Delicious dishes and Sake at “Mihara Tofuten”, Nakasu

Good evening.
Thank you very much for visiting this blog.

This is a report by a special correspondent “N” from Fukuoka.
I’d like to introduce a good sake spot in Fukuoka.

Contents

An izakaya restaurant, “Mihara Tofuten(Tofu shop)”

Today I’d like to introduce an Izakaya restaurant, “Mihara Tofuten”, which is so popular that it is usually difficult to make reservations.
As the name “Tofuten” says, their famous menu is tofu dishes.
They use fresh tofu made in Kashima City, Saga Prefecture, which is the next area of Fukuoka.

It’s in Fukuoka’s big downtown, Nakasu.
The location is in Nishi Nakasu which is the west part of Nakasu, and this area has calm and mature atmosphere.
The building of this restaurant looks simple and stylish indeed.

Their recommended menus

What does the dish above look like?
It’s an Atsuage (deep fried tofu) in unique shape!
It was just cooked and very hot!

The name was “Visionary Atsuage” (500 yen).
As my friend who I visited there with couldn’t help saying, “Oh, soybean!” when she had a bite, it had rich taste of soy bean (tofu is made of soy bean).

This is the delicacy which customers never fail to order.

This one above was the recommendation of the day, “Sliced sweet pepper dressed with Shiokombu (salty seaweed)”.
The pepper’s fresh texture and the moderate salty taste of the seasoning was great.

This is potato salad for the appetizer.
The potato was a variety called “Inka no Mezame” which has thick potato taste.
Taro and Aosa (sea lettuce) were mixed in, too.
The mixture of these ingredients was very nice.

There was another type of potato salad in the menu.
The other one had chicken gristle in it, which made a nice crunchy texture.

Fukuoka’s local sake for the first glass

Because the foods were nice, I felt like drinking some Sake.

This photo above is their sake menu.
Everything looked delicious.
I chose my favorite one to celebrate my visiting “Mihara Tofuten” after a long time.

The name is “Tanaka Rokujugo”.
The calligraphy on the label was so cool.

This sake is made by Mr. Tanaka, who is the 8th generation of a sake brewery in Itoshima City, “Shiraito Shuzo”, in Fukuoka Prefecture (http://www.shiraito.com/).
The ingredient is the local grown sake rice called “Yamadanishiki”, and the rice is polished to remain 65% of the rice grains to use only the best part of rice when making sake (the name “Rokujugo” means “65”).

The name “Tanaka Rokujugo” is such a simple name!
I like it. (I knew later that the letters on the label are written by Mr. Tanaka himself!)

Itoshima City is known as one of the famous rice production areas in Japan.
I felt happy as a Fukuoka’s local person to hear that the rice for this sake is specially chosen from Itoshima’s local grown ones.

The taste was mild and rich which was a characteristic of Junmaishu, and the after taste was clear.
It was a typical well-made Sake.
If I had the bottle at home, I would drink it up at once because it was so delicious.

By the way, the brewery “Shiraito Shuzo” is famous for “Hanegi Shibori”.
“Hanegi Shibori” is a way to squeeze out sake from the ingredients.

It’s a primitive way, and there are only few breweries which have the facilities for “Hanegi Shibori”.
“Shiraito Shuzo” is one of them.

“Shiraito Shuzo” holds a festival called “Hanegi Matsuri” at the start of sake release of the year.
So many people visit this event to taste the first sake of the season made in this unique method.
I haven’t been to the event, and I really hope to visit one day.

“We have more sake which are not in the menu book.”

While I was looking into the menu book to decide the next food and sake, a staff said to me,
“We have more unique sake which are not mentioned in the menu. It should be nice with our foods.”

So, I chose a hidden sake.

It was “Tokubetsu Junmai Minami” made by a brewery “Minami Shuzojo” in Aki-gun, Kochi Prefecture.
The staff said that there are not many restaurants which have this sake.
I couldn’t miss such a precious sake!

It had the stronger aroma than “Tanaka Rokujugo”, and the taste was also richer.
The food which I had with this powerful sake was “Grilled tofu and entrails with Miso”.

The tofu absorbed the flavors of the entrails and Miso.
It was so delicious!

The sake “Minami” was still clear even with this thick dish.
The staff’s recommendation was perfect.
I thought that it was the best to ask the restaurant’s people what kind of foods are good for their sake.

I was impressed that the staffs including young staffs explained well about sake and foods.
Everyone knew how to serve foods and sake in good combinations.

Other than those, I also had Yuba (tofu skin) spring roll of eel, avocado, and shrimp.
The taste was rich, and it also went great with “Minami”.

“Tanaka Rokujugo” was orthodox Nihonshu, and “Minami” had a unique taste which went well with other foods.
I enjoyed both a lot.

This restaurant “Mihara Tofuten” has very good tofu dishes, and the room is rather small.
Therefore, it is so popular and it’s very difficult to make reservations.

My friend I went with was from Osaka, and she had willing to visit there once for a long time.
There were no seats available when she came last time because I asked the availability only 3 days before.
I called the shop 2 weeks before the next time, and I could finally get seats.

I recommend you to walk along the river in Nakasu after you enjoy your meal at “Mihara Tofuten”.
The neon of the buildings and the night breeze should make you refreshed, and you might feel like drinking more.

That is all for today’s report!