Mizutaki @ Idobata, Kawabata Shopping Arcade, Fukuoka
With the volatility of a Japanese summer reaching absurd levels, it is not uncommon for a blazing morning to end up with a rainy night. When that comes, a hot pot will be a good idea to end things for the day. I did mention a few times that for hot summer days, I would prefer something less soupy and hot. Well, with the rain I guess I can make an exception.
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| Quaint |
For this round, we return to one of my favourite spots, Kawabata Shopping Arcade. Loaded with cheap eats, bars, restaurants, izakayas, and everything in between, this is where I will come time and time again when friends ask me for a local eats recommendation. At the request of a few friends, the item on the menu today is mizutaki (水炊き) at a local haunt. We then ended up in Idobata (井戸端), a simple hole-in-the-wall izakaya-style restaurant in the shopping street. In fact, Idobata actually means "side of a well". Not exactly a reference to a wall, but close enough. So for our party of 4 today, we ordered a serving of mizutaki, a variety of yakitori skewers, and a mentaiko omelette.
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| Before the fun begins. |
For those who are unfamiliar, mizutaki is a local Fukuoka specialty. Essentially a chicken hot pot, it comes in either a clear soup form or in a creamy cloudy form, similar to a tonkotsu broth. This establishment serves the clear one. And being the clear version, it has a more crisp and light flavour, without being too heavy on the palate and the gut. A clay pot of ingredients was served before us, in its raw form, before the fire is turned on and eventually our meal is ready. This was very refreshing, with a mountain load of veggies and chicken. Despite looking very healthy, it was surprisingly loaded with flavour and went down fast. This pot stood for 3240 yen, which is a serving for 2 diners.
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| Boil boil boil! |
The pot was also surprisingly varied in terms of textures too. In addition to mushrooms, leeks, cabbage and the aforementioned chicken, there are also tofu pieces and meatballs. The meatballs were particularly special and we all enjoyed it. And with a dab of yuzu, this was absolutely amazing.
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| Hidden meatball! |
To complement the meal we also ordered one stick of every variety of yakitori the store has. This lead to 5 different skewers for each person : chicken skin, pork, chicken, chicken giblets and tsukune , a type of meatball. All of them were slathered with rich and sweet teriyaki sauce, making it a delectable bite. The one that caught all of us by surprise is the chicken skin.
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| Carnivorous. |
It was surprisingly clean and had a more rubbery and chewy texture than what we expected. We reckoned that it was boiled beforehand, thus removing a huge amount of fat from an ingredient that is known for its oil content. Each skewer stood for a modest 150 yen. Such a bargain.
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| Salty lava |
Lastly, we had the mentaiko omelette to round off the whole dinner. Essentially, it's an omelette roll, with a creamy and cheesy mentaiko center. This was sinfully amazing, with a lot of powerful flavour, mainly from the crimson center. This bombshell stood for only 650 yen, another bargain selection. It was a weekday night when we had this, so not really a good time to get some beer down. Still, we had great fun taking down fruit milkshakes which stood at 650 yen each. Unfortunately, we did not take any photos for that. In any event, just trust me it was good.
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| Front of the house. |
This was a simple but hearty dinner with friends at a humble local establishment, which I always recommend going to. The total damage for the night was 10,810 yen, which is not to bad when you divide it among 4 diners. However, note that this also includes otoshii of 330 a person. I am not really a fan of otoshii, but it is what it is I guess, especially when dining out in Japan. Despite that, this is just a small gripe on an otherwise, a enjoyable night. If you are keen into trying out mizutaki at this establishment, then Idobata's address is as follows:
4-214 Kamikawabatamachi, Hakata Ward, Fukuoka, 812-0026
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