Good combination, Sake and Kushi! At “Kushi-Cafe Tamanegi”

Today’s report is by a special correspondent “N”.
I’d like to report a “Kushi-age” restaurant near Muromi Station in Fukuoka.

Contents

Enjoy just-cooked Kushi-age!

There is a restaurant which serves delicious Kushi-age in Atago, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka City.
The name is “Sosaku Kushi-age Kushi-Cafe Tamanegi”.
“Kushi-age” means Japanese deep-fried skewers.

This restaurant was opened by the chef, who had training at a very famous Fukuoka’s Kushi-age restaurant “Kushisho” for a long time.
“Kushisho” is so famous that they have some branches in Fukuoka.

“Tamanegi” is a bit away from the busy area (near the 6th station from Tenjin Station on subway), but it’s always full of people.

This photo below is the menu of Kushi-age.

There are many Kushi-age menus.
This menu changes every month, and they serve the best foods for the season.

They have a special order system.
You don’t choose what you want from this menu.
You get all the dishes on the menu one after another from the top.

The first menu of the day was “Yamaimo (Japanese yam) and Myoga (Japanese ginger) wrapped with sea eel with shredded pickled plum”.
Salt and Ponzu (soy sauce and citrus vinegar) were served for seasoning.

After I finished the first Kushi-age, the second one arrived at a good timing.
The second Kushi-age was “green pepper and pork loin”.
The third one and the latter ones were brought at perfect timing every time, too.

You don’t have to have a difficulty choosing what to order, so it’s easy.
Another good thing is that everything comes to you at perfect timing and in a perfect order to enjoy the foods.

Of course, you can skip what you don’t like.
Also, when you get full but want to taste latter one, you can ask to change the order.

Apart from the basic menu, you can add other “standard Kushi-age” and “sweet Kushi-age” between.
Their system is very flexible.

In my case, I hesitate to eat them up quickly otherwise the course finishes quickly, so sticks stay on my dish for a while.
The photo above is the third “white leek and squid leg in rice cracker coating” in the front and the fourth “fish in season with spring onion” (the fish was Spanish mackerel)

It’s easy to order Nihonshu as well!

Compared to the menu for Kushi-age,

The Sake menu is very simple.
There is only 1 brand!

I asked the chef why they had only 1 kind, and he said, “Well, there’s no particular reason!”.
They have less drink menus because they emphasize on Kushi-age menu, but you can bring drinks from outside.

Their only Sake was “Itteki Nyukon (Junmai Ginjo)” (brewed by Kamotsuru Shuzo in Hiroshima), which was the color of light yellow.
I took a cold glass.
When I tasted it by itself, I felt deep flavor, rich aroma, and mild texture.
It was heavy and rich by itself.

Next, I tried it with Kushi-age.

The Kushi-age were “chicken with garlic flakes” and “domestic Kuruma shrimp”.
Why couldn’t they match the sake!?
Both sake and Kushi-age were great, so their combination was great, of course.

However, I came to think, “Something is missing…”
The taste of “Itteki Nyukon (Junmai Ginjo)” was stronger than any of the garlic flakes, chicken, or shrimps.

So, I tried “miso” and “tartar sauce” which were prepared for seasoning.

These sauces were nice with their Kushi-age, but they were also good for “vegetable sticks” which were served with Kushi-age.
I liked the vegetables with the sauces so much!

The miso was made by the chef taking 6 hours.
The tartar sauce had rich flavor but the after taste was light.

How is the combination with sake?
The result was, fantastic!
“Vegetables with Miso and tartar sauce + Nihonshu” was so good!!

I thought that such thick sauces can go well with thick “Itteki Nyukon (Junmai Ginjo)”.
Their rich flavors mixed well, and made them deeper each other.

Various original Kushi-age menus

This restaurant makes various original Kushi-age each month.

“Mentaiko (spicy cod roe) and Kobashira (small scallops) wrapped with Yuba (tofu skin)”.
The taste of Mentaiko was perfect.

“Eel, Kaba-yaki (broiling with sauce) style” contained the flavor of Kaba-yaki sauce inside.
I got surprised at it when I had a bite.

By the way, this is the menu which I saw in February.

In February, I enjoyed the tastes of the season such as Nanohana (rape blossom), shrimps, Yomogi-fu (Japanese gluten cakes of Yomogi herb flavor), and Fukinoto (edible spring pant) Miso.
All of their dessert menus were nice, but I liked “Sweet boiled chestnuts and plum” the most.

Today’s sake was “Itteki Nyukon (Junmai Ginjo)” brewed by Kamotsuru Shuzo in Hiroshima.
I enjoyed the good matching of “thick” sake and “thick” foods such as Kushi-age and sauces.

This is all for today’s report!