Semua Semua So Bar 蘇媽.蘇媽 So Bar (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

We had a lot of fun in Fukuoka last week. It was a last-minute trip without much planning but everyone seemed to enjoy it. I think we will do it again pretty soon.

Looking at the mirror last night, I suddenly realized how long my hair had grown over the course of last week. It must be the water in Fukuoka! So, I pinged my hair stylist and scheduled a time to meet him this morning. Afterwards, I decided to swing by Semua Semua So Bar (蘇媽.蘇媽 So Bar) to get my pulled tea fix.

Teh Tarik – Very fragrant and I like the fact that it's very foamy.

Kaya toast with butter – Of course a trip to Smua Semua is not complete without their kaya toast that's loaded with coconut infused kaya jam.

Obviously, I haven't been here for a while so it was the first time I saw robots trotting around Semua Semua with noodle soup in their belly. I guess that's the trend right now. AI and robotics.

I think this place has quietly become my favorite go-to place for Malaysian delight over Kopitiam Bagus.Bagus (捌哥.捌哥特色馬拉茶啡廳), largely due to its convenient location in the heart of the city.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F 10 Granville Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 2362-8020

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 10:00pm daily

The Peak at Galleria Midobaru (Beppu, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

We are checking out of our hotel early in order to catch some actions at Lalaport Fukuoka. I had a bit of a head start to the rest of my team so rather than sitting around in the room, I decided to get some breakfast from the hotel restaurant, The Peak.

The Peak is a casual dining restaurant on 3/F of Galleria Midobaru, the very same floor where we were staying at. It serves breakfast in the morning, and casual lunch and dinner in the afternoon and evening. Nice facility for those who want to spend a lazy day at the hotel.

One of the nicest thing about The Peak is its view, which is the same one we enjoy at the comfort of our room.

I am having second thoughts about having breakfast here on the spot. Maybe I don’t really have the extra time I think I have. Fortunately enough, The Peak offers delivery service right to our doorstep so I elected to take advantage of that option.

This came with Spanish-style egg omelette, Oita pork sausage, French fries, some homemade bread and a small salad. Really not what you called a big breakfast (especially for 3,000yen) but at least I got to enjoy it with the nice view at my balcony.

Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: ￥￥￥￥

Address: 3/F Galleria Midobaru, 665 Minamitateishi, Beppu, Oita 874-0823, Japan

Tel: +81 (50)3189-0303

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 10:00pm daily

Toyotsune Beppu Station お食事処 とよ常 別府駅前店 (Beppu, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

Everyone was feeling a little down today knowing that we will be leaving Fukuoka early tomorrow afternoon. But we all agreed to just enjoy the rest of our time in Beppu together and not (over-)think too much about our impending departure.

I have nothing planned for tonight’s dinner (nor have any ideas). Just when we started driving towards the heart of Beppu’s town centre, I started asking little nugget what he wanted for dinner. I gave him two options, tempura or sushi. and not surprisingly, he chose the former over latter as his eyes began to glow thinking about those golden colored deep-fried shrimps!

It was then that I started looking up Google Map for a tempura restaurant in Beppu and finally pulled this one, Toyotsune Beppu Station Branch (お食事処 とよ常 別府駅前店) out of the hat.

Just a stone’s throw from Beppu Station, Toyotsune is a neighborhood tempura bar doubling as a Japanese izakaya.

Sashimi platter – The purple colored tuna was pretty nice and sweet without much tendon. Not bad. I thought even better were the octopus with some nice natural sweetness and sea water flavors. The sea bream was okay.

Tempura set – This was what we came here for. Check that, this was what little one picked tempura for, his beloved shrimp tempura.

Appetizers – We were first started off with an array of small bites highlighted by the marinated tuna.

I thought the way they made their shrimp tempura was kind of interesting. It’s almost like a deep-fried wonton (錦鹵雲吞??) raviolo style. 

Seasonal vegetables from Fukuoka were always one of the favorite and they certainly didn’t disappoint. The pumpkin and eggplant easily stood out.

After dinner, we got our car from the garage and drove to the supermarket one last time to stock up with snacks for the remainder of July and early August, with Jelloman reminding me that we will be in Japan again sometime in late August. Yeah, that’s right. Another trip to Japan. Everyone’s thrilled.

Earlier the day, we visited Kijima Kogen Park (城島高原パーク), the storied theme park with Japan's wooden roller coaster. But lightning struck (literally) and there was some serious power outage going on in the park resulting in many rides being suspended. We ended up visiting just one or two sites in the process. Little nugget was happy that at least he got to see his favorite insects.

 

Food Rating: 5.5/10
Price: ￥￥￥
Address: 1/F Beppu Ekimae Building, 5-30 Ekimae Honmachi, Beppu, Oita, 874-0934 Japan
Tel: +81 (0)977-23-7487

Closest Train Station: Beppu
Website: www.toyotsune.com
Opening Hours: 11:00am - 2:00pm, 5:00pm - 9:00pm (Fri - Wed)

Bee Honey Yufuin ビーハニー 湯布院店 (Yufuin, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

We made it to Yufuin (湯布院) following a 30-minute drive from our lunch spot. The original plan was to take a relaxing stroll around the spa town and if we have enough legs left, perhaps a walk along Kinrin Lake (金鱗湖) which friends hailed as a pretty scenic spot in the morning (but not in the afternoon).



But the first attraction we ran into when we got out of the parking lot, turned out to be Bee Honey (ビーハニー), a shop selling locally harvested honey.

I have never heard or tried Oita honey before.

The most eye-catching souvenir has to be this one with a real bee in it!

One of the highlights from our exploration of Bee Honey was a trip to their ice-cream stand.

We decided to check out their milk sot serve with honey comb. 

Little nugget was of course front and centre when we talked about soft serve.

I thought the soft serve was really silky smooth and full of milk flavors, and the honey just added some extra sweetness to the mix. Not bad.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 1481-1 Yufuincho Kawakami, Yufu, Oita, 879-5102 Japan

Tel: +81 (0)977-85-2733

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 4:30pm daily

Okamotoya Baiten 岡本屋売店 (Beppu, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

We are spending a lazy afternoon in Beppu and Yufuin, and first up was an early lunch at Okamotoya Baiten / Restaurant (岡本屋売店), a canteen style restaurant serving Japanese udon noodles, soupy curry and more.

So, this is where they make their onsen eggs, steamed by a natural hot spring.

The seatings are all first-come-first-serve.

Luckily, we managed to find a table by the window with a pretty nice view.

The food menu is a fairly simple one here. A few udon noodle dishes, Japanese curry rice (both served with onsen egg) and their signature Jigokomushi pudding.

Ontama udon (605 yen) – The chewy udon was topped by onsen tamago and served with seaweed and green onion. A pretty decent home style dish.

Mentama udon (715 yen) – Pretty similar to the Ontama udon but this came with an additional mentalko ball for some extra flavors and spicy kick.

Curry and rice with tamago (660 yen) – Jelloman had her favorite curry rice and some shredded meat and green onion. This was fairly tasty although the onsen egg did very little to enhance the flavors of the curry.

Jigokomushi pudding (330 yen) – Of course, this was the highlight of the meal for me as I was never a fan of udon noodles. Not surprisingly, the pudding was creamy and silky smooth. It wasn’t as eggy as I first hoped but the caramel sauce did enough to tie everything together.

While the food here wasn’t something to write home about, Okamotoya Baiten provided a nice retreat from the hustle and bustle of city life and it was a pretty good change of pace for those of us living in a metropolitan city.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: ￥￥

Address: 明礬３組, Beppu, Oita, 874-0843 Japan

Tel: +81 (0)977-66-6115

Website: www.jigoku-prin.com/sp/shop.htm

Opening Hours: 8:30am - 5:30pm daily

Atelier at InterContinental Beppu Resort & Spa (Beppu, JAPAN) ★★★★☆

We didn't have much time to enjoy the breathtaking view from the balcony of our hotel room or dip into our private hot spring bath. That because we have another journey to embark on. A culinary journey I've been looking forward to since we touched down in Fukuoka. 

InterContinental Beppu Resort & Spa is about a 10-minute drive from where we were staying. It is an exclusive luxury resort up on the hills overlooking the city of Beppu. While hotel guests can easily escape the hustle and bustle of city life, the property is just a comfortable 15-minute drive from the heart of the spa town. Very easy to navigate around.



Atelier, one of the two restaurants at InterContinental Beppu Resort & Spa, is the hotel's signature casual fine-dining restaurant with 21 counter-only seats in a theatrical setting.

A couple of days before our trip, I started engaging in a conversation with Atelier's reservation team but was devastated to learn that children under 12 were not allowed to dine in the restaurant. I totally understand the reasons behind the policy but wasn't going down without a fight. After exchanging a few emails with the team pledging my case, I was ever so fortunate to receive the terrific news that Executive Chef Kenji Kudo (工藤 賢二) has given the green light to little nugget for dining with us at Atelier. This easily became the best meal of the trip for us by a country mile.

We had the pleasure of choosing the Atelier Saison tasting menu tonight. It's dubbed as a "journey in Kyushu" with some of the prized ingredients coming from different cities in the region.

Nagasaki potato, caviar – Our amuse bouche was potato ice-cream topped by caviar and wagyu consommé jelly. 

There was a layer of yoghurt cream on the bottom to bring some acidity to the dish. A nice, refreshing start to our evening.

Oita flounder, Miyazaki mango – The second course of the tasting menu was a very busy dish full of local ingredients.

The flounder fillet from Oita was slightly torched and served up with Japanese ginger sauce, dabs of mango purée, radish and okra topped with green peas and scallop mousse.

Kumamoto Akaushi beef, Yifiun cheese – Our second and final starter was Kumamoto Akaushi beef roasted, and matched with parmesan chips made from Yifiun cheese, mustard seeds (fermented?) and eggplant purée. The prized Akaushi beef came with moderate marbling, lean but melt-in-your-mouth texture and buttery flavor.

Some housemade salted and unsalted butter arrived along with different kinds of bread.

Looked like these just came out of the oven.

Saganoseki black abalone, Itoshima vegetables – Our seafood dish tonight featured charcoal grilled isaki fish (伊佐木) with black abalone from Saganoseki (佐賀関町), a coastal town on the Eastern tip of Oita. Little one was overjoyed to see his favorite abalone.

This was served with an array of seasonal vegetables from Itoshima (糸島) including butternut squash, bak choy, zucchini and carrot balls, finished off with a thick and tangy abalone sauce.

Oita wagyu filet mignon, eel – The charcoal grilled wagyu filet mignon from Oita topped with a slice of sautéed foie gras, was nicely matched with porcini mushroom chutney, sancho pepper, spring roll stuffed with wagyu beef, lemony Eel, sweet corn, bitter melon, carrot and pearl onion.

The succulent wagyu came with some nice smokiness from the charcoal grill and it was perfect to go with the melt-in-the-mouth foie gras (which I haven't had the pleasure of enjoying for a while thanks to my self-imposed ban of consuming foie gras).

The pool of sauce made with eel, beef, and reduction with butter delivered a strong and sublime finish.

Kagoshima green tea, brown cane sugar – I didn’t realize Kagoshima is a good source of green tea (on top of their wagyu).

I really liked the mellow, earthy taste from the green tea terrine and ice cream. This, along with its slight bitterness, was in stark contrast with the sweetness from the melon compote and mousse. The transparent strips of brown cane sugar (can anyone tell me why they were not brown in color?) helped to provide some interesting texture and crunchiness to the mix. A very nice, unpretentious dessert to wrap up our culinary journey in Kyushu.

We actually had time to enjoy a cup of tea and a small cookie. That's a luxury we could never afford back in Hong Kong. We did everything in a rush back home.

Atelier was a dining experience unlike any other on this trip. The clever use of locally sourced  ingredients, cutting-edge cooking techniques and the cozy vibe (although we couldn't see the mountain tops from the windows as it was already dark), it was an unparalleled multi-sensory journey. Special thanks to Chef Kenji for granting us the opportunity to enjoy this meal as a family. That was much appreciated.

Food Rating: 7/10

Price: ￥￥￥￥

Address: 4/F InterContinental Beppu Resort & Spa, Oita, 874-0000 Japan

Tel: +81 (0)977-76-8258

Website: https://anaicbeppu.com/en/dining/

Opening Hours: 5:00pm - 9:00pm daily

Kaguno-Konomi Mont Blanc 香菓 和栗の金糸モンブラン (Dazaifu, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

Our stay in Dazaifu wasn't supposed to last more than an hour but there was just too much to see on Dazaifu Tenmangu Omotesando (太宰府天満宮表参道) and around Dazaifu Tenmangu. By the time I checked my watch, two hours have already passed us by!



But there was still one more place I needed to visit, Kaguno-Konomi (香菓). This outlet of the fruit-centric cafe is focused primarily on freshly made Mont Blanc cakes (和栗の金糸モンブラン).

I had to purchase a ticket from the vendor machine outside first but it's easy enough for everyone since there were only a few choices around for Mont Blanc (original, matcha and a seasonal mango flavor).

My server first prepared a thick slab of milk soft serve on the plate before adding the chestnut vermicelli on top.

This was done using the machine and fresh chestnut vermicelli ready to be served.

Looked like a plate of noodles with a chestnut on top from this angle.

The color looked much much better with my camera.

Hidden underneath the chestnut vermicelli was the melting milk soft serve. A freshly made "Mont Blanc cake"!

Santa has arrived early this year, obviously! 🎅🤣

We're running late so it was time to hit the road again quickly. Jelloman is behind the wheels today and we got Tosu as our next stop before we head for our final destination (Beppu).

Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 3-2-39 Saifu, Dazaifu, Fukuoka, 818-0117 Japan

Closest Train Station: Dazaifu

Tel: +81 (0)92-923-2881

Website: www.instagram.com/dazaifu.kagunokonomi/?hl=en

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 6:00pm daily

Kanoya 太宰府梅ヶ枝餅 かのや (Dazaifu, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

There was one thing we knew we needed to check off our list before leaving Dazaifu and that was Ume-ga-emochi (梅ヶ枝餅), some sort of red bean sweets that is deemed a must-try when visiting the Daizafu area. 

I have been on the lookout for the handmade Ume-ga-emochi since we arrived and there were a lot of shops at Dazaifu Tenmangu Omotesando selling these Japanese rice cakes with red bean filling. Kanoya (太宰府梅ヶ枝餅 かのや), however, was one of the few shops that didn't rely on machines to make this traditional sweet.

I wasn't paying attention and almost got burnt (literally) by the heat from these handmade Ume-ga-emochi.

I only bought two of these to share among the three of us but I should have got more cuz they were seriously good. The rice cake itself was slightly chewy like mochi and it was complemented nicely by the sweetness of the red bean filling.

Kanoya 太宰府梅ヶ枝餅 かのや is the name to look for if you're interested in trying some of these hand made Ume-ga-emochi!

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: ￥￥

Address: 4-6-17 Saifu, Dazaifu, Fukuoka, 818-0117 Japan

Closest Train Station: Dazaifu

Tel: +81 (0)92-922-5410

Website: https://dazaifu-kanoya.com/

Opening Hours: 9:00am - 5:00pm daily

Starbucks Coffee at Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine Omotesando (Dazaifu, JAPAN) ★★★★☆

Opened in 2011, the Starbucks Coffee at Dazaifu Tenmangu Omotesando is a mastermind by Kengo Kuma. Widely considered one of the most unique Starbucks in Japan (and the world?), this outlet is a must-visit for anyone visiting Dazaifu for the first time.



The design showcased the wooden framework structure often found in a traditional Japanese architecture.

The interior was lined by over 2,000 wooden batons creating a loosely woven lattice that extended beyond the front of the store.

We decided to come in for a quick look (and drink).

Little nugget seems to enjoy the vibe.

And his white peach beverage. 

Dazaifu Tenmangu Omotesando turns out to be a nice retreat from the hustle and bustle of Fukuoka. Too bad we didn't have much time allocated to this portion of our trip. Time to take off for our next destination, The Premium Outlets at Tosu!

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 3-2-43 Saifu, Dazaifu, Fukuoka, 818-0117 Japan

Closest Train Station: Dazaifu

Tel: +81 (0)92-919-5690

Opening Hours: 8:00am - 8:00pm daily