Japan Michelin tour 2023 day 6: 2 more ramen

Just as we were leaving Shuho (酒峰) to go out for some ramen (I had successfully persuaded Rydo to have ramen instead of standing sushi), Goh-san pinged us and told us that he was finally leaving the restaurant. He was supposed to have joined us for our sake session but had stayed behind to spend time with some Korean KOL. He would meet us on the street.

As we were close to the hotel, I suggested to the group that we hit Men-chan Ramen (めんちゃんラーメン). It's not particularly famous or anything, but it's where I witnessed a gyoza battle between the Dining Austrian and his son during my first trip to Fukuoka. It's tasty enough, and we could stagger back to our hotels without much difficulty afterwards. Luckily for us, there happened to be 6 seats available at the counter when we arrived.

Ramen with spring onions (ねぎラーメン) - I chose to get the bowl with tons of extra diced spring onions.

The noodles were still very good, and the broth that is made in-house in a big stock pot on the side is as rich and tasty as I remembered. Slurp.

One-bite gyoza (ひとくち餃子) - these were really, really good! I now understand why I witnessed the battle 3 years ago about who can eat more of these.

We our bellies very full, I bade goodbye to Goh-san and the Gaggan boys, and stumbled back to the hotel. Hopefully I'll see them all again soon.

Morning came and Foursheets needs her coffee, and we weren't about to wait for some places to open at 10 a.m. I took her to the nearby FUK Coffee since it's only 2 blocks away from the Grand Hyatt Fukuoka.

On top of the caramel latte I got, I also took the opportunity to try out their pudding (プリン). Very dense and very rich thanks to the Takanashi 3.6 Milk. Loved it.

We finished packing and checked out of the hotel after 5 days. We've enjoyed the river view, although the late night sirens from fire engines wouldn't be missed.

Foursheets wanted to go back to Hakata Genki Ippai!! (博多元気一杯!!) for lunch, just like we did on our last trip. So here we were... It was sunny today and we were first in line, so we got seated in no time.

I ordered the smaller bowl of kikurage ramen (キクラゲラーメン). With the amount of eating done over the last few days and that is yet to come, I was happy to be a little restrained...

I did order a side of curry roux (カレールゥ), just to see if I would like it.

I thought the combination was interesting although the curry roux itself wasn't particularly outstanding. Foursheets, on the other hand, didn't care for it. She prefers the original, milky broth... and so do I, to be honest.

We picked up our luggage and headed to Fukuoka airport, where I dropped off Foursheets at the International Terminal for her flight back to Hong Kong, while I headed to the Domestic Terminal for my flight to Haneda. Very happy that my luggage weighed 19.8 kg as it came under the weight limit, and I know how Japanese airport staff can be sticklers to rules on luggage weight...

Cow and Chicken have very kindly offered me their spare room for the next few days so that I don't have to pay the ridiculous prices at Tokyo hotels this week. They do have a fantastic view from their place...