Roadside Station Chikuzen Minaminosato

Fluffy rice cooked in a hagama!
Country cooking is still the best.

　In April 2020, the Chikuzen Farmers' Market Minaminosato was transformed into a roadside station. The market is filled with not only agricultural products such as yams, bamboo shoots, and strawberries grown in a clear stream, but also handmade side dishes, tofu, freshly baked bread, and rice cakes made from these products. The Rural Restaurant is a cafeteria where local housewives serve dishes using seasonal vegetables. The restaurant offers free refills of rice cooked in a fluffy wood-fired rice cooker and chikuzen-ni (boiled and seasoned rice with chikuzen). The grains of rice stand out and look delicious! The "Nigiwai Hiroba" (lively square) offers seasonal events, goat interaction, a flower garden, and other amenities. In addition, to fulfill the role of a "roadside station" as a disaster prevention center, it is equipped with various disaster prevention facilities.

Map of Roadside Station Chikuzen Minaminosato

Roadside Station Chikuzen Minaminosato Gourmet Information

Chikuzen Krodamaru, a local product

　This black soybean is native to China, and its cultivation began in Chikuzen Town with the opening of the former "Minami no Sato". When cooked, the soybeans are fluffy, dark, and glossy. If cooked with white rice, it becomes a reddish-purple rice, and if made into soybean flour, it has a natural sweetness that eliminates the need for sugar. When made into tofu, they turn a light black color with a hint of blueness. At the product center, you can find a variety of processed kurodamaru products, such as tofu made from raw beans, rice cakes, dressings, cooked beans, amanatto (sweet soybeans), and karinto (fried tofu).

For a meal, go here Restaurant Chikuzen

　Chikuzen, a rural restaurant located at the roadside station, offers a buffet of homemade dishes using vegetables and other ingredients from the produce center. The menu includes their signature Chikuzen-ni (250 yen), mackerel stew (200 yen), and a plate of handmade croquettes with side dishes (300 yen). Prices range from 100 to 300 yen. Depending on the day, there is also a spaghetti and fried rice set, or a spaghetti and omelette one-plate meal. For soup, there is miso soup made from kurodamaru (black soybeans) for 150 yen and pork miso soup (large 250 yen, small 200 yen). The best part is the rice, which is fluffy and cooked over wood using an old-fashioned hanagama (a traditional Japanese rice kettle)! The fact that the rice is served with chikuzen-ni and free refills makes it even more delightful. No wonder there is a line outside the restaurant before lunch starts at 11:00 a.m. Breakfast is also available, with a choice of two side dishes from a selection of 8 to 10, rice, miso soup, and pickles for 500 yen. As one of the few roadside stations where breakfast is available, it is highly recommended. Breakfast is served from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m., and lunch is served until 3:00 p.m., with orders stopping at 2:30 p.m.

This is also a proud souvenir shop.

　Behind the produce center is an antenna store called "Te-miyage-ya-san" that offers about 70 recommended products from the local town of Chikuzen. It used to be a restaurant exclusively for group customers, but due to the influence of Corona, part of the dining area was converted into a store. The shop offers processed goods such as wood vinegar ponzu (420 yen), marmalade (550 yen), and compote (630 yen) made from the town's specialty, wood vinegar, as well as hamburg steak "Mori no hamburger steak" (550 yen) from an old private house restaurant, three kinds of pizza (1,000-1490 yen) from an Italian restaurant, and a restaurant Chikuzen's popular Chikuzen-ni (600 yen) is also available. In addition to the black soybean "kurodamaru" pudding (180 yen), the egg farmer's Hiyotama pudding (440-450 yen) and a variety of baked doughnuts (200 yen) made by a confectionary shop directly operated by a chicken farm are also popular sweets. In addition, the take-out corner sells soft-serve ice cream (350 yen) and other seasonal soft-serve ice cream and sweets. Open from 9:00 to 16:00.

Around Roadside Station Chikuzen Minaminosato

Akizuki Castle Town

If you want to have fun in the area

　At the foot of 860-meter-high Mt. Furudoro, a castle was built by the Akizuki clan in the Middle Ages and ruled by the Akizuki Kuroda clan in the Edo period. The Akizuki castle town, which was ruled by both clans for 28 generations, has retained a trace of its former self since the Meiji era (1868-1912), without being destroyed by modernization and development. For this reason, the town has been nicknamed "Little Kyoto. In spring, the rows of cherry trees along "Sugi no Baba," which used to be a horse training ground, and in fall, the autumn leaves at "Kuromon," the former site of Akizuki Castle, are a charming sight that attracts many tourists.