Baek Jong-won (백종원) visited it. As I'll explain later, it's known for Mizutaki (水炊き), a local Fukuoka dish, and Motsunabe. It also offers single-serving hot pot dishes. If you're traveling solo, this is a great place to go. While Motsunabe usually has a clear broth, this restaurant offers a spicy version as well. Koreans seem to prefer the spicy version because the clear broth doesn't cut through the richness of the large intestine.

It's located at 10-15, 1F-B Rose Mansion, Kamikawabatamachi, Hakata Ward, Fukuoka, Japan 〒812-0026.

https://www.google.co.kr/maps/place/Hakatan Sakana-ya Gorosaka

Today, we've learned about Motsunabe, a must-eat dish in Fukuoka. I'll introduce more Fukuoka restaurants in the next post!