Tempura Hirao

Crunch!
Hot!

So delicious!!

I was in Tenjin, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka City for work, and since we decided to grab lunch, I stopped by Tempura Hirao at the Across Fukuoka branch.

Tempura Hirao is a tempura restaurant beloved by the people of Fukuoka.

There is often quite a line of customers, but because the turnover is fast, I feel like my turn comes around sooner than I expect. Even when I think, 'Oh, it's crowded!', I believe that despite the length of the line, my turn will come sooner than it looks. Basically, I don't want to wait in line to eat, but Hirao is the kind of place that makes me think it's okay to wait. If I can't eat it without waiting, I find it so delicious that I'm willing to wait for it.

It is quite reasonably priced and also very delicious.

To serve it freshly fried, counter seats are arranged around the kitchen. Simple partitions are installed between neighbors. It's a counter where you can have a conversation, but also eat calmly even if you are alone.

What I ordered that day was the Ajiwai Teishoku (Flavor Set).

The menu includes shrimp, chicken thigh, white fish, squid, three kinds of vegetables, rice, and miso soup. And salted squid guts (shiokara). This shiokara is synonymous with Hirao. It is a light shiokara with a hint of yuzu.
It used to be all-you-can-eat, but due to poor squid catches, it is now limited to one serving per person.

Honestly, I always get full just from this shiokara and rice.
It's a shiokara that makes me wonder if I came to eat tempura or if I came to eat shiokara. That is what Hirao's shiokara is to me.

Until I discovered this Tempura Hirao shiokara, the only kind of squid shiokara I had ever eaten was the kind made with guts (viscera). My impression of squid shiokara was that it was a snack for alcohol. I had never even thought of pairing it with rice, but this shiokara goes very well with rice. Although it is limited to one serving per person, it was a sufficient amount for me while I am on a diet.

I thought it might have been nice to have beer, shiokara, and tempura without rice, but I had come for lunch that day, and I had work in the afternoon, so I tearfully gave up on the beer.

As I was eating the rice, shiokara, and miso soup, the tempura was placed on the tray in front of me.

The tempura is placed on the tray in no particular order. Freshly fried items are brought out one after another and placed there.
I like to eat my favorites at the beginning and the end, so sometimes I think, 'Pumpkin at the end?', but that's part of the charm. Pumpkin is delicious, but I prefer to finish with meat or fish.

I had intended to take pictures of everything, but I got so absorbed in eating the tempura as it was served one after another that before I knew it, the thought of taking pictures had completely vanished from my mind.

Even if we burn our mouths, we bravely devour the freshly fried food.

The batter is crispy, and all the tempura is piping hot.
When I ate the chicken thigh, the juices overflowed from the crispy batter. As I ate it while blowing on it, saliva spread through my mouth. I sprinkled a little salt on it, enjoyed the salty flavor first, and then dipped the tempura into the dipping sauce with grated daikon radish. The oil dripped into the slightly sweet sauce, making the crispy batter a little moist. I bounced the sauce off the rice once, then popped the chicken thigh tempura, which had cooled down a bit from the sauce, into my mouth and stuffed it in. I swallowed it all at once as the flavor spread throughout my mouth. My chopsticks were already moving on to the next task, and I stuffed my mouth with the sauce-covered rice.

A moment of bliss.

The shrimp are small but plump. The pumpkin is fluffy. The snap peas have a crunchy texture. The squid is on the softer side. Every piece of tempura is crispy, and I have to say, this is Hirao.

Carrying a stomach too full to work in the afternoon, I returned to my workplace.

I should have bought some salted squid guts to take home.