For dinner in Fukuoka I picked Kiharu, an izakaya famous for its saba (mackerel) dishes. It’s not far from Nakasu. Maybe it’s because I’ve turned into a middle-aged guy, but lately I keep craving izakaya. A good izakaya has plenty of seasonal dishes and good drinks to go with them, so it’s perfect for a guy like me drinking on his own. I’d love to do a proper izakaya crawl some day ^_^ though who knows when I’ll get the chance.
The sign
It says “Goto saba and the bounty of Kyushu” – Goto refers to the islands off the west of Nagasaki Prefecture. The mackerel from there is the house specialty, and they also have all sorts of other Kyushu delicacies.
The entrance
The entrance looks a bit bleak, but once you go up to the second floor and step inside, the not-so-big room is packed with people. Modern interior, with noon’s jazz standards playing in the background. The guy who seemed to be the owner was busily working through all kinds of orders, and the staff were quick on their feet too. I hear they’ve opened a second branch, and I’m curious about that one as well.
Sato genshu (undiluted shochu) with hot water
I’ve been hooked on oyuwari (shochu cut with hot water) for a while, so I ordered one. Maybe because this is Kyushu, shochu is on the cheap side. Sato’s genshu is pretty strong, but drinking it this way brings out the flavor. It doesn’t have the fruity aroma of Mori Izo, but it’s easy enough to drink.
Otoshi
Cute little portions of dressed chicken, chawanmushi and mozuku seaweed. They tasted pretty decent too.
Goma saba
Mackerel sashimi tossed in sesame seeds and sesame oil – who knew it could be this good… The plump, firm flesh is full of just the right amount of fat, and with the nuttiness of sesame oil on top it simply melts in your mouth. Goto mackerel is supposedly at its best in winter, so how is this stuff so delicious? I’m really glad I came all the way to Fukuoka.
The food menu
Apart from French/Italian places, I don’t usually photograph menus of things I’m not even going to eat, but this place’s menu is really something special, so I took a shot. I counted about 90 dishes. There’s even a date in the bottom left… so it must change often. The two most popular items are apparently anago (conger eel) and saba, but I botched my ordering that day and never got to try the anago. Anyway, this is the kind of lineup an izakaya needs before it can really hold its head up. Serving a few sloppy dishes with no sense of season doesn’t make a place an izakaya.
The drinks menu
The drinks are even more impressive – I counted around a hundred. Honestly, the biggest reason to come to an izakaya is enjoying the pairing of food and drink. It’s when the sake/shochu list is this long that it’s fun to become a regular, ask about this and that, and get recommendations.
Homemade liver pâté
This one I ordered by mistake -_- just because it looked unusual. Would an izakaya really serve something like this? I wondered, and sure enough, out it came. Wow… Liver pâté like this is rich, so it goes with beer or wine, not so much with a Sato oyuwari. This is when I really regret coming alone. With a group, the failed dishes get polished off in no time, and everyone’s opinions make for a much more fun order.
Fried kani miso tofu with ankake sauce
Tofu made with crab innards (kani miso), deep-fried. The rich, nutty flavor goes without saying. Surprisingly, the frying skills were pretty impressive too. This time my pick was a success.
Squid ichiyaboshi (overnight-dried squid)
I ordered it out of surprise that they even had this on the menu, but it’s more of a beer snack and felt a bit lacking alongside shochu. The quality was excellent though.
Saba chahan
Chahan is fried rice. The owner was making it himself, tossing the wok. Maybe because there wasn’t much mackerel in it, the flavor didn’t stand out dramatically, but any way you look at it, it was the taste of proper Chinese cooking, well beyond what you’d expect at an izakaya. The only problem, if you can call it that, was that it was a lot for me to finish on my own. They also had goma saba ochazuke, so I think it might have been better to order the anago first and save the mackerel for ochazuke at the end.
For one person, eating this much isn’t bad, but it’s true that something is missing compared to ordering lots of dishes with a group. I even started to doubt my own menu-picking skills a little. The Fukuoka night was only getting deeper, but I’d eaten so much here that I had no choice but to cancel everything I’d planned afterwards, ramen or otherwise. Still, if you want to eat properly when you eat, a place like this is truly precious. I hope it stays exactly as it is until the next time I get to go to Fukuoka.