After strawberry picking we went straight to Nokonoshima Island (能古島), a popular day-trip option for visitors to Fukuoka, especially on weekends. The Island Park there is extremely family-friendly, with beautiful gardens and a playground, perfect for a momentary escape from the hustle and bustle of city life. A short train and bus ride from the strawberry farm to Meinohama 姪浜 Ferry Terminal, followed by a 10-minute ferry ride, took us to the island without hassle.
After a day of walking round the park, for dinner we decided to check out this fisherman's restaurant just outside Nokonoshima's ferry terminal, before heading back to Fukuoka city. It was the only place still open in the area on a Sunday evening, and I was attracted to its rustic charm and unpretentious sense of locality. Restaurants like this are often the hidden gems of a village. If the day's catch is good enough for the fishermen and local people, it'll be good enough for us, we figured. We went in on a positive gut feeling, and true enough remained the only foreigners throughout our dinner - always a good sign in this case - but I'm really not sure how one would cope here if he neither spoke nor read Japanese!
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| Long tables presumably carved from local trees, with the menu and prices (in Japanese only) on a whiteboard hanging over the counter. |
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| Traditional setting with tatami mats, and one sits cross-legged. |
We ordered a main meal each, with a few starters and side dishes to share. The fisherman's wife was very patient in explaining the menu items I didn't understand, especially those featuring exotic or seasonal fishes.
Squid (suiika 水いか) sashimi, served with mustard and kelp. Skillfully sliced into very thin strips, this sashimi was firm yet easy to bite through, with none of the rubberiness or chewiness that often comes with squid that is either not fresh or has been cut too thickly. A clean sweet taste was further testimony to its freshness, aptly enhanced by strips of kelp with their natural umami, as well as a touch of mustard for a mildly spicy kick. Good start.
Charcoal-grilled local Nokonoshima Manyo oysters (万葉牡蠣). Only available during the winter season, these had nothing more than a slice of lemon to highlight their freshness. They were incredibly large and each oyster was just bursting with hot flavourful juices in the mouth. Seafood seldom gets simpler and more luxurious than this.
Breaded and deep-fried oyster set meal. The oysters are indeed a specialty here so the choice of our main course was clear. Same oysters but prepared in a different way, this was incredible comfort food. The battered layer was crisp, tasty and not too oily, while the oysters within had retained all their natural juices and texture. Accompanied by bowls of rice and clear kelp miso soup, pickled plums, tartare sauce and fried fishcakes, this was both simple and very satisfying indeed.
Side dishes: this is ikanago (イカナゴ) fish, also commonly known as kanagi カナギ (金釘) in West Japan. It is currently the season for these little fish, and a common way of preparing them is to first marinate in soy sauce, mirin and sugar before grilling. My first time with this fish, we found these extremely salty and somewhat dry and tough (just like actual salted fish), and didn't enjoy them as much as we thought we would. This was the kind of dish that would work well if washed down with a beer, but we weren't really in the mood for alcohol then.
Thankfully, the next dish of lightly battered and deep-fried prawns fared much better. These were so aromatic and moreish! The batter was kept to a bare minimum to allow the full flavour of the prawns to shine through after deep-frying. They were indeed extremely fresh, succulent and sweet. We ate everything, shells and all - yes, even the shells are so crisp and tasty!
Anago 穴子 (conger eel) done the same way as the prawns. Equally delightful, with an even firmer texture and more delicate flavour.
Final pictures of the place before we boarded the ferry back to the mainland:
The total bill came to about 6,200 yen, which we thought extremely reasonable considering the variety of seafood we had had, as well as the generous portions served here. The whole experience had also been a very authentic and endearing one - I really do love small local restaurants like this, where the atmosphere is completely non-touristy, the service is warm and the food is as fresh as it comes. Definitely worth considering for a meal before or after your Island Park visit, instead of settling for the somewhat touristy restaurants within the park grounds.
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