Sumo Chaya Otsuka

On a November night when I arrived in Hakata, it was colder than I had expected, and on my way to the hotel I began to think, “I want to eat Nabe (hot pot)…”. Hakata is famous for its motsu-nabe. As I was searching through my memory and picking out several popular restaurants, I also remembered the existence of Ara-nabe.

In the old gourmet manga ” Oishinbo”, Shiro Yamaoka and Yuko Kurita were trying to serve a nabe using leftover fish (bones and heads) when they were swept away by a terrible misunderstanding of their boss Ohara, and were saved by their rival Yuuzan Kaihara, who successfully served “fish” Ara-nabe. “Ara” is a high-class fish called “Kue” in the Kinki region, and you would normally be charged more than 10,000 yen to eat it in Wakayama, where it is produced.

But if you go to all that trouble, you want to eat it when it is in season. So I looked up the season of Ara on my smartphone. It says “November to December”… “Now! I was a little nervous. Without a moment’s pause, I called Sumo Chaya Otsuka, the restaurant that was the subject of the ” Oishinbo” comic book series. I received a reply that I could make a reservation for the next day at the counter, and I was able to visit the restaurant at 7 p.m. the next day…

Sumo Chaya Otsuka is a chanko restaurant frequented by many active sumo wrestlers.

At 7 p.m. on a Saturday night, I arrived at Sumo Chaya Otsuka, which is located south of Watanabe Dori from the Tenjin area and turned west. The two-story, old-fashioned Japanese-style restaurant is so large that it looks from the outside like it could accommodate a large banquet. Standing at the front of the restaurant, one can feel the retro atmosphere of a high-class restaurant that has been around since the Showa period. At its entrance, there was an aquarium with two large Ara swimming around inside…

The restaurant is spacious, with a kitchen, three counter seats, and a tatami room in the back on the first floor, and a banquet room on the second floor, with a total of 75 seats. The kitchen was in full view from the counter where I sat, and I was able to watch the entire process of processing the Ara fish in the kitchen. According to the waitress, some customers go into the kitchen to observe and take pictures…

Sumo Chaya Otsuka is visited by many active sumo wrestlers when the Kyushu Sumo Tournament is held. The background music in the restaurant is “Ah, Dosukoi! Dosukoi! You can feel as if you are immersed in sumo culture just by being in the restaurant. Of course, there were also copies of the book ” Oishinbo” (though not all of them were available…) and autographs of the author, Satoshi Ganiya. Not only sumo fans, but also fans of ” Oishinbo” will be able to feel good in the aftermath of their pilgrimage to the holy place.

You can choose from a wide variety of course menus, including the specialty, Ara-nabe… The Ara-Sashi Ara-nabe set we ordered this time at Sumo Chaya Otsuka.

Sumo Chaya Otsuka offers a wide selection of course menus, including the famous Ara-nabe and chanko-nabe, but it is advisable to inform the restaurant of the dishes you will be eating on the day of your visit when you call to make a reservation. This time, I decided to eat a relatively light dish, thinking, “As long as I can eat the Ara-nabe first, that’s all that’s important! So I ordered the relatively light “Ara-Sashi Ara-Nabe Course” (price: 9,900 yen including tax, 10% service charge is necessary). Let me introduce the four dishes (plus dessert) included in this course in order…

Ara fish with cod roe and mentaiko sauce

First of all, “Ara no Mentaiko” (Ala fish with cod roe) was served as an appetizer. It is sashimi of Ala with homemade mentaiko (cod roe). The ara fish is elastic and firm. When you bite into it, you can taste the spicy flavor of the cod mixed with the spicy cod roe.

Sashimi of Ara

The next dish was sashimi of Ara. It seems that the Ara is not only the meat, but also the entrails are boiled and served with ponzu (Japanese sauce made from ponzu citrus juice). The meat is cut thickly so that the chewy texture can be enjoyed. The entrails are variously crispy or have a slightly rough surface, allowing you to enjoy a variety of textures.

Ara-nabe

The ingredients for one person are as follows. The ingredients for one serving look like this. The Ara nabe includes the eye part of the Ara, but the waitress asks if the eye part is okay. If you don’t like it, just ask and they will remove it for you.

The first step is to make the soup stock. Place kombu (kelp) and daikon (Japanese radish) in the bottom of an earthenware pot and heat the dashi broth seasoned with light soy sauce and sake. When the inside comes to a boil…

The Ara meat, shiitake mushrooms, and vegetables are thrown in and simmering… I was watching from the side the whole time, but it kept simmering in this state for quite a long time over a high flame. Maybe they were trying to get as much of the scum out of the Ara by keeping the fire burning at a high flame. I guess they kept simmering for at least 5 minutes or more. When there was almost no scum left, the fire was turned off and the dish was finished. Since the waitress does all the cooking up to this point, you don’t have to do a thing to enjoy the most delicious ara nabe.

First, along with shiitake mushrooms and carrots. The eyeballs of the Ara are placed under this dish, and you can enjoy the plump gelatinous part around the eyeballs to your heart’s content. I am sure there is a lot of DHA and other substances in this part. Eating this fish will surely make you smarter, right?

Next, from now on, including the meat part of the Ara. Oh, I can’t get enough of it! The ara meat is so plump and full of fat that it is hard to believe that it is a white fish…but it is strange because I did not feel that much fat when I ate it as sashimi. I wonder if the fat becomes more pronounced when the Ara meat is heated through? I am not sure, but I will just tell you that the umami is very different from other white fish.

And the third time was the daikon radish fillets that had been simmering continuously at the bottom of the earthenware pot. It had absorbed the extracts of all the ingredients that had been in the pot, and as soon as it was bitten off in the mouth, all the flavor was released at once. If you have read this far, you know that it is impossible for this daikon to be “bad.

Yuzu Mentaiko in Soup Kakegohan (Rice with Yuzu Mentaiko Soup)

And the finishing touch to this Ara-nabe is rice with yuzu mentaiko broth. The rice is topped with Sumo Chaya Otsuka’s special Yuzu Mentaiko and a generous amount of the soup stock left over from the Ara-abe.

Usually, the final dish of a nabe is zosui (rice with rice porridge), but this kind of rice with ochazuke (rice with green soybeans in it) is also good. The spiciness of the cod roe is blended into the broth, and the lightly stimulating flavor of the broth permeates the entire body. The spiciness of the cod roe blends into the dashi broth, and while it is lightly stimulating, the flavor of the dashi broth is absorbed throughout the entire body. Moreover, the dashi broth left in the earthenware pot is all yours, so…

You can enjoy the lingering taste of the Ara-nabe until you are satisfied with just the broth. I chose a course with a smaller number of items this time, but this was enough for me at that time.

Just as I was about to pay the bill with my stomach and heart full, a melon for dessert appeared. This was a pleasant surprise. I ate it while I was paying the bill. Ala is a high-end fish, so I can’t eat it that often, but it made me want to save up and come back to Hakata to eat Ara-nabe again. I really envy those who live in Hakata…

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How about homemade yuzu mentaiko as a Fukuoka souvenir? Sumo Chaya Otsuka is a 7-minute walk from the nearest station, Watanabe-dori Station on the Fukuoka City Subway Nanakuma Line.

If you like Sumo Chaya Otsuka’s Ara-nabe (Ara-nabe hot pot with rice in soup), how about buying some of the restaurant’s homemade Yuzu Mentaiko (cod roe) on the way home?

Mentaiko (cod roe) is one of Hakata’s specialties. It has a relatively long shelf life of 20 days, so you don’t have to worry that you won’t be able to eat it soon after you buy it. According to the store’s website, it is also available by mail order. If you are interested, please click the link below to enter the store’s website and check the details.

Now, here are the details of the store. Read more about the restaurant’s data here…

It is an 8-minute walk from Yakuin Station on the Nishi-Nippon Railroad Tenjin-Omuta Line.