Kyushu Bike Adventure 5 – Isahaya to Nagasaki
Another night, another perfect small town isakaya. This time in Isahaya. Then awakening early, ready to explore this town by daylight. There’s something about pedalling through these quiet towns by bike. It may well be my new favorite way to travel. I follow the river east, past the stepping stones and the local shrine. Looking lowkey classic. Then I hit Manane Bridge with those postcardw worthy stone arches. I’m shooting some film when a high school art class turns up carrying paper and pencils. They’re a fun bunch, friendly and full of energy. I suddenly miss teaching, a feeling I couldn’t shake for at least the next 10 seconds. Across the river, I find Kangji Temple, another hidden gem. peaceful, perfect, and not a soul around. If this was Kyoto, swarmed, but because it’s not empty. What a dream. Isahaya, it’s another hidden Japanese treasure. You could do an easy day trip here from Nagasaki, by the way. Speaking of which, that’s where I’m heading next. Alas, the route to Nagasaki is too mountainous for my little Foldi, so I’m training it. I’m starting to get good at this. Station to station and bam, I’m in Nagasaki by noon. Nagasaki feels different. A bit like a bite-sized Hong Kong framed in by mountains and maybe it’s the trams, too. East meets west vibes. I ride north to Sanu Shrine, the one-legged Tory gate. In 1945, the nuclear blast that closed out World War II took out its other leg. Miraculously, somehow, the rest of it still stands. Next, I visit the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. I thought it would be easier than Hashima’s, but no, the stories, the photos. Look, I’m not going to lie, they kind of hit hard. It’s just, you know, it’s just a terrible story. and seeing what it did to the people of Nagasaki. Just so much needless suffering. Meanwhile, the place fills up with high school kids on field trips. Hundreds of them. They’re all having a great time. Enough with museums. Nagasaki is not a sad city. It’s a happy, vibrant, friendly, and beautiful place. Let’s never forget the past, but let’s be happy anyway. And as I’m reflecting, I start to get hungry. So I returned to the station to try some proper local Nagasaki fair. It’s probably not what you’re expecting. Tucker eat time. So I’ve arrived at Nagasaki. Very happy to be here and just at the train station. I’ve come down to the restaurants below and this turuko rice or Turkish rice. What have we got? We got pasta paf. We’ve got the omu rice style egg crockett a beef patty and then we’ve got this curry sauce on top. A lot going on. And yeah, it is to me it just looks like the kind of food that I would never eat, but I’m in Nagasaki. This immediately struck my attention because this is what the locals are eating. And it is a relatively new dish from the maybe the 1950s, the postwar era. It has nothing to do with Turkey apart from the naming. They were kind of into western cuisine at the time and that the Japanese kind of western cuisine. And this is what they came up with. Turkish rice. Start with some of this pasta. So, pasta. So, the curry sauce is quite a sweet Japanese curry sauce. It’s fine. I don’t quite understand it, but it’s fine. What really perplexes me, it’s paired with paf pasta and paf on the same plate. And that paf has like a curried egg flavor going through. And then the egg is very softly cooked omelette only just cooked on the inside, which seems perfect to me. It’s got that curry sauce on it again. So, let’s try. And the omelette is just cooked to perfection. Look at that. So, am I supposed to eat the peel and the spaghetti together? I don’t know. So, the croquette is like potato. So, more carbs. Actually, this is bizarre. That is sweet. It’s good. But it tastes a little bit like donut and it’s got corn in there. So delicious. But yeah, donut. Also a little bit like an Indian pakora. It’s got vibes of that as well. And then finally, let’s break apart what I’m expecting to be a burger patty, which it is. Once again, covered in this Japanese curry sauce. Very yum. Tastes like an American burger patty. And so, I think I see what’s going on here. Imagine in the 1950s, Japan don’t know too much about the outside world, I guess, or they’re just learning. And they’ve got this mish mash of culture coming in, especially in Nagasaki, which was the port city, the only city that welcomed foreigners. And so you’ve got your pasta, you’ve got your paf, you know, all of these influences. They’re coming from the outside world. You’ve got the American burger patty and they just kind of put it all together and they made their own food and they called it why not Turkish rice. If Gordon Ramsay was here on Kitchen Nightmares, he’d be like, “It’s confused.” And it is a very confusing, interesting dish for me. It’s definitely not my favorite. It’s not the kind of food I like to order. you know, the kind of sloppy sauces, but for what it is, I’m enjoying it. And that’s it. My first taste of Nagasaki. There’ll be more meals to come here, I’m sure. So, Nagasaki made me sad, then gave me bad food. But next episode, things are on the up. I find the most perfect neighborhood, see the most perfect view, explore Glover Garden, and hit another isakaya. Give me a subscribe and come along, too. [Music]
Flying from Jakarta Indonesia to Fukuoka Japan for a bicycle tour on a Brompton folding bike. Expect to see Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Kitakyushu, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, Kumamoto and plenty of towns in between. I ride, I eat, I ride, I eat, I rinse, I repeat. 18 episodes. Ramen, gyoza, onigiri, miso black cod, Imari beef, Takuro rice, kushiyaki, sashimi, combini, okonomiyaki, sushi, yakitori, yakiniku, tonkatsu, tonkotsu, tempura, soba, udon, matsunabe, sake, keiseki, not gonna lie, I do a lotta eating.
Summer:
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