Taste of Kyushu

A new school year has begun, so that means new teachers and new 1st year students in junior high school. It's quite common for teachers in the same grade level to get together for dinner at the beginning of the school year to get to know each other better and this time, the 1st year teachers and I went to a place called Yamauchi Nojo Kosoku. It's a couple of minutes from Nagata Station and specializes in Kyushu cuisine. 

The teacher who planned this dinner ordered the Yakushima course for us. Yakushima is one of the islands belonging to Kagoshima, and is also the inspiration for the forest in Princess Mononoke, a popular Studio Ghibli movie :) This course along with nomihodai (all you can drink) came out to about 5,000 yen per person, but it was definitely worth it. I'm usually still hungry after dinners with my teachers because the food portions are so tiny (a mouthful and a half does not cut it for me....), but I was pleasantly surprised with this dinner! 

One of two mango waters for the night! It was a lot thicker than I thought it would be which was nice :)

Started off with chilled cucumbers and cabbage with two different sauces: one was miso-based and the other was more garlicy. I wasn't a huge fan of the raw cabbage, but ended up eating almost half of the cucumbers with the sauces--super refreshing!

A standard salad was next

Got an apple sort of soda with no alcohol in it and it was yummy~ 

Probably one of my favorite dishes for the night were the gobo chips (behind the fries) and French fries. I've never had gobo chips before, but they were addicting!

Tried a couple of pieces of sashimi and they even had horse too O.o I wasn't able to get a picture, but I tried a piece of horse sashimi..

Tsukune~ these are chicken meatballs that are skewered before they are grilled over charcoal and usually brushed with a sweet shoyu sauce called tare

Pork and chicken are a must :) They carried it out in the cast-iron skillet still sizzling and it smelled AMAZING.

Tonkotsu-based soup. Tonkotsu broth is made from cooking pork bones for a long period of time, breaking down the fat, protein, marrow and other minerals. This gives the broth a very opaque, yet rich and buttery texture. It was very comforting, but I was unable to finish mine despite the small cup size because it was a little too rich for me. 

Onigiri with a miso-based paste with shrimp brushed on top. By this time, some of the teachers had stopped eating because they were full although I'm sure multiple drinks had contributed to that as well :)

Finished it off with some matcha ice cream! A wonderful way to end a great dinner with some great teachers filled with plenty of food and laughter ^^

Thank you so much for reading and I hope  you all have a wonderful week!