Fukuoka: The Japanese city that dominates street food

CNN
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Fukuoka, Japan’s sixth-most populous city, has more outdoor food stalls than the rest of the country combined.

These are called kiosks yataisan indelible part of what makes Fukuoka’s food scene so special.

Think of them as a kind of foodie Cinderella.

Specific and highly desirable locations are allocated on Yatai’s main pedestrian streets.

However, they can only operate at night and must dismantle or remove their stalls entirely before morning commuters begin crowding the sidewalks. The only clue that may materialize in Yatai later is a water tap at ground level.

But at night the city transforms. The carts and minivans seem like magic, serving everything from gyoza (in Fukuoka, these famous dumplings are served in bite-sized form) to ramen to meat skewers to the local hot chicken soup called oden, with iced asahi soup. Or Sapporo beer.

“Yatai is the best place to make friends,” says Nick Szasz, a Canadian-born, longtime resident of Japan who runs the English-language website. Fukuoka now. “Especially in the winter.”

Most carriages can only seat between 6 and 10 people, and they are encouraged to sit together on shared benches or crowded benches. During the cold season, many yati keep customers warm by covering their seats with thick curtains, making the experience more comfortable.

While the Japanese sometimes have a reputation for polite formality, Szasz explains that it’s good manners to chat with strangers while crammed together at a yatai restaurant. Some carts also have the option to purchase drinks for other restaurant guests – or the chef! – As a menu item.

If Fukuoka had gone in another direction, Yatai might have become a thing of the past. The loose and unaffiliated trolley system was disorganized and varied greatly in safety and quality.

Here comes Soichiro Takashima, who has been mayor of Fukuoka since 2010. When he was elected, he was only 36 years old, the youngest mayor in Fukuoka’s history and one of the youngest in Japan.

Japan has the “greyest” population in the world, with at least one in 10 residents over the age of 80.

But Fukuoka, the largest city on the island of Kyushu, is bucking this trend. The Takashima administration has attracted recent college graduates and young entrepreneurs from across the country with small business loans, affordable rents and co-working spaces.

One of the big initiatives pushed by the mayor – who was re-elected to a fourth term in 2022 – was a comprehensive overhaul of the yatai.

Although the city has always been full of these food trucks, the Takashima administration created a committee to regulate them and ensure that they would remain a vital part of the city.

The committee set some ground rules for yatais, such as a limit of 120 carts (there are currently 96 registered carts), a requirement that prices be displayed in a conspicuous place, and a ban on raw foods – so, if you want to try Fukuoka’s famous fresh sashimi, you’ll need to head to a traditional restaurant .

But rather than restricting the yatai community, the industry’s clean-up has given rise to a new, younger generation of yatai operators who are experimenting with new styles and flavors to keep locals coming back.

At Tilas & Miku, Kensuke Kubota — who trained at Zuma in London before returning to Japan — serves Italian-style bruschetta topped with cheese. mentaikospicy cod roe which is Fukuoka’s most popular condiment.

And the food isn’t the only attraction. Many shopping carts feature special designs or styles that give a sense of personality beyond what’s on the menu.

For example, Telas & Mico is painted in electric blue which stands out on the busy sidewalk next to Nianjin Train Station. The owner of Yatai Keiji in the chic Akasaka neighborhood used to work as a carpenter for Shinto shrines, so he made his cart look like a shrine, too.

Some have even stopped selling food altogether, turning into bars catering to Yatai customers looking for a last stop on their way home.

The Fukuoka Local Tourism Authority has created an English website with Maps and tips Yatai.

The website notes that yatais, despite all the new rules, are still unpredictable — the owner may decide not to bother opening a restaurant one night if the weather is bad, or if the chef is sick.

But the element of surprise is one of the things that makes street food so fun, and that goes double in Fukuoka.